Are you seeing the Boss in 2023? No, seriously, please let us know for research purposes: Most of Vulture got priced out of seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band due to the absurdly high ticket costs on Ticketmaster, a company that should probably be renamed Feeservant at this point. Tickets soared to more than $5,000 for certain performances due to the demand-driven “dynamic pricing†system, which meant, simply, that the company knew some fans would be willing to shell out the high costs at the expense of those who couldn’t. Jon Landau, Springsteen’s longtime manager, is now defending the decision to charge so much money for tickets, insisting that the face value is reasonable for New Jersey’s King. “In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing. We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others,†he told the New York Times. “Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range. I believe that in today’s environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation.â€
As the Times notes, the astronomical tickets sold on Ticketmaster are direct and not from digital scalpers, and Springsteen hasn’t embarked on an American tour with the E Street Band since 2016. On July 24, Ticketmaster supported the high cost of tickets in an unprecedented data release as a result of fans’ vocal ire. The company claimed that 1.3 percent of total purchases for the tour exceeded $1,000, while “platinum†tickets, which were priced variably (up to $5,000 each), encompassed 11.2 percent. “Prices and formats are consistent with industry standards for top performers,†the company said in a statement. Glory days, you’re on hiatus for now.