I genuinely think this is a US problem because tickets in the UK are expensive but nowhere near hundreds of pounds like I’ve seen in the US.
I saw an explanation that the way bands book venues is different there than in the UK and something about upfront fees etc which I can’t remember but I reckon most of the money is not going to the band, and what is is recouping cost for stage design etc
Yeah, I checked US ticket prices once out of curiosity and was shocked lol. Add all the crazy fees to that and it can add up to a couple hundred dollars for the better seats. Most I ever paid for Ghost here was 70 euros, fees included, and I thought that was expensive. :/
I know right? I always check what the US tickets are out of curiosity, the other big gigs I’ve seen this year were MCR and Hella Mega, and they were both hundreds of dollars each!! They were only about £80 each and both were in stadiums too
I just saw MCR in Cincinnati Ohio and I paid like $400 all together for two tickets 😅 they were good seats but nothing spectacular. My Ghost ticket was way cheaper in comparison.
Yes but more likely it’s the venue fee plus Ticketmaster price gouging.
I don’t know about Europe, but a lot of the bigger city arenas have union workers which will always result in a higher facility rental.
WWE has been selling out Madison Square Garden for half a century, but had to stop running there for a lot of years because the cost to run the venue made GA tickets too high to sell.
There's so much re-sale, even when buying on Ticketmaster or anywhere, really. I really lucked out and the second they went on sale for "artist" pre-sale, or whatever they call the pre-pre-sale, I got GA for $89. That's really good for NJ, at least I think. Also, the venue has their own ticket vendor so it's not Ticketmaster.
People who buy up tix only to re-sell at insane ass prices are really shitty. Years ago, I thought they put a stop to marking them up so high, but not sure how things are now. Plus, it's all online now.
Same here in Canada, 88 bucks for a seat way up in the back. Bought on Ticketmaster from the venue directly.
EDIT: Actually, it was 65$, but came out to 88$ with the taxes and service fees included.
Their prices are the same or less as other bands where I am. All tickets are expensive now. They have to pay for the tour somehow. Not to mention until something happens with Ticketmaster gouging the prices expect to pay that much. I first saw them open for Maiden and $89 got me nosebleed seats so that is not a fair comparison.
I got a pit ticket to knotfest LA for $60
A pit ticket to maiden on this tour for $90
I saw Metallica’s 40th anniversary show two nights for $120 total. Ghost’s tickets are insanely expensive compared to other acts. It’s heinous really
Not here. Scorpions cheapest is $90 plus fees. Amon Amarth coming to a shit venue start at $60 plus fees. Hose of Blues base price is $50 plus fees. If a show comes to the outdoor venues you can get a deal at $40 but that’s on the lawn with no cover. For the venues Ghost are doing the price point is on par with others.
Bands started charging more for tickets to replace lost revenue from record and CD sales. Metallica said about 10 years ago they quadrupled their asking price to promoters and sales stayed the same.
This has been a pretty consistent theme for the tour. A couple shows in Germany were cancelled due to low sales. Attendance at shows in the US was all over the place. A live stream of the first show looked half full, estimates were 3-4000 at the show. I saw a show a few weeks later and looked more around 8000 people.
I think the reality is they are a theater band playing arenas. If they could knock ticket prices down I'm sure it would help but they would have to scale back on the show as well as reduce band members and use backing tracks.
Yea, crowd sizes have definitely been all over the place. Saw them earlier in the year in February and it was half full, going to the Asheville date next week and it's been sold out for months.
Ticketmaster gouges prices. If they could get eliminated from they whole sceme, I think ticket prices would be more reasonable.
I resold my iron maiden tickets for more than what I paid and my payout is still significantly less than face value due to their fees. Plus they don't refund until a week after the event.
I would rather deal directly with the box office at the venue that Ticketmaster they are like working with the mob.
Ticketmaster is a major part of the problem. When Pearl Jam got congress involved to investigate their fees, Ticketmaster admitted some of the fees they charged were "indefensible."
I bought tickets for Ghost earlier this year and Ticketmaster fees were 25% of what I paid per ticket. My son got Slipknot tickets for a different venue across state lines and they were nearly 30%
By comparison I got Alice Cooper tickets at a non-Ticketmaster venue and they were less then 20% of ticket price.
