There are many reasons why they’ve done this – and it’s not just U2 who follow this practice. After working on the concert crew in college and helping out after graduation, I learned that the reduced inventory during the initial onsale allows the excitement/demand to promote the tour on its own. So, if you only released 80% of the tickets during the initial onsale, and those sell out quickly, you can claim that you sold out of all the tickets and thus – poof…you have a “sold out tour.” That makes the news in so far as saying “The tour sold out in 15 minutes – and because of high demand, a second show was added” (or third, etc.) Over the next day or two, as credit cards come back as being declined for whatever reason, those tickets that were once in the inventory get re-released into the system as the original sale gets voided. Or, the ticketmaster system was able to identity (in rare cases) where someone bought more tickets than what the onsale rules stipulated.

Additional tickets are also released once the tour manager has the discussion with the venue operators and they can see how the staging will impact the seats that are obstructed-view. If the arena/stadium is wide enough or long enough, then additional seats can be placed back into the sales hopper for the consumer to purchase. This is a very typical practice.

Usually the biggest final ticket drop occurs between a few days and a few hours before a show. This is because the management/artist/tour promoter, etc. (all of those closest to the tour) have to alert staff if their guests will be in attendance for a particular performance. A group of tickets are usually held back for guests of the tour – and if Aunt Bertha isn’t able to make it, then her 4 tickets are given back to the box office for resale. Usually, this is when the better or best seats in the house are most available. I’ve been able to get front row tickets for Springsteen and a few other artists by waiting until the morning or afternoon of a show and waiting (patiently, mind you) for that management guest ticket drop.

U2 go one better – they will hold onto between 100 – 200 tickets for day-of so that fans can get tickets at face value at the box office to try to thwart the scalpers. The timing is usually kept under wraps, but the most die-hard of fans have a good idea when the drop will hit because they’ve been camping outside the arena with the hopes of getting a ticket at face value.

I remember for St. Patrick’s Day in Boston back in 1992, U2 kept an entire section of the floor for this type of onsale. This was a show that sold out in less than 10 minutes and melted the phone lines in Boston because over 1 million people were trying to call into Ticketmaster to buy the tickets. At 3 p.m. that afternoon, all the people who were hoping they’d get a ticket from the box office were not only shocked that they got them, but once they saw where their seats were nearly had to be hospitalized because of their good fortune.

This is why I’m in agreement with Kevin. If you’re willing to be patient and not freak out because it’s all happening at the last minute, then you stand a good chance of getting in if you weren’t able to get a ticket during the initial onsale.

As far as GA/floor goes, I’m a short person and if I didn’t get scanned in for the ellipse or the heart for the last two tours (arenas only), the best place to be was back by the sound desk. Sound was great, view was great, had plenty of room for moving about – and didn’t have to worry about losing my place should I need a bathroom break. Stadiums are a whole different breed – the stage is taller, more people, weather issues could get in the way…I’m not a big fan of GA for stadiums. Maybe I’m just getting older and my tolerance for the crushing of people during a concert is waning. Now I’m sounding like a grumpy old woman!

Back to the blog posts already in progress =)

Why don’t I worry? Because I’ve never had a tour where I wasn’t able to buy floor tickets at cost.

1/2 for Zoo.
3/4 for Pop
13/15 for Elevation (could have gotten floors for miami 2, but already had a seat)
9/11 for Vertigo (my 2 non-floors were because I didn’t decide to go until 2 or 3 week before the show.

A little planning and you can get tix to most shows…at least that’s how it’s been for me over the last 20 years.

In 1997, U2 was an expensive show and the price, with service charge, was under $60.00 for the expensive tickets.

Rush was under $30.00. Virtually all bands were under $40.00, and that’s AFTER service charges. Starting around 1998, we saw the prices skyrocket.

This was long before the huge decline in record sales, and frankly, when a band like U2 sells 10,000,000 or more albums with each release, it’s hard for them to claim that music sales are forcing them to raise prices.

But again, I give credit to springsteen. Since the first E-Street reunion, prices have only gone up around $20.00. And the top ticket price is about the same as what you paid for the middle teir Vertigo Ticket (and those seats universally sucked….hell, I saw 150.00 seats that were upper deck).

Yes, U2 had cheap floor seats, but once the Lottery was in place, they were largely a PITA, with people still lining up early, but generally ending up with a spot wher eyou couldn’t see (unless you’re relatively tall or were lucky enough to get rail).

I have to say that I’m really dreading U2′s ticket sales – I experienced the disaster of the early Vertigo sales. And, I was really stressed each time I tried to buy tickets – if you don’t get through in the first few seconds, you’re doomed. Hopefully, U2.com will come up with something reasonable for members.

In Baseball this issue has been around for awhile, the Chicago Cubs themselves own a ticket scalping agency and in that situation nobody can tell how many tickets get to the scalping company without ever hitting the primary market, and since the Cubs own it they get the full mark up.

As you know, many tickets go to sponsors, clubs and various entities that support the venue year round (guaranteed income). They get stuck with tickets to tractor pulls, or rodeos but they make it back up when a big act comes to the arena or stadium. They have those tickets or the location to those tickets in advance, thats why you frequently see these thing on Stubhub, or other secondary sites long before tix go on sale. With U2 playing stadium this tour, many of the teams have arrangements to play in their stadium they will give first crack to season ticket holders of the venue for the sports team, which is some modern facilities could be upwards of 13,000-15,000 accounts (not seats). This has happened with the Giants and the Rolling Stones, etc

Its sucks, but it mainly has to do with the venue having multiple agreements (there always wrapped up in whats called “sponsorship” even though a sponsorship can just be an agreement to buy a big chunk of tickets for a flat fee, see Razorgater) to create steady cash flow for the venue, and lots of tickets are associated with that. That’s why all those tickets you expect to see, never show up accept in the secondary market

There really is no solution, barring doing an onsale at the stadium, but then the band would have to pay for a large amount for on site staff to deal with 100,000 people showing up to buy U2 tickets, there is parking, security other issues to deal with. And you all would still flip out about that and say it doesn’t work, line cutting etc that would go on.

There must be an answer to this problem that is better than what we have now. What if you had the option of purchasing a concert ticket when you purchased the new CD, either online or at the store.

I think only the big-name artists have the power to demand changes here. So cmon Bruce, U2, and others.