Why so expensive???

franyacid

Just bought my two upper balcony seats for the Boston show, like two rows from the last row in the building, for 190 bucks....I know how bad these seats are because i have Celtics season tickets ,and am pretty familiar with the building. Only ended up with the seats because i couldnt get thru during the pre sale....

Ive seen PJ at least 20 times in the past 15 yrs, and this is kind of silly expensive. I remember in the early 90s when PJ was all about keeping prices low and getting rid of fees so fans could see the show. I get the whole supply and demand thing, but 190 bucks is a lot of money for very close to the worst seats in the building. Just kind of wanted to vent. Anyone else?

Ive never posted on the board before, though ive been a member (off an on, forgot to renew a couple times so lost my seniority etc) for a long long time. I know this isnt typical of this board, so go ahead and remove my posting if it isnt kosher.

I appreciate everyones input. Thanks

Liquid Snake

it's the venue assigning ridiculous prices. and those balcony seats are pretty bad too. I had season tickets for the celtics there one year. but once the game/show starts, they become good seats. I'd rather be there, than not be in the building at all.

franyacid

Yeah, i hear ya, the shows at great woods/tweeter center/comcast center/whatever its called now, are so much better as well. I always prefer the outdoor venues and the tailgating etc.

dimitrispearljam

its way better than need to travel in a different country or continent to see pearl jam live..

franyacid

Good point! I've seen them in many different states, but never a different country!

dimitrispearljam

after this summer the number i saw them will be 17...only 1 in my country

another man

dimitrispearljam wrote:

its way better than need to travel in a different country or continent to see pearl jam live..

That's true, but it's also a matter of circumstance, not (seemingly) out of control rising prices. Just seven years ago, i bought tickets to the Uniondale show (the infamous Bushleaguer/booing show) which cost me $83. For the pair. I just got two tickets to Hartford through ticketmaster (fan club didn't come through for me) and paid more than that per ticket. I didn't scoff at those prices two years ago when i got in to see Eddie at the Boston Opera House, since it was a very rare occasion, tickets were extremely limited, and i knew there wasn't a bad seat in the house, but $85 a pop for nosebleed seats in a huge arena just isn't cool. I never thought i'd say this, but if they'd booked the Meadows, i probably would have just bought a pair of lawn tickets.

marshmeli

It is not the venues assigning ridiculous prices to these shows... PJ sets the prices and they are pretty damn high I remember in '06 tickets where $58 each after 10c fees, then for '08 tickets jumped up $28 each to $82 (after 10c fees), for '10 they are only up about $3 each which isnt bad (face w/o fees is listed as $79). Even the solo Eddie shows where about $82 (w/ 10c fees) each and for the Borgata show in AC in '05 via TicketBastard it was was $105 with fees so around 85 face.

I think PJ charges more than they should.

I know older groups charge a lot too (Tom Petty, Stones, Clapton, etc) but they have different price levels so you can still get cheaper seats if you want.

They could charge less for sure, they don't even have a stage set up or major light rig or anything.

I am not complaining though since i do get to see them and only need to travel to catch them if i want to try a different venue, but i just dont know whey they charge so much.

I see a ton of Phish shows and since they came back since '04 they only raised their face ticket price by $3 to only $50 per ticket. that is really cheap, not to mention their NYE show in Miami last year cost me $60 face, which is amazingly cheap.

another man

marshmeli wrote:

They could charge less for sure, they don't even have a stage set up or major light rig or anything.

I was going to make this point, too. I saw Nine Inch Nails ten times in four years('05-'09) and never paid more than $65 a pop for tickets; not for the small, extremely limited club shows (Boston Orpheum '05, NYC Bowery '09), and not for the large production venue shows, which got exponentially more elaborate (and, naturally, expensive) from one tour (sometimes tour leg!) to the next. Hell, the 2008 Lights in the Sky tour, which was the most unbelievable visual experience i've ever encountered(youtube it if you want, but you'll never understand if you weren't there), was paid for out of Trent Reznor's pocket! In a live show where the visual element is as impressive as the music itself(if not even more so, for how technologically and visually unprecedented it was), a $10-20 hike in ticket cost would be justified, but ticket prices stayed the same.

