[bstrauss24]

Just a side note... The scalpers haven't really made the money yet, have they?

[sherpa]

I think it is entirely possible that they asked Gord what he wanted to do and went with that under the circumstances

[Escape@Hand]

I have to say that if the announcement came after the pre-sale I would only have bought tickets for the Victoria show. Knowing that it is their last tour, I made sure to find a way to fly across the country and get tickets for Ottawa and Kingston. So I'm glad that the announcement came before the tickets went on sale. Yes, it made the demand skyrocket but, really, what can the band do about that? It certainly wasn't handled perfectly but I'm glad I knew about this before hand.

[Lerxst1991]

To play devil's advocate, if the band didn't make the announcement prior to the pre-sale, there would have been plenty of die-hard Hip fans who wouldn't haven't tried to get tickets to this tour, primarily based on location. Personally, without the announcement, I would have seen the tour dates and waited for the 2nd leg of the tour, expecting additional dates closer to where I live (US shows). I'm guessing a number of other people would have had a similar thought. If they held the pre-sale, made the announcement, then had the general sale, it would have caused similar issues, then die-hard fans would be upset because they would have tried for the pre-sale if they knew this was the last tour.

I have to agree entirely. We are a fickle bunch. Imagine the Hip announcing their Man Machine Poem tour without knowing that Gord had cancer and finding out that the tickets are $166 each for lower level. I can only imagine the griping and complaining that would have been going on in this forum. "I am not paying $166 to hear Gord yell his way through another concert in a hockey rink no less. They should do smaller shows. Etc." Then when they announced that Gord had cancer, we would have been upset that we didn't know sooner so that we could have bought the good tickets to the show. It eats me up how everything went down but the "what if" game is pointless in my opinion.

Ironically I looked at the $126 + SC face value for floors and lowers thinking I haven't seen premium concert tix this cheap in many years. Yes, some bands keep prices below market (lookin at you Pearl Jam) but prices for Sting + Gabriel are more representative of floor face values lately at $250+SC.

Looking at stub hub, just not seeing the flood of scalper tix. They may not have possession of tix yet, but they know what they bought and can post them for sale?

Ottawa I see almost no seats in the front floor and six closest sections. For London I see 8 tickets in the front 25 rows. Comparing that to other big shows, that's a tiny inventory of tix on the leading site, stubhub.

[miasmal]

Does anyone think scalper tix will come down in price or is that just wishful thinking?

[the_don]

Does anyone think scalper tix will come down in price or is that just wishful thinking?

For the big venues, yes. Definitely not Kingston tho.

[Fabs1978]

Looking at stub hub, just not seeing the flood of scalper tix. They may not have possession of tix yet, but they know what they bought and can post them for sale?

Ottawa I see almost no seats in the front floor and six closest sections. For London I see 8 tickets in the front 25 rows. Comparing that to other big shows, that's a tiny inventory of tix on the leading site, stubhub.

Does anyone else think scalpers are holding back tickets on purpose so they can create a false sense of supply and jack up the prices even further? Given that nobody I know got tickets, and I haven't seen more than a few hundred scalper tickets available for each show, on any of the scalper sites I've looked at, it makes me wonder where they all are. Seems like we'll see more inventory in the coming weeks.

[paulster2626]

Looking at stub hub, just not seeing the flood of scalper tix. They may not have possession of tix yet, but they know what they bought and can post them for sale?

Ottawa I see almost no seats in the front floor and six closest sections. For London I see 8 tickets in the front 25 rows. Comparing that to other big shows, that's a tiny inventory of tix on the leading site, stubhub.

Does anyone else think scalpers are holding back tickets on purpose so they can create a false sense of supply and jack up the prices even further? Given that nobody I know got tickets, and I haven't seen more than a few hundred scalper tickets available for each show, on any of the scalper sites I've looked at, it makes me wonder where they all are. Seems like we'll see more inventory in the coming weeks.

