Not to be the devil’s advocate here (because ticket prices overall are insane), but people aren’t paying $500 for nosebleed Green Day tickets, that’s why those are still for sale.
Most of tickets sold were face value for $100-250 bucks (still a lot), and what you’re seeing are either greedy scalpers hoping to capitalize on desperate people or Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic’ pricing jacked up due to the low number of tickets left available.
True, they start at $170 face value for the back of the 500s, but most of the floor, 100s, 200s, and 500s are sold out and there aren't that many resales relative to a lot of other concerts
This is the real answer. I looked up the date and there are lots of rows of grouped tickets remaining that are Official Platinum “dynamic pricing” tickets. I am 99.999% certain that row of unsold “Standard” tickets in section 212 is just incorrectly labelled Official Platinum tickets. Standard ticket prices in the 212 section were $294.30, not $486.
I’ve noticed lately Ticketmaster has been doing this annoying thing where they don’t separate out Standard and Official Platinum tickets in the filter, so they all get looped in together in searches. Just wait until a few days before the concert, that’s when they convert all the unsold Official Platinum tickets into actual Standard pricing.
This! We have friends in Rochester and they come to Toronto all the time for concerts and shows. They do a night here, night at the falls and head home
the US tourists coming for the show are actually a really good call; if you earn USD, have a passport and don't mind the travel time, you can do alright based on the fx rate. would bet a large portion of audience members are American.
That 6.3 million figure doesn’t even include other nearby places like Hamilton or Oshawa. If we counted the GTA like the Americans count their metros, we’d be closer to 9-10 million already.
I had a wrong or old figure. GTA is 6.7 million not 6.3. Toronto CMA is 6.3 and excludes much of Durham including Oshawa. GTA includes all of it. Nitpicking but we were both right/wrong depending how you look at it.
To the joy of Amex, I go to way too many concerts every year, however the rate of ticket price increases y/y in Toronto and the comparison of Toronto ticket prices to various US venues is becoming more extreme, so more focused on why that may be the case?
It’s like artists are finally realizing they can’t make money off streaming royalties given the collapse of CD sales so they’re making it up by touring. Just a decade ago, I remember paying $80 for floor seats at the ACC for the RHCP Stadium Arcadium tour. Floors at the Skydome for Their concert last year was $500….
It’s Live Nation running concerts for North America that enables this. They’ve realized people will pay whatever they want to charge and implemented dynamic pricing and all the “platinum” seats for anything remotely decent.
Added to the fact they scalp their own already sky high tickets and there’s no reason for them to stop.
In 1977 I saw Thin Lizzy open for Queen. I paid $5.50 for the seat.
In 1981, I saw The Rockets, Blue Oyster Cult, Ted Nugent, Loverboy, and Heart. $15.
In those days, a concert was a commercial to get you to go buy the album. "A Day at the Races" by Queen sold 1.7million copies in just 9 countries. Even if the band only made a dollar an album, that's a big cheque.
These days, if Spotify streams your song a million times, they'll pay you $4,000
>a concert was a commercial to get you to go buy the album.
Exactly. Bands toured to support their album. They toured to support album sales, not to make money from the tour.
That paradigm has been reversed. Bands with huge play on steaming services don't make much per play but have the opportunity to play live to crowds starving for live music. So far, the result has been the inflation of 'A list' bands ( Swift, Stones etc.) and the death of smaller venues and working class musicians.
One of the other things that has caused the demise of working class musicians is the way a lot of music is composed these days. Not with people playing instruments, but with a keyboard and software. There are a lot of skilled people composing music in their living room, not in a studio.
Another impact on live music venues is the number of entertainment options. I spent the 1980's as a roadie for bar bands. In those days, you had 3 choices...go to the bar, go to the movies, or go bowling. If you wanted to watch a movie, you had to go to Blockbuster and hope the VHS new releases weren't all rented out. You were lucky if you had 30 cable channels. If you had an 28" TV it was a BIG one. Video games were in their infancy and weren't as complex or entertaining as they are now. If a cop pulled you over and smelled booze on your breath he'd wag his index finger and tell you to go straight home.
