The Tragically Hip official Thread 2009******

You guys should keep trying. I often get an amazing ticket after up to 45 minutes of total failure.

Yeah, I finally got through but they were shit seats for way too much money. I think I'm sitting this one out too.

Drowned Out said:

I had a few hits for the Edmonton show...row 40 floor, top of lower bowl on the side ($166 ea), and mid upper level ($86). I'd pay $86 but those seats were crap...and I'm not paying $166. We'll see what happens with the public sale....and will try hitting up some sales guys I know with expense accounts....but I may be sitting this show out after all.....

Ditto. I hit on a couple of good seats but let them all go because of the price. No way am I spending $166. What a rip off. I'd rather not go. I hate to say this, but this pricing makes me think that the band is taking advantage of Gord's illness in an effort make money off it. Their tix were definitely not this expensive before. Just last tour I got row 4 on the floor for under $100. Now they are $166?? Brutal.

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

we need to remember that this is likely their last tour. touring is the money maker for any band nowadays. their crew (not to mention the band) is now out of a big payday cycle every year or so.

But yeah, I won't be paying that price. they just added 4 more shows too. Wonder why no shows in Saskatchewan? that's going to make it even tougher for Winnipeg tickets.

PJ_Soul said:

show previous quotes

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

PJ_Soul said:

show previous quotes

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

PJ_Soul said:

show previous quotes

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

To me the poster and seeing the hip one last time have the same value. The hip is for me what a lot people are to Pearl jam have to see them
One last time

kk277412 said:

show previous quotes

PJ_Soul said:

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

show previous quotes

PJ_Soul said:

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

show previous quotes

PJ_Soul said:

kk277412 said:

I have Pitt 2013 poster to trade if anyone has a pair of Hamilton

Whoa. Maybe wait for the public sale first? Perhaps you won't need to give up that amazing poster!

To me the poster and seeing the hip one last time have the same value. The hip is for me what a lot people are to Pearl jam have to see them
One last time

Fair enough, and I relate to how you feel about the Hip, but you could get the tix AND keep the poster if you just wait until the public sale...

HughFreakingDillon said:

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PJ_Soul said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

we need to remember that this is likely their last tour. touring is the money maker for any band nowadays. their crew (not to mention the band) is now out of a big payday cycle every year or so.

But yeah, I won't be paying that price. they just added 4 more shows too. Wonder why no shows in Saskatchewan? that's going to make it even tougher for Winnipeg tickets.

It might not be their last tour. Doctors seem to think Gord probably has several years left. Either way, it is tacky at best to raise ticket prices that much because people are reacting to Gord's illness. They know that they would have trouble selling those tickets if he hadn't announced the tumour.
Yeah, second shows added to Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and what's the 4th again? That's great.... but I still won't pay those ticket prices. I can't afford to. Maybe I'll get a cheap seat? TBH I have spoiled myself with good tix at shows for so long (mainly by buying singles), I find the rafters hard to take. I am not proud of this, but it's true.

Edmonton.

they are billing it as their farewell tour. if it turns out that it's not, that would be ULTRA tacky.

yes, he could have several years to LIVE, not to perform. but they are already setting him up with a teleprompter for this tour in case he forgets the words to his songs.

I could see them maybe doing a one off show for charity or in Toronto for NYE or something if Gord was up to it. But full scale? Doesn't sound like it.

Oh, they're calling it their farewell tour?? I didn't even notice. In that case, then yeah, it will be their last. Still think the tix are distastefully priced, but that is my problem, obviously.

RobbyD462 said:

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PJ_Soul said:

Drowned Out said:

I had a few hits for the Edmonton show...row 40 floor, top of lower bowl on the side ($166 ea), and mid upper level ($86). I'd pay $86 but those seats were crap...and I'm not paying $166. We'll see what happens with the public sale....and will try hitting up some sales guys I know with expense accounts....but I may be sitting this show out after all.....

Ditto. I hit on a couple of good seats but let them all go because of the price. No way am I spending $166. What a rip off. I'd rather not go. I hate to say this, but this pricing makes me think that the band is taking advantage of Gord's illness in an effort make money off it. Their tix were definitely not this expensive before. Just last tour I got row 4 on the floor for under $100. Now they are $166?? Brutal.

I was kinda thinking this too but didnt really want to say anymore than I did on my previous post.
I love these guys but dare I say Cash Grab?

In every market, there's an optimal price for a product, and at that point, supply equals demand (i.e. there are 20,000 people who want to buy tickets at that price, in a venue of 20,000 seats). In the concert industry, thanks to touts, when a show is priced below this dollar value, third-party resellers have the opportunity to restrict supply by buying it up, and resell it for higher, capitalizing on the suboptimal pricing.

To add to this, concerts are experiences with emotional appeal that brings out irrational buying patterns, meaning touts can capitalize even more. Given the emotional appeal of a Tragically Hip tour with Gord Downie fighting cancer, I would bet money that if the price of a ticket was closer to $90, the ratio of scalpers to fans buying tickets would be far higher than it will be with the tickets priced at $166. And then, when you factor in what it would cost fans to re-buy those tickets from scalpers, the average price paid for a ticket would creep close to $166 - most likely, significantly more.

The big difference? At $90 face value per ticket, with most fans spending an average of $166, the band willingly gives away over 40% of their revenue just so that fans (in fact, significantly less of them) are able to spend between $90 and $160 are able to get tickets. A band has no obligation to forgo profit. Bands are businesses, not charitable ventures, much as we'd all like to believe otherwise. So actually, I have no problem with $166 a ticket.

I'd also argue that if Pearl Jam didn't do such a great job of securing such great seats for their fan club, they'd be ripe for a significant ticket price increase too. Even within the fan clubs, each year more and more people complain about losing the ticket lotteries. Know how to increase the ratios of winning the ticket lotteries? Increase the ticket prices: fewer people will apply.

To conclude, I think that the anger related to rising ticket prices is actually best directed at the scalper industry, or the lobbyists of that industry, or the government agents taking handouts to allow that industry to exist, or the concert service providers (i.e. Ticketmaster) talking out of both sides of their mouths: setting up great programs like mandatory Credit Card entry, and then selling those very tickets without that mandatory clause to scalpers - sometimes even before tickets go on sale to the public. With these inequalities in place, I do not blame the bands for wanting to capture the majority of the average ticket prices paid by end customers (i.e. the ones attending the shows).

Hip tickets have been outrageously expensive since 2007. If I recalled the 2007 arena tour was close to $90, 2009 was over $100 (theatres), 2011 was over $100 and 2013 and 2015 were over $125. Those prices are before service charges.

Also, the band has not billed this anywhere as their last tour. That was the media jumping on.