Hello,
Reading the posts about ticket prices in the US, they are A LOT more expensive than Europe.

Lisboa 1990: 5.000 Escudos (€ 25,00) Pitch
Lisboa 1995: 5.000 Escudos (€ 25,00) Pitch (Da Lapa Incident boot)
Coimbra 2003: € 40,00 Pitch

you must be very lucky, her In Sweden, I payed €100 for The stadium show and €120 for the Arena show

£150 for the best seats at the UK arena and stadium shows

It seems that when tickets were 'general admission' for stadium and arena shows, they were much cheaper.

Seems they are @#$%& outrageous everywhere!
Blow back here seems to be that some of us
prefer club dates, festivals and general
admission concerts. I'm an expert at
getting to the front, or finding an
excellent place back a bit between the
speakers, would take general admission
most anytime to being stuck in a @#$%&
stupid seat I had to pay more for the dubious
pleasure of sitting down at a concert. Who
wants to @#$%& sit down anyway???????

IMHO i$ a $cam!

I always heard that ticket prices in Europe were extortionate! But I'll tell you, when The Stones played The Tacoma Dome on 6/11/02, a p*ss-poor seat halfway back and 1/3 of the way up on the side went for US $300.00!! I've seen a live concert at The Tacoma Dome and I can tell you that that seat's price was a HUGE ripoff!!!!!

I did hear from a Stones head friend of mine that the concert was dynamite, though. But not for three hundred dollars. Sheeee.... I paid $20.00 in '75 for my ticket and I was right up front. I paid $20.00 for my '81 ticket and I was close enough to hear and to see. In '81 I was bored to tears. It was turning into AND NOW, LADIES, GENTLEMEN, MY LORDS, VALUED STOCK HOLDERS! LAS VEGAS PRESENTS THAT FAMOUS 60s ACT, THE STROLLING BONES!

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

I don't know who started it, but since 2002 concerts (all of them) are extremely expensive.
Here in Italy 35 euros minimum for a 1 hour-set (plus encore) from the avarage band in an odd venue with shitty acoustics is, unfortunately, customary.
Whenever a big name hits Milano, he also hist you on your head with prices starting from 45 euros.
The same for classic music, by the way.
In this perspective, the prices of stones tix are just market price.
It's sad, but take it or leave it.

C

I paid £85 for bad seats in wembley arena.

56 euro for the OLympia, that was the place to be !

François

I'm sorry but the big ticket loosers for LL's was a Canadian going to a US show. Mayfair, you mentioned Tacoma, I had $300.00 US, 14th row tickets and it was a kick ass show, even Keith declaired they had a real show going but there was another dimmention to the ticket price.

After I ordered my $300.00 US ticket for Tacoma I noted that the Toronto show was listed on the same ticket board as $300.00. I assumed this was US to keep it par with the Tacoma show so I emailed RS.com. Seems they messed up and who ever set ticket prices failed to note a 33% exchange rate.

Bottom line a US'er going to Toronto got a $300.00 CDN or US ticket for $200.00 US and a sucker like me got a $300.00 US ticket for $570.00 CDN. Unfortunatly airfair to Toronto would have been another $600.00, they had me over a barrel.

Of course if I weigh it against the $6.50 I paid to be 5 back from center on opening night of 72, it might make up for it.

The Menace of Mayfair Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I always heard that ticket prices in Europe were
> extortionate! But I'll tell you, when The Stones
> played The Tacoma Dome on 6/11/02, a p*ss-poor
> seat halfway back and 1/3 of the way up on the
> side went for US $300.00!! I've seen a live
> concert at The Tacoma Dome and I can tell you that
> that seat's price was a HUGE ripoff!!!!!
>
> I did hear from a Stones head friend of mine that
> the concert was dynamite, though. But not for
> three hundred dollars. Sheeee.... I paid $20.00
> in '75 for my ticket and I was right up front. I
> paid $20.00 for my '81 ticket and I was close
> enough to hear and to see. In '81 I was bored to
> tears. It was turning into AND NOW, LADIES,
> GENTLEMEN, MY LORDS, VALUED STOCK HOLDERS! LAS
> VEGAS PRESENTS THAT FAMOUS 60s ACT, THE STROLLING
> BONES!
>
> QRA MGY


ticket prices for European shows were always pretty reasonable until 1999. A little bit more expensive than mpst major acts, but by no means ridiculous. £35 - £40 or so. Certainly good value, I thought.