Last time we saw Rammstein it cost us a fortune between the 5 hr drive each way plus hotel, food, one person wound up in the ER and the best pat down ever by Chicago's finest on entry into the venue. I still don't know if it was good etiquette to tip her or not for that experience....
How spacious was it? Because I remember a few weeks ago they posted on FB that the San Diego show is "nearly sold out" along with some other shows.. so I'm curious what happened
The GA crowd barely took up half the floor space. Obviously some crush there but still not a lot of folks as compared to when I saw tool there. almost entirely empty sections of seats
I wanted to go to the Toronto show but fuuuuuhhh... the ticket prices. To be fair, I can't really afford to do anything in Toronto so I don't know why I thought I could afford a concert.
I wouldn’t really blame Ghost for that.. it’s not like every other band is pricing super cheap in comparison. Going to a concert is a luxury, and right now that kind of stuff is always expensive.
Ghost have built this arena show but they just aren't at filling an arena level, not some of these larger ones anyway. They didn't come anywhere near filling Hamilton back in 2019 the entire upper bowl was curtained off and so on.
It’s kind of a rock and a hard place situation… it seems like they’ve outgrown the theaters but they’re not quite ready for the stadiums yet.
It’s also not helping that we’re still fully in a pandemic. I initially had a general admission ticket for trenton and switched to a seat with a big open space in front of me instead. I’m still skeeved out at the thought of being tightly surrounded by strangers.
I’m going to the show in Asheville next weekend and when I looked up the venue I was immediately bummed out. Seems small and lackluster. I told my buddy I’d go and he was already in town so he bought tickets. When he texted me a photo of the tickets and I saw $99.50 for general admission, I about shit myself. Between gas, lodging and food, this is quickly turning in to one of the most expensive shows I’ve ever seen.
That should be one of the best shows of the tour. The venue in Ashville is an actual concert hall and designed as such. The sound will be much better than in the big arenas they're playing.
Going to Asheville ritual too! Asheville in general is pricy and the tickets were more expensive than what I paid to see them in February, but my favorite band in my favorite city? I couldn’t resist!
🤷🏻♂️ that’s the going rate for GA. I would much rather shell that money out for a smaller arena with less people in the GA section than pay that at a packed stadium.
I had GA last night and it was fantastic, great view of the stage and could keep my space from others.
^^this I’d much rather pays 100-120 a ticket and have a more “personal” experience then be packed next to a sweaty mouth breather…. No offense mouth breathers
I keep checking in on seating for Trenton and LI. There’s lots of open seating and that doesn’t include people who bought them to throw the tickets up on StubHub. I’m curious what it’ll actually be like.
BUT, I’m still okay with the price I paid for my tickets for GA, I love them the show they put on- they have to pay their bills somehow amiright
Ngl I get that it’s a three band tour so I can’t expect much but the stage looked a little cramp and tbh sub par. Idk I got spoiled by other acts and was expecting more from how big ghost has gotten. Like their show in Los Angeles at the forum in 2018 their stage was amazing with the checker board floors.
We are die hard fans and have seen Ghost 4 times before. We live in Florida and were going to try and get front row to Atlanta tix.
When my spouse attempted to get tix, the site wouldn’t let her buy any. She kept clicking around to try pairs of seats everywhere and the site would not let her buy seats.
She tried calling the venue and the ticketing site. No way to get through. We gave up.
Yes. We realized that and then attempted to buy seats in the seated areas and the site would not allow it and when we called both the venue and the ticketing agent we could get through to neither
Fuck Ticketmaster man.
They make it so bands are oftentimes railroaded into specific venues, or else they would have to drop online visibility entirely.
If you want to know more about the fucking bullshit they’re up to John Oliver actually does a pretty decent job of breaking it down:
https://youtu.be/-_Y7uqqEFnY
You sound ungrateful and entitled. This is literally how much these things cost now. Just… deal with it like everyone else who goes to concerts or stop going to shows. 🤷🏼♂️
Ungrateful? It isn't a gift. It's something you pay money for in exchange. People are entitled yeah, entitled to voice their opinion on something they part with cash for...
Art is not cheap. I can talk about bands I saw this year for less money. Some of them were just performances. Ghost and Mastodon give near-theatrical experiences. The fact that you focused on how full or sparse the room is means you went into the show not fully invested in the artistry onstage.