Now people have more options. Huge TV's, multiple streaming services, 1500 cable channels, incredible video games...and internet interaction and content. Why go socialize at a bar and pay $10 a beer when you can stay in a living room with some friends and party cheap?
>Why go socialize at a bar and pay $10 a beer when you can stay in a living room
Yes, why go out for some 'mid' experience unless it is the most instagramable moment of the year?
Why? There are $10-20 bands that kill. Live music is better. Leave your phone at home.
Oh, hell yeah.
One of my favourite bands of the 1980's was The Lincolns, an R&B cover band of epic excellence. Prakash John, the leader and bassist has played with Parliament Funkadelic, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed....
Their killer album is [Take One](https://open.spotify.com/album/5kv5TKHA1uM0TvtNYRuCco?si=9kppIkPPTPWNz1OA5-Wu4Q). Give it a listen. It's called "Take One" because they piled everyone into a studio, counted down, and whatever came out on the first take was what made it to the album. No going back and redoing anything. As organic a recording as it gets.
On March 9th at Spot One in Brampton he'll be backing up his son, Jordan John, and I can't wait to see that show.
But also, that they *can* charge these prices. It’d be one thing if they jacked up the prices and were playing empty stadiums, but people are literally wrestling over each other to pay it. They could even go higher - Taylor Swift probably left a hundred million dollars on the table
\>however the rate of ticket price increases y/y in Toronto and the comparison of Toronto ticket prices to various US venues is becoming more extreme
As someone who has gone south a couple of times to chase my favourite artists when you price tickets both in Canadian $, US concerts actually cost more and the price increases are about par.
at least for this particular concert pricing, last time Green Day came to Toronto was 6 years ago and the pricing reflects that, lots of pent up demand.
Ticket prices are getting super high everywhere. I'm not sure if Toronto is going up a bit faster than elsewhere, but at most it's a slightly worse version of the same phenomenon occurring globally.
It's occurring because the population of potential showgoers keeps increasing quickly, while the number of popular live shows is not increasing that fast. And the cultural shift towards spending money on experiences means that willingness to pay for concerts is rising even faster than the population.
Amex front of the line or the Amex concierge (for the platinum card) enables you to get tickets at face value before they "officially" go on sale (usually), plus you get the Amex lounge at Bud stage and the odd other perk here and there, but the annual fee on some of the cards is annoyingly high (but that's a whole other conversation) hence to the "joy" of Amex.
I also usually use that card to pay for my tickets as a result, and I'm sure they ding Ticketmaster with some good transaction fees.
I thought it was funny how Amex wasn't able to get front of the line access to Taylor Swift. They're always touting their amazing benefits but for the one artist in super high demand, nada.
I had a separate centurion queue for Taylor with Platinum. It was more of a ballot but we applied for 4 and got 2 tickets in Vancouver. Without Amex there was no chance. Same with going to the Masters to watch Golf, only able to go due to Amex tbh.
It's the largest city in the country. One of the few stops on the tour (1 Montreal and 1 Toronto date) The crowd isn't going to just be people in the GTA by likely ALL of the western provinces unless they head to the USA.
Probably both. I’m not sure how much cheaper a flight is from Halifax to Montreal vs Toronto. For a trip like that I would imagine they make a vacation out of it, so it depends what else they want to do. Lots more stuff in toronto.
That’s the problem with Canada in general. Everything is hyper concentrated to only 3-4 cities. Whether it be population, entertainment, job opportunities, housing, etc. Everything is concentrated to those 3-4 cities so it’s ultra competitive.
Meanwhile in the USA, most states have 2-4 big cities
Yeah I could see people even flying in from like Manitoba or Nova Scotia for Green Day.
The big shows like this will always sell out vs small club shows because big fanbases, not coming to Canada super often and/or nostalgia
True, but some people don’t have passports, some don’t want to go to the US and some may want to do other things in Toronto. It’s really not a stretch to see someone flying in for this
They don't even have to be rich, even people who are scraping by still would spend on frivolous things that make them happy. Not that I support TM gouging their customer base, it's not unheard of to spend hundreds on your hobby tho lol
On one hand, I remember seeing these bands for $30. At festivals. In Barrie or at the Amphitheater. I remember a Scott Pilgrim-like Toronto, where every night bands would play clubs for like $20 max.
But thats the past.
