I’m guessing that when Bruce Springsteen kicks off his first tour after six years in February, the onstage patter will go one thing like this:
Springsteen will attempt to heal the bruised religion of followers with a lame joke concerning the worth of tickets (“How ya doin’ means up there within the $5,500 seats? Hey, Elon, Barack and Warren. How’s it shaking up entrance?”).
At which level he’ll be greeted by a well-known — however barely modified — crowd custom.
“Hey Brucie, I don’t suppose they’re ‘Bruuuucing’ you,” sideman Little Steven will cackle. “I believe this time these actually are boos.”
I attempted to withstand writing concerning the Springsteen Ticket Crisis of 2022, however realized he’s the one fixed thread in my journalism profession. Along with tour stops in this media arena …
I wrote about concert events for my faculty paper at Fordham in 1984 (opening evening of “Born within the USA” stints in Jersey, with a $16 ticket).
I needed to belief pals to purchase me tickets ($17.50) for the stadium finish of that tour in ’85 as a result of I used to be busy interviewing followers in line for a paper in Jersey.
And principally, there was the primary time I wrote a information op-ed in Connecticut, within the Might 19, 1988 version of Greenwich Time.
Trying again on the ’88 clip is a reminder that followers have been attempting to beat the Ticketmaster system lengthy earlier than the system was scamming us. Followers turned up the evening earlier than to be cuffed with cardboard wristbands. A horde of mommies invaded the Mamaroneck, N.Y., outlet with toddlers whose proper fingers have been wrapped with free bands. One mother put one on every of her triplets.
“Possibly I ought to undertake,” I contemplated. (I’ve since adopted The Child, who has been conditioned by Mother to not encourage my live performance habit.)
The next day, all these toddlers have been changed by grownups with wrists like No. 2 pencils. I scored 4 “Tunnel of Love” tour tickets for a complete of $99. A 3-piece stepped out of his Porsche to supply $150 for 4 tickets.
“Hey pal, I’ll offer you 4 tickets for the Porsche.”
When Springsteen received again on the boards in 1992 with a unique band, a information story concerning the line at Chillybear on Greenwich Avenue included a photograph that captured me and a buddy. These ducats had a face worth of $31.75.
For the 1999 E Avenue Band reunion tour, the queue exterior Stamford City Middle was invaded by a van filled with a throng from the Bronx who acknowledged a monetary alternative. One among them received the lottery and was moved to first in line.
“Born within the USA!” he bellowed, reciting the one Boss lyric he knew. He purchased as many tickets as potential and instantly provided secondary market charges to jittery followers in the back of the road.
‘A good worth’?
I’ve solely purchased tickets from a scalper as soon as. A buddy and I drove to Philly on Sept. 19, 1988 on a whim, since there have been nonetheless tickets accessible for the Amnesty Worldwide live performance that includes Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Tracy Chapman and Youssou N’Dour. We’d have been glad simply to get into John F. Kennedy Stadium, however as we have been driving to the doorway early with nobody else round, a man requested if we wished two tickets for $50 every (face worth $35). We scooped them up with out even taking a detailed look and landed within the thirteenth row.
In any other case, I’ve at all times purchased tickets by following the foundations. As hellacious as it’s to purchase tickets on a pc, it beats the times of repeatedly dialing telephones even after realizing all hope is misplaced. Again in 1978, Connecticut followers needed to mail for tickets to see the band at New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum for $8.50 (“embrace a self-addressed stamped envelope and 25 cents for dealing with”). Possibly we must always return to that.
Then got here the system for 2023 tickets that provides to the concentric circles of hell which are this decade.
Non-fans in all probability thought tales about $5,500 tickets have been revealed by the likes of The Onion. Ticketmaster defined it was on account of “dynamic pricing,” which means costs of the ultimate batch of tickets soared like last-minute flight to the moon whereas the planet was burning.
Making issues worse was the lame clarification provided by Springsteen’s long-time supervisor, Jon Landau: “Our true common ticket worth has been within the mid-$200 vary. I consider that in at the moment’s atmosphere, that could be a truthful worth to see somebody universally thought to be among the many very biggest artists of his era.”
Landau stored workplaces in Greenwich and Rowayton for too lengthy.
In attempting to beat scalpers, Springsteen and Ticketmaster turned them. When the time got here to attempt to purchase tickets for the one present I used to be eligible for, I executed each trick I’d realized. At 10:01 a.m., the display screen flashed that I used to be the 1,761st particular person in line. A minute later it was slashed to 1,554. One other minute … 1,190 … 633 … 419 … 179.
Lastly, a mere 4 minutes in, there was one particular person forward of me in line. That closing minute appeared to last more than the pandemic.
When my quantity got here up, I opted to click on on 4 seats within the entrance row of the balcony behind the stage.
And I received ’em.
Springsteen economics
So right here’s a lesson in Springsteen/Ticketmaster Economics. Two of the seats are $99.50 earlier than the costs kick in. The opposite two — that are proper subsequent to them — are $109.50 every. With charges, the 4 tickets value $550.90.
By some means, the identical service that value 1 / 4 in 1978 is now $132.90 for 4 tickets.
It will get higher.
I maintain previous tickets in a body. However there’s not a bodily ticket (rattling cellphone received’t match within the body). But as the value of tickets enhance, dealing with charges rise proportionately.
So, one week later, a single “verified resale” ticket in the identical row is priced at $553 (plus charges). However as a result of the value went up, the charges spiked as effectively, leaving a complete value of $678.07 (or $125.07 further for one ticket).
Sing it with me from the rafters: “Booooooooooooo.”
We are able to all be capitalists too. A seat six rows again is now priced at $5,113. If I might promote one among mine for that, I might purchase 4 standing room tickets in entrance of the stage for $999 every. It’s a revenue of $1,114, and I’d nonetheless have seven tickets to shuffle round till I can afford to purchase Twitter.
On Thursday, I consulted Greenwich resident Jane Chester Weisbecker, who has responded to previous Springsteen columns and is a member of the “Spring Nuts.” Jane was shut out attempting to purchase tickets for a similar present.
“I’ve good pals, lifelong followers, who’re so disillusioned they’ll’t hearken to Bruce music,” she wrote.
An acquaintance of hers tried to purchase two tickets for $399 every, watched them vanish, and ended up with a single ticket for $3,400 after clicking off the web page. She didn’t need it. Ticketmaster declined to assist. Different followers posted movies of costs growing from $300 to $3,000 whereas tickets have been of their cart.
There’s a option to thwart the system. However that will require everybody in E Avenue Nation to withstand shopping for any tickets over an affordable worth. If there’s nonetheless any confusion, $5,500 won’t ever be cheap. The sum whole of all 54 tickets I’ve purchased for myself over time is about $3,740.
Jane, a lawyer, deemed my buy “a modern-day miracle,” and famous (and that is the vital half, as Bruce used to say), that “I’m undecided why this isn’t being corrected. Contracts could be modified.”
They will certainly. Springsteen could discover that the contract of belief he nurtured with followers over the previous 50 years could really feel as tight as a guitar string on his Fender, however it may possibly snap simply as simply.
John Breunig is editorial web page editor of the Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time. jbreunig@scni.com; twitter.com/johnbreunig.
