Crazy price of Oasis tickets needs to be looked at says local music venue owner
Last Saturday morning 160,000 Croke Park tickets for popular Mancunian band Oasis sold in record time. The band fronted by Liam and Noel Gallagher announced their reunion last week amid much excitement from fans with two Croke Park gigs announced for next August.
The vast majority of people who had tried to get tickets on the Ticketmaster website left their laptops or their phones empty handed. Some were stuck in an endless queue that led to nowhere while some who managed to get in were met with a sudden extortionate price increase from the advertised €86.50 plus booking fees to €400≠ per ticket.
The reason given by Ticketmaster for this extortionate rise in price was dynamic pricing under the heading of ‘In Demand Standing Tickets’. While this technique is widespread in other countries, particularly the USA, this was one of the first times Irish music fans have encountered this ruthless strategy and the reaction was understandably one of disgust.
Politicians, including Tánaiste Micheal Martin hit out at the rampant acceleration of ticket prices and urged the Competition and Consumer Authority to step in and investigate Ticketmaster.
“We have the competition and consumer authority and I think there is a role there for it, which is the body designated to do these things, to investigate this.
“But more broadly speaking, I do think we need a strong reflection on this kind of runaway inflation on costs for concerts of these kinds with so many people looking forward to it.
“Clearly, it is beyond the reach of many, many people to purchase or to be in a position to be able to afford a ticket to a concert given the rampant acceleration of price increases.
Mark Dearey who owns and manages local music venue The Spirit Store agreed that something needed to be done to prevent this form of price gouging in future.
”Well first of all what we do down here is a million miles away from these huge gigs that people are queuing for for hours on end on Ticketmaster. The big problem for us locally is that stuff like this definitely affects peoples spending power. If they are paying up to €400 for a ticket for a gig in most cases they are going to have to cut back in other areas.
“I would like the government to step in and try and do something about this because it really is extreme capitalism at the end of the day. At the end of the day everybody has a choice but we need to ensure that the tickets are being sold at the price they are being advertised at. My advice? Close the laptops. Avoid the queues. And spend your money buying a ticket for a gig in the Spirit Store,” laughs Mark.
