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GREENSBORO — The working-class heroes about whom Bruce Springsteen sings couldn’t afford these concert tickets.
Even if they and other fans can, many have balked at the ticket prices for Springsteen’s 2023 international tour with the E Street Band, including a March 25 stop at the Greensboro Coliseum.
The week-long uproar about ticket access and costs spread to several cities where one of the world’s popular and best-selling musical artists will perform.
Fans who registered online for the chance to buy tickets last week found some seats reaching $4,000 to $5,000 when their turn came to buy.
Bruce Springsteen has performed in Greensboro many times. In this 2009 photo, Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Greensboro Coliseum. Springsteen is set to return to the coliseum on March 25.
That resulted from Ticketmaster’s “dynamic pricing,” allowing a company that sells goods or services over the internet to adjust prices on the fly in response to demand — much the way that airlines and hotels do.
Within hours of the sale’s start for the Greensboro show, few except “verified resale” tickets were available. Little red dots mark those seats on the Ticketmaster site.
The coliseum does not set ticket prices for concerts, said Andrew Brown, its director of public relations and communications.
Nor does it determine whether a tour or artist implements dynamic pricing for its event, Brown said.
Greensboro had one of the largest numbers of “Verified Fan” sign-up requests for this tour, with more than 19,900, Brown said.
Verified Fans could buy up to four tickets in the coliseum, where the capacity will be more than 20,000 — “meaning demand far exceeded availability,” Brown said.
Janet Villas of Greensboro ended up not buying tickets for the Boss’s coliseum concert.
Online on July 22, Villas was offered tickets in three sections “in front the stage and the lowest price was $2,450 each,” she said via email. “It was even more to stand for the whole concert and Bruce does famously long concerts.”
She went to the online ticket exchange and resale site StubHub.com. There, she said, she found tickets as low as $140, behind the stage and up in the “nosebleed section.”
“To actually get a side view of Bruce, you would have to pay $400 and again, this is up in the rarified air,” Villas said.
On Sunday, Ticketmaster released statistics saying that the majority of Springsteen and E Street Band fans in the U.S. who bought concert tickets last week bought them at face value.
Just over 88% of the tickets were sold at face value, according to Ticketmaster. The prices for arena shows ranged from $59.50 to $399 before service fees.
On Tuesday, Springsteen’s manager Jon Landau said that ticket prices are fair.
Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" was released in 1974.
“In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing,” Landau said in a statement to the New York Times. “We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others.”
Landau said that a modest number of tickets sold for $1,000 or more, and that the true average ticket price for seats that went on sale last week was in the mid-$200 range.
“I believe that in today’s environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the greatest artists of his generation,” Landau said.
Some buyers reported on Twitter that they were happy with their purchase.
“Just got two Springsteen tickets for Greensboro for $205 including fees,” one fan posted. “I’m in the very back, but I don’t care. At least I’ll be there and didn’t have to sell my car to afford a ticket.”
Another posted: “...managed to score 2 #Springsteen tickets to #Greensboro for $305. Seats aren’t great, and I was fully prepared to say peace out to this experience if prices were insane but was thoroughly surprised.”
Another fan posted on Twitter what the prices looked like at one point in time for “Official Platinum” seats — premium tickets and not resale tickets.
A Section 116, Row JJ seat was selling for $775 each, and Section 122, Row GG for $613.75 each. Section 211 Row E carried an official platinum price of $618 each.
Bruce Springsteen is seen here performing in 2021. He'll be touring with the E Street band in 2023, including a stop at the Greensboro Coliseum.
As of Friday, some Verified Resale tickets could be bought for less than $200, according to the Ticketmaster site for the Greensboro concert.
Nancy Halloran described her experience in an email.
“When the 2023 concert was announced, I registered as a Verified Bruce Fan and followed all the instructions to sign on to Ticketmaster to buy two tickets when they went on sale,” the Greensboro woman said via email.
“When I logged in on Friday (July 22),” Halloran said, “I was put in the ‘waiting room’ before 10 a.m. At around 10:03, I received notice that I was in the queue and there were 2000+ people ahead of me.”
“I was given the opportunity to buy tickets at 10:30,” Halloran said. “I clicked on section 108 and was displayed tickets in that section for less than $300, our target price. I clicked to buy the seats and seconds later received notice that those seats had been bought by someone else.
“From that point on, I tried to find two tickets for $300 or less for at least an hour. Tickets were going for varying prices, all over $1,200 each. I logged out and back in several times until 2 p.m. when the sale closed.”
“Tickets in the upper arena and many sections of the lower arena were not accessible until a couple of hours later,” she said. “At one point I was shown tickets in the Upper Arena BEHIND THE STAGE. Even those tickets were more than $300.”
“We gave up and decided we would not be attending this concert,” Halloran said.
Jim Riddle of High Point bought tickets for his family — he, his wife and their two teenage children.
“His music has been a part of our lives since my wife and I started dating,” Riddle said via email. “Told her I would marry her to “Should I Fall Behind” at the coliseum. Proposed to that song. First dance at our wedding.”
“If not for this possibly being the last tour, we wouldn’t have spent $1,744,” Riddle said. “As much as we love him and his music, we’re disappointed as well. If there is a farewell tour after this, I feel I can say with certainty we won’t be going because it just won’t be feasible to justify whatever that will eventually cost. $350 a ticket was a one-time deal. Never again at that cost or more.”
They ended up in Section 123, Row HH.
For Riddle and others, Ticketmaster didn’t gain many new fans.
“Ticketmaster is claiming that the majority of tickets were bought at face value,” Halloran said. “LOL — they don’t advertise ticket prices anymore ahead of the on sale date. So what is ‘face value?’”
Said Riddle: “So, when you log on, even as a “Verified Fan” you have no way of knowing how much tickets will be.”
“You have an allotted amount of time to get your ticket so it can quickly turn into an all or nothing decision,” Riddle said. “$350 bucks for one ticket, better decide quick because the seat(s) you clicked on got bought before you could check out or take a moment to decide if you want to spend that kind of money.”
Added Villas: “I still love Bruce. I still hate Ticketmaster,” she said. “I really want people to make money doing this, but it is all too much for me.”
Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 336-373-5204 and follow @dawndkaneNR on Twitter.
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Provided to YouTube by Sony Music Entertainment
Bruce Springsteen has performed in Greensboro many times. In this 2009 photo, Springsteen and the E Street Band perform at the Greensboro Coliseum. Springsteen is set to return to the coliseum on March 25.
Bruce Springsteen is seen here performing in 2021. He'll be touring with the E Street band in 2023, including a stop at the Greensboro Coliseum.
Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run" was released in 1974.
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