1. To start off, with some FAQ and overview of prices:

    Why are tickets so or more expensive?

    It seems U2 follows the new concert ticketing strategy. Gone are the days of instant sellouts and here are the day sof "slow sales",
    high prices etc. One LiveNation representative said that "if fans are willing to pay double the ticket price on reseller markets,
    we might as well charge it already at the beginning". This way they earn money that they otherwise "miss out on". This is also why there's no such things like names on tickets or paperless entry, this would make reselling more difficult. Reselling is what Ticketmaster/Livenation want, that way they can earn money on the same ticket multiple times.

    This is an interesting article explaining some of the changes: https://www.billboard.com/articles/business/8070644/taylor-swift-concert-industry-slow-ticketing-model-sales

    A small comparison between this year and two years ago:


    Another interesting aspect adding to the info above:
  2. Quite happy to miss out this time if I don't pick up a face value GA in London....frankly £70 + fees is already above reasonable anyway
  3. I paid £65.00 to see the Killers in Manchester in November the same seats for U2 are now £407.00
  4. Regarding GA Joe's comments, he's right. Pretty sure I remember seeing this happening on the day of the final London show on i+e, some of the seating tickets were dropped by about £20 and obviously people bite. But doesn't that say something glaringly obvious? That Live Nation should probably just lower the value of tickets from the on sale date, from the beginning, if they want to sell tickets. It just angers people that tickets are extravagantly priced in the first place, basically puts people off going to concerts. I've noticed in general that concert tickets are increasing in price. £66 for Arcade Fire when I paid £45 on their last tour, for example, but even the smaller acts are charging well and beyond what they should. The problem is that people are forking out around £100 for a concert and end up having high expectations because of the expense, ergo end up saying "meh, it was alright – definitely not worth £100" or "it was absolutely shit, band looked like they didn't want to be there". Those are examples. But the price people are paying for one night to see an artist play for two hours along with the cost of travel and accommodation is now verging on ludicrous. The music industry has always been greedy, unfortunately, that's just the way it is.

    At least U2 do try and accommodate cheaper seats, and the price they charge for GA is reasonable for a band of their calibre. It's just everything above that I cannot fathom.
  5. Think I will take my chances nearer the time on viagogo etc
    E.g. Stade de France for TJTT17 I got £200 seats for £50
  6. If you can, it is worth waiting. I got GA for one of Dublin shows last time about 10 days before the show. Although you do have to check the website quite regularly everyday nearer the show.
  7. Yeah, I knew TM had a scam going on in recent years but this one takes the cake. Going out with a bang with U2 because I wanna see 'em locally. But after this, I'll just be going to local shows where I can buy tickets at the box office. That being said, I'm really excited about seeing U2 in a local arena! Twice!
  8. Berlin comparsion 2018 - 2015
    PK 1: 230,40 € - ~185
    PK 2: 126,90 € - 115
    PK 4: 92,40 € - 68,80
    PK 5: 46,40 € - 38,15
    Standing: 92,40 € - 68,80

    A similar ticket to P2 (Block 220, Row 1) for Bryan Adams got me 78.40€ in 2016, same arena.

    It's a 20%+ add up on the low prices. Especially the GA jump is not a fair one - 85€ would have been enough. P1/2 have a 10% add. Regarding the fact, that this time they can save a lot money, because they already have done everything before, especially in Berlin and Cologne, Amsterdam and London.....they know how many people they need, how fast they can set up the stage and tear it down, they spend less time on sound, they saved the presets for sure of these locations - there is no reasonable explanation for that rise. Except: Livenation just wants more money because they CAN.

    For my Popmart Ticket I paid 67 DM ~35€. (Standing only available). For my Bryan Adams 1994 Ticket I paid 57 DM ~30€ (Standing only) - with 3 (!) support acts.
    I know times have changed, I know stuff got more expensive. But just comparing these....when Michael Jackson back in the day charged 150 DM (~75€) for a ticket, we all just shook our heads "how can he! that's ridiculous!" - well.....

    AT LEAST! U2 are one of the few bands who are woth a price up to 150€ max. The P1 and Vip etc. prices I cannot accept. Also not the RZ prices. I understand what they are there for, but the price is still too high. Another + for U2: they do not block the common front row with their "high priced GAs" what RZ are, the average fan can still access front row without paying up - which is what Springsteen, Coldplay.... do.
  9. The additional orchestra is expensive
  10. More than having an issue with the ~220€ tickets themselves, I have a problem with how many of them there are. For some European concerts there's at least a 70% of sections that are priced like that, leaving very few sectors at ~120€ and of course even less at ~40€. Most of the seats are now top-priced and that makes people angry, sales slower and in the end is a lose-lose situation for the artist and for the audience. The audience is dissapointed more easily if they forked out 200 bucks than if they spent 100, that's only logical. Specially by bands which are rather scarce and That goes against the artist since they have a fix amount that they earn per concert. Only the big corporation (aka promoter, Livenation, venue, etc) wins. The rest of us lose.