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

Ryan said:

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.

benjs said:

RobbyD462 said:

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).

HughFreakingDillon said:

Ryan said:

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.

interesting. you are correct. their message says "so we've decided to do another one" and "we'll try to make this tour the best one yet". it certainly implies this is it, but they haven't actually stated that. Although I thought something was said during their press conference, but again, you could be right.

PearlJamVS said:

scored 4th row for Ottawa Aug. 18.

dignin said:

The picture game for captcha is hilarious.