Coldplay tickets are cheaper in Seattle than Vancouver. Here's why
CBC
Vancouver's Maureen McCartney was excited to buy Coldplay tickets for her and her partner until she saw the good seats going for as much as $800 on Ticketmaster, the world's largest ticket seller.
The British band will be performing at Vancouver's B.C. Place on Sept. 22 and 23 — the only Canadian stop on its world tour.
"It's just so much trouble to go to a concert," McCartney said. "It's just too cost prohibitive. And even if you could afford to go, you probably would only go to one.
Tickers are considerably less expensive in Seattle, angering fans and highlighting Ticketmaster's dominance of the ticket-selling industry.
Experts say different venue sizes with different production costs could be contributing to the price discrepancy, but it also comes down to a lack of competition and Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing policy, which automatically increases some ticket prices when demand is high.
As of Tuesday afternoon, floor tickets for the Sept. 23 Vancouver show were selling for about $300. A few upper bowl seats, farthest from the stage, were selling for about $190 before taxes and other fees. But the majority of upper bowl tickets were upwards of $300.
Meanwhile, seats in the 200-level section range from about $300 to roughly $800, according to Ticketmaster. The prices are similar for the Sept. 22 concert.
Some Coldplay fans on Reddit and Twitter were furious at the prices and pointed out that tickets for the concert in Seattle on Sept. 20 were much cheaper.
Upper-level seats were selling for $74.50 US as of Tuesday afternoon. Some lower-level seats were about $224 US, which works out to about $300 Cdn — less than half the price of the $800 being charged in Vancouver.
Catherine Moore, an adjunct professor of music technology and digital media at the University of Toronto, says a range of factors, including different production costs and venue sizes, could also account for the difference in prices.
Seattle's Lumen Field seats about 72,000 people, while B.C. Place seats 54,500, according to their websites.
"It's supply and demand. If there's fewer seats ... you think, well, there's going to be more scarcity. So, therefore, we can raise the ticket prices," Moore said.
Moore says Vancouver being the only Canadian stop on the Coldplay tour is also a huge factor.
[Promoters] feel that people might be travelling from other parts of Canada in order to go to the shows in Vancouver. And the people that can afford to travel can, therefore, afford to pay high ticket prices."
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