I'm not saying i need a Pearl Jam show full of "explosions and flashing lights and flying to the fucking ceiling"; in fact, i like the fact that they've more or less stuck to their roots. They come out, play a bunch of songs, have fun, and everyone enjoys themselves. I just wish they'd remember their roots in how they used to try and keep ticket costs down.

Just threw my hat into the ring for the MSG presale 2; tickets would have been $92.05 apiece, and the best i could get was section 338. Almost all the way back. Closed my browser; i can't afford shitty tickets to more than one Pearl Jam show this year.

obiwon76

That was my first thought after I saw the price for 2 tickets. I went into my profile page and looked at all of my past concert purchases. 2003 it was $98.00 for 2, then in 2006 $145.00. Paying $85.00 per ticket is inflated, but my reasoning was it's something that only happens once every 2-3 years, so it's worth it to me.
I would hate to see how much the cost in the open market such as Ticketmaster and other ticket sites.

Toronto_PJ_fan

Sure, I'd love to pay $35 or $40 less for a pair of tickets, but then at the same time I'm amazed (and grateful) that I'm paying less than $100 per ticket. Countless bands, most of them nowhere near the stature of Pearl Jam, hit the century mark, and sometimes way beyond, several years ago. Look at what U2 charges for a premium seat with all taht golden circle nonsense. I'm paying well over $100 per ticket to see Tom Petty later this summer. Bruce Springsteen ticket prices are way above PJ's and he's a singer who's portrayed as someone that relates to the common folk. B$! Pearl Jam blows them all out of the water and their tickets are lower.

PJ could raise their ticket prices way above the $100 mark and they'd still sell out each show, but they don't. I don't know of any other rock band in their league that has kept a rein on ticket prices like they have. Most acts will charge as much as they can get away with. Imagine what seats near the stage for Pearl Jam would go for if they priced them like The Who or The Rolling Stones. But does PJ milk it for all it's worth? Nope. They do the 10C thing, whick is pretty amazing despite the disappointments we sometimes face when we're shut out.

All in all, I think we're all pretty fortunate that a band as amazing as Pearl Jam has kept things relatively affordable.

Drum Machine89

dimitrispearljam wrote:

after this summer the number i saw them will be 17...only 1 in my country

Go D Go!

vedder_soup

do we really need another thread on this???
'it is not like there are not at least 10 others on the front page of the porch

franyacid

Toronto_PJ_fan wrote:

Sure, I'd love to pay $35 or $40 less for a pair of tickets, but then at the same time I'm amazed (and grateful) that I'm paying less than $100 per ticket. Countless bands, most of them nowhere near the stature of Pearl Jam, hit the century mark, and sometimes way beyond, several years ago.

Agreed, but the bands you mentioned didn't boycott ticketmaster in the early 90s because of high fees and whatnot.

And its not like im sitting in premium seats, im sitting two rows from the farthest, highest seats in a giant arena. These seats should cost maximum 50 bucks....

Its all about being accessible to the fans, i dont like seein PJ move away from that and into the "target exclusive, rock band video game, $100 per ticket" area....

Tom K

Looking through some older threads and I thought I would bump this important one. I've seen the guys quite a few times, and I've always paid what I will call a "reasonable" price for tickets. This current tour though, What the fuck? $85 dollars a ticket? It's kind of ridiculous. Whats is the justification for such an inflated ticket price? (especially for 10c members. We don't seem to be getting any benefit for being a member). I had a lot of fun for a few years traveling around and seeing the guys, but with ticket prices, I have to limit my show to 2 or 3 a year.

Anyway........

Pearl Jam rocks......

Peace and Love
Peace and Love..