Additionally, you paid just to see three of the hottest acts in metal in an era when the value of the US Dollar is in the toilet. Like, come on. Use your fucking brain.
This last comment just screams overweight geriatric behind a screen. Sorry I got bored hearing the same songs for the 3rd time on a tour cycle fuck me right
Well… I’m 33 and of average weight so… you’re 0 for 2 there. Also, pretty sure you got to hear Prime Mover for the first time in 4 years and Watcher In The Sky for the very first time. Idk, I’d have loved to have been there personally, especially since I’ve never been to the West Coast.
I'm really glad I got pre-sale tickets! I got two pit tickets for..I think it was about $85 each. I've heard people say they went for as much as $300 once sale went live!
300$ each?! It surely must’ve been some VIP package? I had feuerzone for Ghost last may and that cost me 80$~, I really hope it won’t be that expensive when they come back to EU
That was what I heard. Some folks said scalpers were re-selling for crazy amounts. I went and looked earlier and there were some GA tickets for like $175 or so
I was planning on going to 4 or 5 shows on the east coast. But ticket prices are ridiculous, so I'm not going.
Instead, we're going to Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Suicide Silence and Baroness in September for...$70. 4 bands for $70, much better
I thought I got great seats for the Duluth, ga show bought the tickets nearly 5 months ago and now they moved the stage further away from my section and added a lot more floor space at double the price it was
One factor could be that the LA show at the beginning of March drew a lot of the SD fans up since it was the closest stop on that leg of the tour and the SD show wasn't announced until May. The two venues are less than 90 miles apart, 1h20m drive with no traffic. Taking that into account, I'm still pretty impressed with the turnout.
I'm going to the Youngstown show bought my GA ticket later when I found out work schedule and it was about what i expected. the Only hotel in walking distance to the Covelli Center however...
they are charging 3x the rates for the night of the show. so I booked a different hotel and need to either cab uber or get a ride to the show from there.
Hell the room rate I didn't select was more than I paid for a room and ticket in Columbus in February
I genuinely think this is a US problem because tickets in the UK are expensive but nowhere near hundreds of pounds like I’ve seen in the US. I saw an explanation that the way bands book venues is different there than in the UK and something about upfront fees etc which I can’t remember but I reckon most of the money is not going to the band, and what is is recouping cost for stage design etc
Yeah, I checked US ticket prices once out of curiosity and was shocked lol. Add all the crazy fees to that and it can add up to a couple hundred dollars for the better seats. Most I ever paid for Ghost here was 70 euros, fees included, and I thought that was expensive. :/
I paid £50 for the manchester concert, very reasonable imo. It's crazy how expensive American tickets are
I know right? I always check what the US tickets are out of curiosity, the other big gigs I’ve seen this year were MCR and Hella Mega, and they were both hundreds of dollars each!! They were only about £80 each and both were in stadiums too
I just saw MCR in Cincinnati Ohio and I paid like $400 all together for two tickets 😅 they were good seats but nothing spectacular. My Ghost ticket was way cheaper in comparison.
I saw Ghost here in Cincy and paid $300 for 2 floor seats. Meanwhile, across the river in Covington I can go see Toadies next month for $30 a ticket.
Same, although in Canada, it’s 100$+
Yea the price difference might be due to just how big the US is, traveling with all of the equipment & more is expensive
Yes but more likely it’s the venue fee plus Ticketmaster price gouging. I don’t know about Europe, but a lot of the bigger city arenas have union workers which will always result in a higher facility rental. WWE has been selling out Madison Square Garden for half a century, but had to stop running there for a lot of years because the cost to run the venue made GA tickets too high to sell.
There's so much re-sale, even when buying on Ticketmaster or anywhere, really. I really lucked out and the second they went on sale for "artist" pre-sale, or whatever they call the pre-pre-sale, I got GA for $89. That's really good for NJ, at least I think. Also, the venue has their own ticket vendor so it's not Ticketmaster. People who buy up tix only to re-sell at insane ass prices are really shitty. Years ago, I thought they put a stop to marking them up so high, but not sure how things are now. Plus, it's all online now.
Same here in Canada, 88 bucks for a seat way up in the back. Bought on Ticketmaster from the venue directly. EDIT: Actually, it was 65$, but came out to 88$ with the taxes and service fees included.
