A short while ago, Sam Roberts was in town and Amber and I decided it was high time for a date. Tickets were only $30.50 each and so we saw this as a great opportunity. I bought the tickets just a couple days in advance and so we got some of the last ones, way up top in the back row. As I paid for them on TicketMaster, I noticed that besides the GST there was a $10 per ticket charge for using TicketMaster. That's 33% more than what the ticket was worth. The Jubilee Auditorium where the concert was held has 2526 seats meaning TM could have grossed over $25,000 from this one concert. I know there are costs related to each event, but this is really quite excessive. I wonder if Sam Roberts himself, the reason for the concert, the writer of all the songs performed, earned as much as that.
What about the gross (or rather disgusting) earnings for a stadium event that can fit 30,000 people? $0.3 million just for selling the tickets? Brutal!
Concerts are just ridiculously priced as far as I'm concerned. Leonard Cohen is coming to Calgary. I've been a fan for almost 20 years. I own all of his albums. But $100 (plus GST and TM fees) for nosebleeders or $250+ for good seats just isn't worth it.
The artists deserve a little slap on the wrists too. Why do they use TicketMaster to begin with when they know their fans are being extorted in such a gruesome way?
Then there are the scalpers... ugh.
Sam rocked the house though. Great show.
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