After they first brought in the high prices experiment for a few US shows in 1998, and then did a full tour in '99 at those prices, it was natural they'd try it in Europe eventually.

The ticket prices on the Licks tour in the US were quite similar for the most part to those on the No Security tour (aside from the $40 tickets behind the stage on NS). The main difference I found on the Licks tour were that while the price range was mostly the same, there were less tickets available at the 'cheaper' range in 2002/2003 - that ticket you mentioned going for $300 in 2002 would have probably cost around $125 or possibly even $90 in 1999.

Additionally they kept the first ten rows in 1999 at $90, whereas in 2002/2003 they were the most expensive.

Menace, I've a theory about your friend's insistence that he still saw a great show despite the crappy location. No one is going to willingly admit feeling stupid and ripped off for paying that amount of money for an appallingly overpriced seat. We snap up the tickets regardless of price when they go on sale as we're so keen to get in the door, and then if they turn out to be miles away, wonder to ourselves after the event if we're out of our minds. But do so quietly..lol. Everyone else knows we're out of our bloody minds, but WE don't like admitting it.

At the last Wembley show last year, I was in row 18 of Block C on the floor - halfway between the b-stage and the back of the arena - in a £150 seat. The row behind me was row 1 of Block D, and their tickets cost £85. There was NO gap between my row and their's, other than the usual miniscule distance between rows!!

48 euro for Stockholm Cirkus

I paid less than $30.00 USD for a second row seat an an Aimee Mann concert in Seattle at The Moore Theatre in November, 2002. Whilst not a superstar of, say, Celine Dion's stratum, Aimee is quite well know and enjoys respectable album sales.

The place was packed. So you see, someone(s?) somewhere are skimming big bucks off the poor peasant concert goers. Do you know that $6.50 for the American shows in '72 was considered a rip-off? And in 1969, $3.00 a ticket was a heck of a lot of money!

I recently saw tix for the Wembley '73 shows and even some for the '71 UK tour. You can't buy a pack of fags for those prices now!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"The wonder of Jimi Hendrix was that he could stand up at all he was so pumped full of drugs." Patsy, Patsy Stone

US:I think the Eagles started with their reuninon tour (whenever that was), I think they were first w/ 300$ tix...of course the RS will keep pace with however much the others at the high end are charging (except the Streisand $2000 tix). I think the SW tour was about 25$ (1989) while my stub from '75 says $9.50. Suddenly in '99 its 300$ (for their first indoor arena tour since '81). I like seats/sloping because I'm 5'6, can never see sh*t on the floor, naturally one stands/dances in front of one's seat...Looking at the Billboard 'boxscore' every week, tix in the US are outrageous, w/some few exceptions. I doubt the minumum wage has even doubled in the past 20+ years (it's 5.50$, I think. About the price of a package of cigarettes). W/ the Stones only, I pay what I can afford. Mostly otherwise I go to occasional club shows.

Berlin 1990: 65 DM (32 Euro)
Berlin 1995: 80 DM (40 Euro)
Berlin 1998: 100 DM (50 Euro)
Berlin 2003: 110 Euro (fos)
Berlin 2006: 150 Euro???


Prague 1995: 40 DM (20 Euro)
Prague 2003: 60 Euro

aso ...

Regarding the conversation on comparing years.

I caught a TV show explaining the rise in ticket prices just prior to the Licks tour. The show interviewed Paul M. the Stones, Lenny K, Dave M., et.

It seems the sharp rise is in direct responce to big ticket bands who feel they can charge big bucks to compensate them for the percieved loss of income to ripping of their recorded music. They countered this concept by including Lenny and Dave who could not charge that amount so in the case of Dave M. he has to tour more. The other aspect was bands getting a bigger cut of the ticket market, if the scalpers market gets $300.00 then the Stones should be entitled to it.

Nobody to blame but ourselves.

One of the best bits was talking to the Stones. The interviewer tried to make it about excess. Quoting $4,000/night rooms, butlers, the works.....do you think the fans should pay for this? The Stones responce....they do don't they?

Simple way round it is to organise the ticket distribution and allocation to beat scalpers

Other artists can and do do it. The Stones have little interest in doing so, and every tour you see many of the best seats go legally to brokers charging four figure sums. Something the band and their management are no doubt getting a handy little cut out of.