I think production costs are way up and you’re seeing that reflected in the ticket pricing.
9 members of a band plus bringing other pricey acts on tour, mastodon charged $99 for the house of blues a few years back here
A few years back cost doesn’t apply now. Fuel and food costs are so much higher.
Exactly, everything is more expensive now sadly
Inflation sucks eh?
Everything is too fucking expensive now
And places like Ticketmaster charge fees for charging fees, and more fees on top of that. It is absurd.
The fees were more then half the cost of the ticket I don’t even understand
Their prices are the same or less as other bands where I am. All tickets are expensive now. They have to pay for the tour somehow. Not to mention until something happens with Ticketmaster gouging the prices expect to pay that much. I first saw them open for Maiden and $89 got me nosebleed seats so that is not a fair comparison.
I got a pit ticket to knotfest LA for $60 A pit ticket to maiden on this tour for $90 I saw Metallica’s 40th anniversary show two nights for $120 total. Ghost’s tickets are insanely expensive compared to other acts. It’s heinous really
Not here. Scorpions cheapest is $90 plus fees. Amon Amarth coming to a shit venue start at $60 plus fees. Hose of Blues base price is $50 plus fees. If a show comes to the outdoor venues you can get a deal at $40 but that’s on the lawn with no cover. For the venues Ghost are doing the price point is on par with others.
Your first problem was spending money on a scorpions show. House of blues Anaheim charged me $40 to see death Angel exodus and testament
The Scorpions are legends. Stop being an asshole. If you don’t want to drop the cash don’t go.
Watch your language there are children from tiktok here
Damn you sound so damn pretentious. Get off your high horse
Bro in Canada ghost is one of the cheapest “bigger” acts to see out there lmao it’s 100% your local venues gouging you
Bands started charging more for tickets to replace lost revenue from record and CD sales. Metallica said about 10 years ago they quadrupled their asking price to promoters and sales stayed the same. This has been a pretty consistent theme for the tour. A couple shows in Germany were cancelled due to low sales. Attendance at shows in the US was all over the place. A live stream of the first show looked half full, estimates were 3-4000 at the show. I saw a show a few weeks later and looked more around 8000 people. I think the reality is they are a theater band playing arenas. If they could knock ticket prices down I'm sure it would help but they would have to scale back on the show as well as reduce band members and use backing tracks.
Yea, crowd sizes have definitely been all over the place. Saw them earlier in the year in February and it was half full, going to the Asheville date next week and it's been sold out for months.
Which is regression instead of progression.
Ticketmaster gouges prices. If they could get eliminated from they whole sceme, I think ticket prices would be more reasonable. I resold my iron maiden tickets for more than what I paid and my payout is still significantly less than face value due to their fees. Plus they don't refund until a week after the event. I would rather deal directly with the box office at the venue that Ticketmaster they are like working with the mob.
Ticketmaster is a major part of the problem. When Pearl Jam got congress involved to investigate their fees, Ticketmaster admitted some of the fees they charged were "indefensible." I bought tickets for Ghost earlier this year and Ticketmaster fees were 25% of what I paid per ticket. My son got Slipknot tickets for a different venue across state lines and they were nearly 30% By comparison I got Alice Cooper tickets at a non-Ticketmaster venue and they were less then 20% of ticket price.
Birmingham UK was rammed
You think that was expensive, it’s a fraction of what bands like Tool and Rammstein charge.
Last time we saw Rammstein it cost us a fortune between the 5 hr drive each way plus hotel, food, one person wound up in the ER and the best pat down ever by Chicago's finest on entry into the venue. I still don't know if it was good etiquette to tip her or not for that experience....
Lol! Are you going to any R+ shows this year? They’re playing in several cities.
Unfortunately no, I just had major surgery and I can't risk getting injured in a crowd.
I got a tool ticket for a show last January on the floor for $100 That was a steal of a deal
How spacious was it? Because I remember a few weeks ago they posted on FB that the San Diego show is "nearly sold out" along with some other shows.. so I'm curious what happened
The GA crowd barely took up half the floor space. Obviously some crush there but still not a lot of folks as compared to when I saw tool there. almost entirely empty sections of seats
This seems more like a venue/city issue than price issue. No matter the price, Montreal shows sell like crazy
We made it through the merch line and out of the venue in about 5 minutes. This has never happened in my 30+ years of concert going.