Given that these are arena shows, I would think a lot of season ticket subscribers to hockey teams who get first crack at tickets would have jumped on these. Everyone knows someone who's a big fan of the Tragically Hip, and as we've said before these are the hottest Canadian music tickets in history. I think it's simply a lot of people actually do want to show up to these things.

[Fabs1978]

Given that these are arena shows, I would think a lot of season ticket subscribers to hockey teams who get first crack at tickets would have jumped on these. Everyone knows someone who's a big fan of the Tragically Hip, and as we've said before these are the hottest Canadian music tickets in history. I think it's simply a lot of people actually do want to show up to these things.

I'm not sure how most arenas operate, but everyone I know who's a Leafs or Raptors season ticket holder at Air Canada Centre said they didn't have the option to simply buy their seats for the Hip shows. I think, in most cases, being a season ticket holder simply gives you priority access (essentially another presale) to concert tickets.

[Dire Wolf]

Given that these are arena shows, I would think a lot of season ticket subscribers to hockey teams who get first crack at tickets would have jumped on these. Everyone knows someone who's a big fan of the Tragically Hip, and as we've said before these are the hottest Canadian music tickets in history. I think it's simply a lot of people actually do want to show up to these things.

I'm not sure how most arenas operate, but everyone I know who's a Leafs or Raptors season ticket holder at Air Canada Centre said they didn't have the option to simply buy their seats for the Hip shows. I think, in most cases, being a season ticket holder simply gives you priority access (essentially another presale) to concert tickets.

I think it depends. I have Leaf seasons and don't have access to concert tix. My company has seasons for Leafs/Raptors (same seats for both) and has access to those same seats for all other events, including concerts.

[TonyZZZ]

Some very good arguments and thoughts in this thread and I have enjoyed reading all of them. My question is - do you think the band should publicly acknowledge this whole ticket fiasco via their many social media outlets? If so, what would be the tone of the message?

[pforget]

Given that these are arena shows, I would think a lot of season ticket subscribers to hockey teams who get first crack at tickets would have jumped on these. Everyone knows someone who's a big fan of the Tragically Hip, and as we've said before these are the hottest Canadian music tickets in history. I think it's simply a lot of people actually do want to show up to these things.

I'm not sure how most arenas operate, but everyone I know who's a Leafs or Raptors season ticket holder at Air Canada Centre said they didn't have the option to simply buy their seats for the Hip shows. I think, in most cases, being a season ticket holder simply gives you priority access (essentially another presale) to concert tickets.

I think it depends. I have Leaf seasons and don't have access to concert tix. My company has seasons for Leafs/Raptors (same seats for both) and has access to those same seats for all other events, including concerts.

Depends on if you paid the personal seat "license" fee, which is substantial (for a set of platinum seats in prime location, could be as much as $50k+ per seat). That makes it more like a box, and allows you the seat for any event held at the venue.

[pforget]

Yes, I don't disagree with the premise that not announcing Gord's illness prior to the onsale would have dampened the initial feeding frenzy. Certainly will give the band the benefit of the doubt that nothing was done maliciously. In that case suspect that the scalpers would have looked at this tour as a fairly easy ticket and not one they would make big dollars at. Would still have been trying for the very best seats, there'll always be demand for those.

But it is what it is. Nothing can change what happened. Maybe change the system for future, but I don't know how or what you do to stop this. Not sure most bands actually care. Certainly know Ticketmaster doesn't care, they get their fees once the tickets sell, so who they sell to is inconsequential to them.

I got shut out. I'm not happy, but it isn't the end of the world. I will see about whether tickets become reasonably priced closer to show time, but I won't be spending hours scouring the net looking for deals. If it's meant to be, it will happen for me. Otherwise, I have many great memories of the live shows of theirs I was fortunate to attend, including 3 small venue surprise shows, most recently the Danforth tour rehearsal last January.

[Trae1978]

I'm a Winnipeg Jets season seat holder for 5 years now and I've never had first dibs on anything not related to the Jets.

[andrew sharpe]

I'm glad they disclosed Gord's illness prior to tickets going on sale. I wouldn't be driving from NB to Ottawa otherwise as I've seen the band 30+ times and would have waited for a closer show.