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NashvilleBlues
Would you guys guess that there will be better luck with good locations for lucky dip tickets this tour, considering the pandemic and possible concert hesitancy?
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MisterDDDDQuote
NashvilleBlues
Would you guys guess that there will be better luck with good locations for lucky dip tickets this tour, considering the pandemic and possible concert hesitancy?
Funny, just posted an answer to this before I saw it, in the tour thread.
For no valid reason, other than a hunch, I think they will be not as fruitful as '19.
In '19 six out of eight sets turned into Pit tix for me, somehow I am not optimistic of that streak continuing..
I think they may be allocated to less desirable this time, but as usual, tough to say.
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NashvilleBluesQuote
MisterDDDDQuote
NashvilleBlues
Would you guys guess that there will be better luck with good locations for lucky dip tickets this tour, considering the pandemic and possible concert hesitancy?
Funny, just posted an answer to this before I saw it, in the tour thread.
For no valid reason, other than a hunch, I think they will be not as fruitful as '19.
In '19 six out of eight sets turned into Pit tix for me, somehow I am not optimistic of that streak continuing..
I think they may be allocated to less desirable this time, but as usual, tough to say.
Same here. Saw your post immediately after I submitted mine. Haha!
Thanks for your input. First time LD ticket holder here. Fingers crossed!
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MisterDDDDQuote
NashvilleBluesQuote
MisterDDDDQuote
NashvilleBlues
Would you guys guess that there will be better luck with good locations for lucky dip tickets this tour, considering the pandemic and possible concert hesitancy?
Funny, just posted an answer to this before I saw it, in the tour thread.
For no valid reason, other than a hunch, I think they will be not as fruitful as '19.
In '19 six out of eight sets turned into Pit tix for me, somehow I am not optimistic of that streak continuing..
I think they may be allocated to less desirable this time, but as usual, tough to say.
Same here. Saw your post immediately after I submitted mine. Haha!
Thanks for your input. First time LD ticket holder here. Fingers crossed!
First timers get a special go direct to the Pit pass
At least that's how it worked for me (twice).
First was the first year they offered them, (called something else, I forget.. "special $85 tix" or something...
Second time was my first time in England (so technically another "first" ).
They had made an error when they first went onsale, and let people buy individual (single) tickets as opposed to a pair, and my $29 ticket turned into Pit- Keith's side in Manchester
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snoopy2
Ah, just joined this same conversation over in "tour" thread before I saw this as well.. As I told Mr. D I'm thinking LD holders will be rewarded for the loyal fans they are and go straight to Pit on this tour, lol! That said, I've done LDs 8 times and never got Pit before (in fact often nosebleeds), so maybe that's why I feel this way
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IL: So, one last question for you. How does the Lucky Dip work? Doesn't it affect box office numbers?
JM: Paul Gongaware came up with that idea. What we do is we take the last couple of rows up in the top of the building, maybe three or four rows, whatever it may be. Those are our really cheap seats. I forget how much we sell lucky dip for, but it's really cheap. We always know we're going to have production kills, things like the need for camera positions, sightlines, all that type of stuff. The fact is when you open up that many production holds, it can be a thousand seats or so when you get your production loaded in. You're not necessarily going to sell those at the last minute because everybody thinks the show is sold out.
So what we do is we take like a hundred seats from the pit, we take these other good seats that end up being from production kills, and we mix them all together, right? And then you put them in envelopes. So when people show up, they get an envelope. Most of them are going to end up in the nosebleeds, right? With the cheap seats. But some of them are going to end up in the pit and some of them are going to end up down there. So what it does, it allows us to make sure the house is completely full. It's a good way to clean up those seats at a cheap price. But it's really cool because a lot of people end up getting great seats. That's all it is. You know, it's nothing more than that. There’s no scam, nothing like that involved. It's just lucky dip. You may get lucky and end up in the pit. You may end up in a row in front of a mixer that we didn't think we could sell. It's really a cool program. I love it.
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slewan
as far as I remember relative few people in the US got pit tickets or good seat with LD tickets
(the ratio of people scoring pit was much higher in Europe)
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Topi
You have to remember that even if (some of) the originally bought LD's were returned for a refund, those tickets went back on sale and somebody else bought them. It's not like they disappeared into thin air. It's a zero sum game - a ticket is refunded, it goes back on sale again. We posted the LD links after the postponement last year, and at some point, more than half of the shows had limited LDs reappear. Those were precisely the ones that the original buyers had returned. Nothing more to it. The amount of LDs to a given show remained the same.
Currently there are no LD's left, and I'd be surprised if they suddenly drop more of them. I don't think that's happened very often, maybe some shows in the UK back in 2018 had Lucky Dip drops (as in the Lucky Dip link still active on the Stones' website only a few days before the show.). Can't recall if it was Southampton, Coventry or both.