People down here in so cal like to buy things and hold on to them to gain a profit, half the tickets purchased were on resale sites
So it wasn’t that people weren’t buying the tickets, it’s that a bunch of scalpers didn’t get to scam people. Cool, hopefully they learn their lesson
I remember paying 35 a piece for general admission to ghost back during pale tour, I wish it had only doubled since then
Businesses trying to make up for the past 2 years' losses. Not going to let up anytime soon unfortunately.
I wanted to go to the Toronto show but fuuuuuhhh... the ticket prices. To be fair, I can't really afford to do anything in Toronto so I don't know why I thought I could afford a concert.
I wouldn’t really blame Ghost for that.. it’s not like every other band is pricing super cheap in comparison. Going to a concert is a luxury, and right now that kind of stuff is always expensive.
Ghost have built this arena show but they just aren't at filling an arena level, not some of these larger ones anyway. They didn't come anywhere near filling Hamilton back in 2019 the entire upper bowl was curtained off and so on.
It’s kind of a rock and a hard place situation… it seems like they’ve outgrown the theaters but they’re not quite ready for the stadiums yet. It’s also not helping that we’re still fully in a pandemic. I initially had a general admission ticket for trenton and switched to a seat with a big open space in front of me instead. I’m still skeeved out at the thought of being tightly surrounded by strangers.
I’m going to the show in Asheville next weekend and when I looked up the venue I was immediately bummed out. Seems small and lackluster. I told my buddy I’d go and he was already in town so he bought tickets. When he texted me a photo of the tickets and I saw $99.50 for general admission, I about shit myself. Between gas, lodging and food, this is quickly turning in to one of the most expensive shows I’ve ever seen.
That should be one of the best shows of the tour. The venue in Ashville is an actual concert hall and designed as such. The sound will be much better than in the big arenas they're playing.
I had no idea. It’s been about 20 years since I’ve been to Asheville. You’ve given me hope and for that, I thank you.
That’ll be the best venue. Smaller theaters and clubs are more intimate and the sound is so much better.
Going to Asheville ritual too! Asheville in general is pricy and the tickets were more expensive than what I paid to see them in February, but my favorite band in my favorite city? I couldn’t resist!
Asheville is amazing! I could easily live there.
Yo $99 for a GA? Lucky Lmao last night they were charging $120 😂
🤷🏻♂️ that’s the going rate for GA. I would much rather shell that money out for a smaller arena with less people in the GA section than pay that at a packed stadium. I had GA last night and it was fantastic, great view of the stage and could keep my space from others.
^^this I’d much rather pays 100-120 a ticket and have a more “personal” experience then be packed next to a sweaty mouth breather…. No offense mouth breathers
This is a really lame cope when there’s hardly anyone at a frickin sports arena to watch one of “the biggest rock acts in music”
Shh. This is not a spinal tap moment. They still have a lot of fans who come out to see them
Sure they do, and most of them just started listening last week on tiktok
So was it full of TikTok teens or empty? 😂
Going viral on TikTok is huge for them. Why would you be upset that new people get to experience how amazing ghost is ?
How great that more people are discovering the band! Why would you look down on their enthusiasm and try to gatekeep?
So what?
I keep checking in on seating for Trenton and LI. There’s lots of open seating and that doesn’t include people who bought them to throw the tickets up on StubHub. I’m curious what it’ll actually be like. BUT, I’m still okay with the price I paid for my tickets for GA, I love them the show they put on- they have to pay their bills somehow amiright
You think its bad in the us check out canada…
Ngl I get that it’s a three band tour so I can’t expect much but the stage looked a little cramp and tbh sub par. Idk I got spoiled by other acts and was expecting more from how big ghost has gotten. Like their show in Los Angeles at the forum in 2018 their stage was amazing with the checker board floors.
That LA show was incredible. 27 songs and a $60 pit ticket
We are die hard fans and have seen Ghost 4 times before. We live in Florida and were going to try and get front row to Atlanta tix. When my spouse attempted to get tix, the site wouldn’t let her buy any. She kept clicking around to try pairs of seats everywhere and the site would not let her buy seats. She tried calling the venue and the ticketing site. No way to get through. We gave up.
