Bruce Springsteen’s Ticket Prices For His February 14th Show Are Crashing

Just this week the Senate Judiciary Committee posted an ominous message to Ticketmaster regarding their upcoming sale of tickets for Beyonce. They took to Twitter to say “We’re watching @Ticketmaster.” Since when does the legislative branch of government communicate in the same cadence as Tony Soprano? It is as if the Senators don’t believe the free market works. Perhaps that makes sense in today’s Washington D.C. where George Santos inexplicably remains a sitting member of Congress and a certain ex-President is campaigning on a platform that his 2020 election “victory” was stolen.

In the land of reality, tickets trade like any items of value. The prices move up and down based upon supply and demand. Those in the know understand that Bruce Springsteen is almost universally regarded as stellar artist and performer. Along with that reputation is the lesser known truth that demand for his tickets is always high in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Outside that region demand softens quickly.

The current fervor to curb ticket selling practices began when Springsteen’s initial ticket sale was run by a dynamic pricing algorithm which had no ceiling price. Like a flood of market order placed on the NYSE, prices rose with lightning speed until demand and supply leveled out. As a result, certain people were quoted up to $5,000 per ticket, and some of those people went through with the purchase.

That those sales took place is both a comment on the strength of demand for a Springsteen ticket during that particular sale, and the lack of judgment on the part of people who simply went through with the purchase, paying $2,000 per hour to attend a show in a concrete arena with 18,300 of their new best friends.

Springsteen’s tour makes a Valentine’s Day stop in Houston, TX where he plays the Toyota Center. The Toyota Center can hold 18,300 for a concert. That’s in the middle of arena sizes, some of which can accommodate more than 20,000. Because Texas is not New York, and Springsteen is not George Strait, there is more supply than true demand. Many tickets were bought for resale on the secondary markets, and those sellers are getting punished. Tickets traded today, February 4, 2023, at the following prices:

Section 103, row 7, face value $243 apiece, tickets sold $121.25 each, loss of 52%.

Section 111, row 10, face value $384 apiece, tickets sold $179.45 each, loss of 55%

Section 411, row 5, face value $185 apiece, tickets sold $ 43.65 each, loss of 77%

Section 411, row 9, face value $172 apiece, tickets sold $ 38.80 each, loss of 78%

There has been little talk about how nearly 50% of all event go below face value on the secondary market, even for high demand shows like Springsteen. Someone should hang a banner in the back of the hearing room for the next time the Senate convenes a hearing. It should say: The secondary market is where face value goes to die. In the rush to talk about how high ticket prices create a barrier for fans access shows, the equal downward price pressure as show date approaches is ignored and underestimated.

It’s still ten days before February 14^th. Prices might still fall further. The minimum price that tickets sell for on secondary markets is $6. Tickets are available at that price more often than people expect. It is, in fact, the primary marketing strategy for Gametime, a resale market which runs television commercials encouraging people to wait outside the venue until minutes before an event starts before buying tickets.

We have yet to see what Taylor Swift tickets will do on this year’s tour. There are five shows “sold-out” at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, and three in many other football stadiums. On Swift’s last tour thousands of tickets were given away at many shows because consumer interest evaporated before the tickets were all sold. It will be fascinating to see whether demand holds this year when the ticketholder is confronted with the choice of going to a two hour show in a massive stadium or having an extra couple of thousand dollars back to pay off consumer debt which is running at 28.9% on their credit card.

Here’s something the Senate should actually spend time on. How is it that we are worried about the price of tickets, but not about the interest charges which those purchases incur when people use credit cards? We used to cap interest rates at 10%. Isn’t usury a more significant issue consumer issue than ticket prices?

Congress has done nothing about consumer lending rates which can exceed 100% annually in some categories and allows major commercial banks which currently pay less than 2% interest on savings accounts to charge more than 25% when lending to consumers with credit cards. Maybe putting a ceiling back on interest rates would be more important for our citizens and help stabilize the economy.

Warren Buffett has been quoted to say he doesn’t know how to consistently make 18% annually. How can the ordinary working family keep up with, much less pay down debt when interest rates over 25% are persistently applied to their balances?

Beyonce’s sale will take place starting Monday, February 6th. Demand will be incredible. Lots of people will not get tickets. They are going to complain. Maybe Beyonce will add more shows, maybe not. There are rumors that transfer will be limited to take supply away from the secondary. There are laws in certain states which require tickets be transferable. There is also the immutable law of economics that when you suppress demand you lower the price. If the price is held down artificially it will be Beyonce who loses out. Beyonce is who assuredly gets the money if ticket prices move up in response to high demand. Speculators may make some money, or may lose some. No one ever knows that for sure until all the tickets are sold. But, in the long run it simply will not matter.

Think back to that last Led Zeppelin show which played at the 02 arena in London on December 10, 2007. Twenty million people signed up for the ticket lottery. Only 20,000 could attend. It’s been a little more than fifteen years since that concert took place. What was the consequence of so many people not getting into the show? Probably nothing. As the Rolling Stones so eloquently sing still to this day “you can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, well you might find, you get what you need.”

The economy of the United States is rooted in the principles of capitalism and a free market. It is not the role of government to tilt prices in search of populism. The market always sorts itself out. And, let us not forget that all prices ebb and flow. Springsteen’s Valentine’s Day concert is currently selling for a fraction of face value. Those who paid full price only to later sell at the current low prices lost hundreds of dollars per ticket. The buyers just got a screaming deal. That’s lucky for them with Valentine’s Day just around the corner. Has anyone on Capitol Hill taken a look at what long stemmed roses cost this week?