Lottery Wins and Losses

vladsplat

1st St. Paul Reserved- Won
2nd St. Paul GA - lost
3rd Moline GA - lost
4th Moline R - lost
5th Milwaukee GA - lost
6th Milwaukee Reserved - lost

won my hometown, so I'm cool with that. Thannks for coming back around PJ!!!

bootlegger10

jeff2040 said:

1st choice Moline, IL - GA Standing LOST
2nd choice St. Paul, MN - Reserved Seating WON
3rd choice Lincoln, NE - GA Standing LOST
4th choice Moline, IL - Reserved Seating LOST
5th choice Denver, CO - Reserved Seating LOST
6th choice St. Paul, MN - GA Standing N/A
7th choice Denver, CO - GA Standing LOST
8th choice Lincoln, NE - Reserved Seating WON

I knew Denver was a lost cause that far down my list but I'm really bummed that I still haven't won any of my first choices in the history of the lottery. I will be trying for Moline tickets tomorrow morning!

I purposefully left off the popular shows like Moline, Detroit, and Denver to increase my odds but that didn't work. You can't win them all (or one) I guess.

stonevs

I just found out my entry to the lottery never even went through :(( :((

Zod

BinFrog said:

Back in the 3x5 days, you were all but assured tickets (first to just 1 show, and then for any show you wanted). And if they had more demand than tickets, they did their best to give you spillover tickets to another show. Yeah it was a hassle to get money orders/etc, but you made it work.

It was easier to get tickets but you weren't assured. The Yield, Binaural (and Riot Act?) Tours you had to choose your backup shows. I remember there being a few shows sold out in key markets, so you had to list a 2nd or 3rd pref in case it sold out.

I think the big thing is the failure to get tickets is probably more attributed to external factors than the distribution system itself. Those tours in 98, 00, 03 (and to an extent 06) were some of the biggest tours the band ever played. They played a lot of shows. Secondly the 10c gets way less tickets to shows now than they used. I have memories (seattle 2000) of venues being over half full with 10c members and that doesn't happen now. On top of all that there's way more fan club members now.

In conclusion. The band doesn't play enough shows. Most people have to travel to see them. This ramps up demand for the shows they do play. There are way more fan club members with way less tickets to distribute. That doesn't end well no matter how you distribute the tickets.

Vedd Hedd

F5 sucked. There is absolutely no way I should have to refresh a page for hours, during a workday, dependant on my internet speed. I knew some tricks to make it work better, and I was successful a lot of the time, but it sucks for anyone who couldn't anticipate what the ticket page url was going to look like, and that is unfair. Knowing computers shouldn't be an advantage to getting tickets.

MayDay10

maybe not F5, but this current lottery format can be improved, no?

jeff2040

bootlegger10 said:

jeff2040 said:

1st choice Moline, IL - GA Standing LOST
2nd choice St. Paul, MN - Reserved Seating WON
3rd choice Lincoln, NE - GA Standing LOST
4th choice Moline, IL - Reserved Seating LOST
5th choice Denver, CO - Reserved Seating LOST
6th choice St. Paul, MN - GA Standing N/A
7th choice Denver, CO - GA Standing LOST
8th choice Lincoln, NE - Reserved Seating WON

I knew Denver was a lost cause that far down my list but I'm really bummed that I still haven't won any of my first choices in the history of the lottery. I will be trying for Moline tickets tomorrow morning!

I purposefully left off the popular shows like Moline, Detroit, and Denver to increase my odds but that didn't work. You can't win them all (or one) I guess.

I understand that, I knew I probably only had one shot at Moline so I put it as my #1 choice. Based on the odds I knew I would get Lincoln Res at worst so that's why I had it so far down the list. Hopefully I can get tickets on Friday to Moline and then I'll be all set. I might try to get Denver tickets closer to the show if I decide to go out there.

jervin007

mcgruff10 said:

Play more shows, problem solved.

This. Also if you are planning on doing multiple LEGS (eastcoast, westcoast, etc) put them all in the same lottery instead of two separate lotteries like the tour last fall. Most likely would end up with more fair ticket distribution and more fans having the chance to get hometown shows. Obviously major markets like Boston, NYC, etc will always be a tough ticket to get though.