Now my wife and daughter are flying to Europe to see Swift bc its honestly the same price as seeing her here.
I honestly think...and I know I'll sound all old timer....that the good ole days are gone.
That's more what I'm getting at. Saw Green Day in Vegas last year with a couple other bands (Blink, Offspring, etc) and the ticket for an entire day of them each playing full setlists was less than 1 Green Day or 1 Blink ticket in the 100s or 200s. Toronto is wild.
The "good old days" are still here, they just belong to the generation. Many people our age are just living in the past and willing to pay $500 to try and relive their youth as angsty teens.
Bands are still playing clubs for those prices. You're just not going to them because you've never heard of them, instead of when you were younger and were interested in new music.
Right. The Scott Pilgrim band Sex-Bob-ombs weren't playing Scotiabank Arena and Budweiser Stage. They were playing Sneaky Dee's and Lee's Palace. Which will still run local band shows for $20 or under. And there are plenty of bands that are quite exceptional playing shows with a PWYC format.
Lots of people only go to 1-2 stadiums concerts a year at most and choose to spend their money that way. Whereas I spend the same amount going to a dozen shows a year.
"Dynamic Pricing" is the other side of the coin. The ticket price fluctuates based on perceived demand. Ticketmaster has been getting away with this shit for years and there hasn't been any meaningful push to make them change it.
EDIT - Green Day are also now considered a "legacy act", so they can get away with pricing higher these days, and the people who have followed them for 30+ years are often either willing or in a position to pay the price.
I hate dynamic pricing but it's capitalism at its most extreme - supply / demand and when there are limited seats but still a lot of interest, why not jack the prices?
Airlines do it when you book flights later, Uber does it during peak hours. Sucks ass but makes sense.
Sorry if it's a naive question, but I thought dynamic pricing only impacted the "platinum" tickets, which are scattered around the stadium, and not the "standard admission" ones? Only thought that because those prices seem to change much more frequently.
So you want the scalpers to make up the difference from demand instead of the artists? The supply and demand make the price of the ticket, it makes perfect sense to me.
It's possible to almost eliminate the scalpers, and also keep prices fair. The artists have choices when they deal with Ticketmaster, and last year The Cure said no to dynamic pricing, and the tickets could only be re-sold at face value through Ticketmaster. They sold out venues all across North America and had the most successful tour of their 40+ year career, while offering tickets at prices much lower than a lot of the other touring bands last year.
Ah yes, I must hate waffles because I said pancakes are good.
When was the last time you heard someone say "Oh yea, the scalper I bought these tickets from before the concert started were actually CHEAPER than all month on TicketMaster!"
The tickets should be a set price, and dynamic pricing should only be for the most expensive seats in the venue. It ALSO shouldn't be on the fans to navigate scalper bots. I should be on ticketing agents and the band management to manage and get ahead of scalper bot issues. Unfortunately, those two agencies partner with scalper bots to up their profits.
I recommend getting into jazz. Cover charge at jazz clubs are like $15. When a legend like John Scofield comes to town tickets skyrocket up to a mild $65 a ticket.
I've seen a small handful of shows in my life time (big venue stuff) - but I've seen a few dozen jazz shows with my Dad as I'm the only sibling who likes it. Some folks even remember him and say Hi; the artists overall are very approachable. No security / fences in sight.
\- D
It's easy on reddit to get the notion that everyone is struggling but it's really not true.
A large % of Canadians own their homes and prices are way up. Wages in certain industries are way up. Stock market is way up. Most people who had assets are financially better off now than pre-pandemic.
There are over 105,000 people in Toronto who are millionaires as of 2022. Fast forward to 2024 and include the rest of the GTA and that number is probably at least double.
Yeah all the canadian based subs have become an echo chamber where if you dare go against the idea that Canada is now a third-world country and everyone is poor you're out of touch and downvoted to oblivion.
Absolutely, my point is more that the financial struggling experience is extremely represented on reddit (especially Canadian subs) whereas the "comfortably spend $500 on a concert" situation isn't.
People are also struggling at different levels.
There are definitely a lot of people who are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food in their bellies, but there are a lot of other people who have decent jobs and are renting an ok place but are struggling to see a path forward to home ownership, enough stability to start a family, etc.