The Stones hardly need compensated for loss of income, fer Chrissakes. Anyone who buys that bullshit as an excuse needs certified

Prague 03 - FOS 50EUR, field 25EUR
Vienna 03 - FOS 100EUR
Leipzig 03 - field 90EUR

the same music, different prices, take it or leave it... it seems that the tix price depends on the average price in country.

Gazza....I too thought ticket control was the key. Believe it or not the folks most pissed about it and working on changing it are Ticketmaster. Mainly because there is a perception that they are to blame.

Turns out it's the legit ticket brokers. They post rates for tickets. If you can get a $300.00 ticket they will give you $350.00. They have hundreds of folks in each town with multiple phone lines, they are given alternate phone numbers for Ticketmaster the masses are not privy to, they take out multilple charge cards in variations of their names and max the ticket limits, these are frequently the folks in line looking for wrist bands (ticketmaster idea to keep the number of brokers down, they will sit longer than fans in lines). They sit on these tickets and try to sell them up until show day. Then guess who gets them, the scalpers, they work for the ticket brokers.

I like to play on the phone, kind of like Jim Rockford and his multiple business cards. After catching a TV show on the topic I started calling ticketbrokers just for a laugh, feeling them out. First I make it sound like I'm a jaded concert go'er, I may go if it's not a hassel, what can you do for me. When I put this routine on the front desk folks put me on to the owner, talk to the man who can say yes is one of my best motto's. These guys love to talk especially if you sound like a player. This got real fun when the Stones crew slipped into Vancouver unannounced and rented an arena to practice stage setups for NO Security. The town was a buzz with rummors, I called the ticket broker, what have you heard, no what have you heard (he thinks I'm a player), we're are not sure so he says he will call Bobby Keys and get the scoop and to call him back.

Anyway it all came full circle when I was talking up scalpers for BtoB the afternoon before the show and when talking tickets the scalper dropped the name of one of the brokers I was talking to. The next thing this guy is dropping brokers names and ticket jargon (thinks I'm a player, not a customer, very important distinction). Now I have the full ticket scam picture.

So actually the concept of RS.com charging the 'membership fee' is the broker fee, you just miss the crap the brokers put on it from there.

The whole @#$%& rip-off ticket prices things is a JOKE.

Remember the $am Goody ripoff in the US??? Pay $60+ to have the chance of getting a good ticket, A CHANCE!!!! It's criminal!!! SAM GREEDY!!!

I'm so angry my favorite band have become so money oriented it kills me!!

Mark.

You made some good points. But, just to give you a comparison

Springsteen/E-Street Band reunion tour 1999-2000 : first 17 rows priced at $67, limit of two tickets per person. Tickets to be collected at box office and then you were escorted to your seat - presumably to prevent you from going outside and selling the bloody things to a scalper.

The rest of the tickets were sold in the normal way and in normal quantities, but by using this method, they (for the most part) took the scalpers and brokers (who would only have really wanted the very best seats so that they could re-sell at obscene prices) out of the equation.

they also had a few guys in the arenas who would come up to someone at random before the show sitting near the back and 'upgrade' them to seats in the front couple of rows.

The Stones could also keep the rows near the front for fan club members. Well, the Stones do in some cases but only if you've paid for those obscenely priced fan club packages. Many of the pre-sale deals on the last tour were a way of getting rid of shit tickets for high prices to panic buyers who were worried about getting shut out.

Bottom line is, they dont give a @#$%&.

Still I dream of the rout when the stones will show their gratitude to to us, and all of the fans and play with prices so It just will move around...

That would really turn back the kick, and the newspapers would write page up and page down about the old gods, that wear not that wealthy pigs as thy right now seems to be....

I mean, of course, everybody wants to be rich, but comparing to half empty stadium... because bringing sold put venues i also a way of shpwing power and to be satisfied, just as with money... besides, they got all th money they need, M.J. is one of the richest.

Gazza....I like these stories, and I've heard a few about artists going the extra mile to ensure fans get the good seats.

Even though I'm not American, or more specifically a New Yorker, frankly not even a fan of Bruces music......but I do respect him, he knows and respects his fan base, a certain integrity you don't see these days. It is quite a dilema, would the Stones be as big as they are if they did not have the balls to act it, busness wise as well? That was the other part of the Stones inference in the interview....hell the fans pay it, how can it be too much?

Any guesses how much we will bend over for this time?