AP30511

I agree with some on here, the F5 system sucked. I spent 12+ hrs trying to get PJ20 ticks (also gave up my ticks to the Foo Fighters that night) and came away with nothing. Yes this lottery is a little flawed, but at least everyone is on a level playing field. I've won some and lost some (Wrigley, ouch!) but at least I have not had to take time away from my wife, kids and/or job in an attempt to get tickets to a rock show.

Now, index cards? Those were the days! But as others on here have pointed out, yes we were extremely spoiled in those days. But man that was awesome with no worries of getting shut out and it was relatively hassle free.

Hope everyone enjoys the shows and good luck with tomorrow's sales!

Vedd Hedd

MayDay10 said:

maybe not F5, but this current lottery format can be improved, no?

I got one show this time around, and lost out on 5, and even I am ok with the way this works.

Look, Pearl Jam is getting bigger, the fan club is getting bigger. Tours are getting smaller. Shows are getting more intimate. (Moline? Seriously???)

People are going to lose out. I lost out on a few shows. I lost out on the Vic, because I had to go back to work. I went to a freaking library to try to get tickets because site blockers at work. That is no way to run a system. And I got almost all of my shows I wanted back then.

The reason? There were more shows back then. They used to do more shows, so you didn't have 10 bil people trying to go to Moline.

I have no problem with the way PJ does their tours. They are small, short tours. I'm ok with that. But increasing the amount of shows is the only way to help alleviate the problem. I'm guessing that if you had a Chicago show, a Toronto show, 2-3 NY shows and 2 Philly shows on this tour, tickets to ALL other shows would be much easier to get.

Vedd Hedd

Oh, also, the index cards were great days. Not because the index cards were easy. But because nobody was in the fan club. If you were in the fan club, you pretty much got seats. And they did 30-40 show tours, and you could only get 1 show.

(please don't go back to only 1 show per tour, thank you!)

yooperpj

With almost anything, there is always a way to make it better.
The lottery is so much better then the F5 days BUT
The fact that people won two shows when others get totally shut out of the same two shows sucks.

Here is my take:

I agree with others, that they should combine the choices and just have one choice per show with the option to choose if your preference of GA or Reserved until one or the option is gone. Then your preference doesn't matter.

Round 1
Pick all the show priority 1 winners and if tickets remain for that show, move all the people that didn't wins priority 2 to a priority 1 and re-draw just those people. And keep going with priority 3 and up until the tickets are gone or everyone has gotten 1 show.
(unless the tickets are gone for all shows you went for before your name gets picked) - only way you get shut out completely.

Round 2
If tickets still remain from above process, then start the process over just like above for the chance to win your second show.

JJ42005

1st Choice Tulsa, OK - GA Standing WON
2nd Choice Tulsa, OK - Reserved Seating N/A

CM189191

ohheyrlyedy said:

Ive been on for one year almost. I was sad that I didnt get St Paul tickets(born and still live in mpls) but i did get GA moline. this was my first lottery. i dont participate much on the boards. im new to this whole forum thing. but there was so much sass and anger that i didnt even want to post that i got one. i already got called a newbie once today for asking a question.

Congrats and have fun in Moline! Hope you can still score a hometown show. I apologize for the sass - people can really show their ugly side when they don't get what they want. There's usually a lot of positivity here, honest!

guacamolejoe

Won my only choice, Denver GA . Who's "partying" with Guacamlejoe in Colorado <:-P

DosimetricPJFan

guacamolejoe said:

Won my only choice, Denver GA . Who's "partying" with Guacamlejoe in Colorado <:-P </p>

Hey Guac. I've looked for you on here w/o any success. I've now found you. You may not remember me, but I am the guy who was sitting next to you at Red Rocks for MMJ, night 1.