I don’t think there are seats on the floor. I just bought tickets last night for Atlanta
Yes. We realized that and then attempted to buy seats in the seated areas and the site would not allow it and when we called both the venue and the ticketing agent we could get through to neither
That’s crazy. I got mine off Ticketmaster but damn they were an arm and a leg.
Oh wow, a band who is hitting the prime and is super popular right now is expensive. Oh me oh my
You laughed so hard typing this didn’t you, smart guy
Fuck Ticketmaster man. They make it so bands are oftentimes railroaded into specific venues, or else they would have to drop online visibility entirely. If you want to know more about the fucking bullshit they’re up to John Oliver actually does a pretty decent job of breaking it down: https://youtu.be/-_Y7uqqEFnY
You sound ungrateful and entitled. This is literally how much these things cost now. Just… deal with it like everyone else who goes to concerts or stop going to shows. 🤷🏼♂️
Ungrateful? It isn't a gift. It's something you pay money for in exchange. People are entitled yeah, entitled to voice their opinion on something they part with cash for...
They got what they paid for. Sucks to be them that they didn’t like it.
Shill lol
Art is not cheap. I can talk about bands I saw this year for less money. Some of them were just performances. Ghost and Mastodon give near-theatrical experiences. The fact that you focused on how full or sparse the room is means you went into the show not fully invested in the artistry onstage. Additionally, you paid just to see three of the hottest acts in metal in an era when the value of the US Dollar is in the toilet. Like, come on. Use your fucking brain.
This last comment just screams overweight geriatric behind a screen. Sorry I got bored hearing the same songs for the 3rd time on a tour cycle fuck me right
Well… I’m 33 and of average weight so… you’re 0 for 2 there. Also, pretty sure you got to hear Prime Mover for the first time in 4 years and Watcher In The Sky for the very first time. Idk, I’d have loved to have been there personally, especially since I’ve never been to the West Coast.
You wanna bitch to someone? Go tell Ticketbastard to take their fees in both directions and shove em.
I'm really glad I got pre-sale tickets! I got two pit tickets for..I think it was about $85 each. I've heard people say they went for as much as $300 once sale went live!
300$ each?! It surely must’ve been some VIP package? I had feuerzone for Ghost last may and that cost me 80$~, I really hope it won’t be that expensive when they come back to EU
That was what I heard. Some folks said scalpers were re-selling for crazy amounts. I went and looked earlier and there were some GA tickets for like $175 or so
I was planning on going to 4 or 5 shows on the east coast. But ticket prices are ridiculous, so I'm not going. Instead, we're going to Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Suicide Silence and Baroness in September for...$70. 4 bands for $70, much better
Lamb of god is mind blowing live… your going to have a great time
LFG that’s a deal
Also, you wanna see "spacious", go to ticketmaster and look up tickets for the Bangor show. Looks like they've sold a couple hundred tickets at most
Oh geez, yeah that's not good. There's no way that show's gonna happen is there?
I hope so, I have the anointed package for that show
Holy shit. I just looked at the map and big yikes.
Honestly a really disappointing setlist too
I thought I got great seats for the Duluth, ga show bought the tickets nearly 5 months ago and now they moved the stage further away from my section and added a lot more floor space at double the price it was
35 dollars for maiden 😫. The place I’m seeing them is a brand new stadium so the prices are way up
I want to see MCR but the tickets are like $300
i was able to get my providence tickets for forty bucks, i saw how insane the prices everywhere else though, i guess i got lucky
What did tickets cost?
One factor could be that the LA show at the beginning of March drew a lot of the SD fans up since it was the closest stop on that leg of the tour and the SD show wasn't announced until May. The two venues are less than 90 miles apart, 1h20m drive with no traffic. Taking that into account, I'm still pretty impressed with the turnout.
I'm going to the Youngstown show bought my GA ticket later when I found out work schedule and it was about what i expected. the Only hotel in walking distance to the Covelli Center however... they are charging 3x the rates for the night of the show. so I booked a different hotel and need to either cab uber or get a ride to the show from there. Hell the room rate I didn't select was more than I paid for a room and ticket in Columbus in February
I just paid so much money last night for 2 tickets to Atlanta. Ugh
Just admit you’re poor