‘Unprecedented demand’ for Swift tickets forces Ticketmaster pause
Ticketmaster is no match for Swifties.
The ticket platform was forced to push back its TaylorSwiftTix Presale launch for her “Eras Tour” in several major markets on Tuesday afternoon. Las Vegas was among them. Swift is scheduled to play March 24-25 at Allegiant Stadium.
The presale in the Pacific time zone was originally set to open at 10 a.m., but moved back to 3 p.m. as the Ticketmaster website crashed or otherwise malfunctioned earlier in the day.
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 15, 2022
The company conceded it was unable to meet the tour’s high ticket demand, which registered in the millions. Posted on the Ticketmaster Twitter account at about 11 a.m.:
“There has been historically unprecedented demand with millions showing up to buy tickets for the TaylorSwiftTixPresale. Hundreds of thousand of tickets have been sold. If you have already secured tickets, you are all set. If you are currently in a queue, please hang tight — queues are moving and we are working to get fans through as quickly as possible.”
The on-sale times for Los Angeles, Santa Clara and Seattle were also moved from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday.
Concerns with the Ticketmaster website surfaced across the country on Tuesday morning. “We are aware fans may be experiencing intermittent issues with the site and are urgently working to resolve,” Ticketmaster Fan Support Site tweeted at about 8 a.m.
Well everyone I think I have to give up now, it’s been since 9am I’ve been trying so 7 hours later I have no tickets and I think Friday in Detroit is all sold out 🥺 congrats to everyone who was able to get tickets, it’s going to be amazing💕
— Lexi (@LexiHernnandez) November 15, 2022
The Capital One Cardholder Presale for preferred cardholders was also rescheduled, for 2 p.m. PST Wednesday.
While the company called for patience, fans were predictably lashing out.
From @LVJolieBeth, “Between this and your dynamic pricing nonsense, your business model sucks.” From @lenoraajoy, “i have work at 3:30 today. i already moved my shifts so i could be able to do the presale, and now i’ not going to be able to get tickets. i’m so incredibly angry right now i can’t even begin to explain it.”
The @VelvetRebelMusic account showed a screen-grab from Nissan Stadium’s seating chart in Nashville, with the post, “Slight mark-up on StubHub.” The secondary-market prices for the opportunity to buy single tickets ranged from $18,785 to $31,309.
Demand for Swift is especially high in Las Vegas. She has not headlined a concert here since Rock in Rio in May 2015. Earlier Tuesday, it was announced Swift had garnered four Grammy nominations.
Her “Midnights” album, released Oct. 21, opened at No. 1. Her 10th studio album filled the top 10 spots on the Billboard single charts, topped by “Anti Hero,” in its first week of release. The album also broke the Spotify record for most streams in a single day with 186 million streams.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.