Wassup!

pledgeagrievance

How bout the fact that Ticketmaster changed the game about 10 years ago and only made 10% of the venue available to any bands fanclub? In 2003 you could go to 5 shows easy because whoever wanted to go could go because there was no fanclub allocation ticket cap. In 2000 same thing. I went to 7 shows no problem because of the no cap. Im not trying to be a PJ apologist. There is too much of that. But some of it is not their fault or ten clubs fault. Though I think lottery blows (I didn't have a dog in the Lottery fight this time around. No shows within 10 hr drive). And F5 blows. There is really not much ten club can do. There will always be people shut out as PJ are the greatest band on earth and people want t o see them. But, people can always get a ticket to a show they want to attend whether though TM, stubhub, Lost Dogs, etc. (I had an extra fanclub ticket for Charlottesville and couldnt give it away outside the venue right before the show).

Mamasan80

dogtown said:

I fully sympathize with people who didn't get any tickets -- you have a right to feel frustrated and angry, and I think this is the proper forum to vent.

But no one got shut out of 3+ lotteries if they only bid on high-demand shows -- most cities were so in demand that the drawing never rolled over to third or fourth priority. It sucks if you missed out on your first or second choices, but after that you didn't "lose" the lottery, because the tickets were already assigned to people who put those shows as top priority. The benefit of the odds feature was that we all knew we were almost guaranteed reserved seats for three of the ten shows -- how cool is that?

I still feel bad for people who didn't get drawn for their hometown shows, but let's remember how lucky we are that our favorite band puts in the effort to give us all a chance to get tickets. I certainly couldn't afford the seats I get through the 10C at fair market value.

Actually, I got shut out of 4 shows (including Lincoln) and I'm now 2 for 19 in the lottery. So, yeah.

Mamasan80

BinFrog said:

Mamasan80 said:

I put in for GA and reserved for Denver, Moline, and Detroit, and GA for Lincoln. I didn't get any of them. I've seen the band over 100 times in the past 21 years, and I've had some great experiences, so I'm not really going to freak out. That said, I do think the lottery is a little bit flawed - I'm not sure what the perfect system is. I'm not thrilled about paying $20 a year for basically the same free lottery as Phish does, but I guess this is where we're at in 2014.

Anybody can enter the Phish lottery, and they are notorious for handing out lawn seats like candy to lottery winners. Totally different system.

I'm aware of how the Phish lottery works. Yes, you can get lawns, but most of the better seats in the house are usually PTBM as well, and either way, you're in the building. Both bands are insanely difficult to buy for in-demand shows through public onsales, especially since PJ now insists on doing ever onsale at 10 AM local time, so if you want multiple shows in a time zone, good luck with that. Based on the results myself and most of the members I am friends with have gotten, we are now paying $20 (or $40) to basically get 10% of the shows we want, and not even have the first choice guaranteed - or get shut out of entire tours. Seems worth every penny to me.

BinFrog

Mamasan80 said:

I'm aware of how the Phish lottery works. Yes, you can get lawns, but most of the better seats in the house are usually PTBM as well, and either way, you're in the building. Both bands are insanely difficult to buy for in-demand shows through public onsales, especially since PJ now insists on doing ever onsale at 10 AM local time, so if you want multiple shows in a time zone, good luck with that. Based on the results myself and most of the members I am friends with have gotten, we are now paying $20 (or $40) to basically get 10% of the shows we want, and not even have the first choice guaranteed - or get shut out of entire tours. Seems worth every penny to me.

Phish seems to get a random sample of a few thousand seats at every venue. I've gotten great seats, and shitty ones.

You are paying membership dues for:

1) At least 1 newsletter
2) Holiday single or mp3s
3) A CHANCE to get tickets to shows

At no point in their history have they been able to absolutely guarantee tickets to members. They do their best. You can't supply 20k people with 5k tickets. The bigger markets are going to have higher demand. It's always been that way. Every year sees more fans join than leave.

Getting "shut out of entire tours" is just silly. There are almost ALWAYS ways to get tickets...and almost always for face value. It just takes a little patience. I had to do TM for 4 shows last year, out of 5 I wanted to go to. Over time I was able to upgrade for 2 of them and sell my extras to members of this forum. And the 2 nosebleed shows I had (Brooklyn 1 and 2)? I still had a blast and hung out with people before and after the shows.