Can't really see an incentive for them to drop LDs unless the sales for a particular show are really poor. In the end the LDs are just a clever way of filling empty seats.
Some of you may remember roller99's interview from 2019: [www.ilevene.com]Quote
IL: So, one last question for you. How does the Lucky Dip work? Doesn't it affect box office numbers?
JM: Paul Gongaware came up with that idea. What we do is we take the last couple of rows up in the top of the building, maybe three or four rows, whatever it may be. Those are our really cheap seats. I forget how much we sell lucky dip for, but it's really cheap. We always know we're going to have production kills, things like the need for camera positions, sightlines, all that type of stuff. The fact is when you open up that many production holds, it can be a thousand seats or so when you get your production loaded in. You're not necessarily going to sell those at the last minute because everybody thinks the show is sold out.
So what we do is we take like a hundred seats from the pit, we take these other good seats that end up being from production kills, and we mix them all together, right? And then you put them in envelopes. So when people show up, they get an envelope. Most of them are going to end up in the nosebleeds, right? With the cheap seats. But some of them are going to end up in the pit and some of them are going to end up down there. So what it does, it allows us to make sure the house is completely full. It's a good way to clean up those seats at a cheap price. But it's really cool because a lot of people end up getting great seats. That's all it is. You know, it's nothing more than that. There’s no scam, nothing like that involved. It's just lucky dip. You may get lucky and end up in the pit. You may end up in a row in front of a mixer that we didn't think we could sell. It's really a cool program. I love it.
You're dreaming in Technicolor if you think that the postponement/rescheduling somehow affects your Dip Luck. But sure, you can dream. Can't hurt to think positive, right?
Note that the article does go on saying that every once in a while, "operational upgrades" happen. If you're really lucky, you may get a pit wristband and get comped from, say, from the GA all the way in the back right to the pit. But that's an entirely different thing than outright scoring pit on your LDs.
Also, it's possible to team up with a friend/family member and buy multiple pairs of LDs to improve your chances, but that too is another matter.
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TopiQuote
slewan
as far as I remember relative few people in the US got pit tickets or good seat with LD tickets
(the ratio of people scoring pit was much higher in Europe)
You mean relatively few as in less people reporting they got pit tickets?
There may be some truth to this, but I don't think it's a totally different game in the US compared to Europe.
I mean, if somebody gets nosebleeds/bad seats on their LD's, they're probably less inclined to report their "bad luck" online/on social media. However, if there's "pit luck", people are more than happy to share that, and it may lead to a perception bias. The situation seems better than it really is because you only see the good luck being reported.
At the end of the day there's no real "bad luck" on the LDs because they're still a cheaper ticket than anything at face value. There's no real loss.
Also, there have been exceptions such as Prague, where practically all the LDs were actually just GA tickets at first. I remember standing at the LD counter, arguing - well, "closing a deal" - basically persuading them to give me a pit ticket when at first they were only giving out regular GA. Of course, Prague as a setup was very different from a lot of shows.
(It took an hour, but they did give me pit tickets in the end. Persistence paid off. That had NOTHING to do with "random draw" or luck.)
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TopiQuote
slewan
as far as I remember relative few people in the US got pit tickets or good seat with LD tickets
(the ratio of people scoring pit was much higher in Europe)
You mean relatively few as in less people reporting they got pit tickets?
There may be some truth to this, but I don't think it's a totally different game in the US compared to Europe.
I mean, if somebody gets nosebleeds/bad seats on their LD's, they're probably less inclined to report their "bad luck" online/on social media. However, if there's "pit luck", people are more than happy to share that, and it may lead to a perception bias. The situation seems better than it really is because you only see the good luck being reported.
At the end of the day there's no real "bad luck" on the LDs because they're still a cheaper ticket than anything at face value. There's no real loss.
Also, there have been exceptions such as Prague, where practically all the LDs were actually just GA tickets at first. I remember standing at the LD counter, arguing - well, "closing a deal" - basically persuading them to give me a pit ticket when at first they were only giving out regular GA. Of course, Prague as a setup was very different from a lot of shows.
(It took an hour, but they did give me pit tickets in the end. Persistence paid off. That had NOTHING to do with "random draw" or luck.)
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Topi
MisterDDDD: Austin Lucky Dips did reappear, as late as February this year. See my post on psge 19 of this thread.
Of course, the refunded LDs are never "offered", you have to know the direct link.
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Topi
I will be getting refunds for my Nashville and Minnesota Lucky Dips so those links may come in handy at some point
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kv2915
Can anyone repost the links?
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Topi
Well, at least for the three new shows, there should be LDs available on the day of the general onsale.