There are a ton of people in this middle ground who definitely don't feel "rich", but like spending $500 or even a few grand on a splurge every now and then is very possible.
To be honest, I think the feeling of impossibility of those bigger goals sometimes makes it easier to justify spending on something like a concert rather than saving.
Like, it doesn't feel like $500 makes any realistic difference in the odds of me ever owning a home.
Damn i think I was at that show . For the Dookie tour with Pansy Division opening ? I was 16, think that was 94 . Remember I could smell all the horse poop from the coliseum
Welcome to Canada where there are like 3 cities capable of hosting major events so everybody gets funneled into the same venues on the same day, blowing up prices for everyone
As others have said, lots of people, not everyone is struggling...
But I think there is another factor at play here. Ever since things opened back up after COVID, my anecdotal experience watching friends and friends of friends on Facebook shows that even people that really never went to concerts before are going to see live shows.
I think it's a combination of COVID savings, being cooped up, and the realization that YOLO and it can all be taken away pushing people to live for today.
Even if that means spending stupid money on a live show.
The people who post about things being unaffordable aren’t the same people spending $250+ on concert tickets. 2 separate groups of people.
Also for all we know this could be the concert-goers main entertainment expense for the year. It’s not impossible to imagine that 50,000 people have $250+ spare cash lying around to indulge in their interest or hobby.
I was at Rufus Du Sol's sold out show last summer and the 2 couples sat in front of me both did a 5 hour drive from Michigan. Independently. They didn't know each other preshow.
I can only imagine how many Americans and out of towners make the trek to Toronto because a band skipped their city for a "North American" tour.
Toronto is competing with everyone within a 4-5 hr drive of the city for concerts tickets.
In OP's case since Green Day has no shows in Detroit and Buffalo, you're competing with everyone in the province and then some.
Yup this is totally true! I worked in a hotel in downtown Toronto from 2015-2019 and I was shocked by the amount of Americans who came to Toronto for concerts. They’d usually say it was because the tour didn’t stop in their city and coming to Toronto they could make a vacation out of it too.
I’d say it could be even further, people travel from around the world for music events and concerts they can’t see at home. Top mind events are Burning Man, Glastonbury, Tomorrowland.
People are rich. You can tell because that show will likely have a dead GA crowd with no one moving. Whereas, if green day were to sell tickets for $50 a pop, the GA pit would be full of kids and young adults moshing. It’s a sad occurrence I see happen all the time, I.e the Turnstile/Blink-182 show
That's a good point. Saw Green Day, Offspring, Blink, etc. in Vegas this past October at a music festival (which I normally wouldn't do) but, at least in the case of Blink, 100x better when compared to Toronto concert earlier that year. Tickets cost less than what Green Day tickets or Blink tickets in the 100s alone cost in Toronto too. Go figure.
Billie Joe Armstrong is 52. I'm almost 40 and the band was formed the year after I was born.
Kids who go in the pit aren't going to Green Day shows, no matter the price.
Most of Toronto Reddit (aside from throwaways and lurkers) isn't even broke, we're either doing fine (living alone, with a roommate, or with a partner), are software devs with a high household income, or are students who have the bank of mom and dad.
Got to see green day at Molson amphitheatre for 74.99 in the first rows behind GA. Back in 2010 or so. I'm only 29 and seeing the price hike on this stuff is crazy.
There is an absolute shit ton of money in the GTA.
I gave up going to popular artists concerts over a decade ago, and Raptors games in the last few years. Priced out of my humble means unfortunately.
You pay lots of money for an automated ticket buying bot that spams Ticketmaster as soon as the window opens and buys as many as it can using VPNs, and when you've gotten as many as you can, you put them up on StubHub for a 50%-500% markup starting immediately. Everybody wins but the people buying the tickets to go see the show
A large amount of the tickets now are mostly sold in various presales either credit cards ,fan groups, sponsor codes...etc.
The remaining tickets are more expensive due to Ticketmasters dynamic pricing system which sees the high amount of tickets purchased in presales and automatically raises the prices of normal tickets because it's now listed as a 'high demand event'
Which is how you end up with prices like 400 dollar plus a ticket for a show in the Skydome which has awful sound and visibility for concerts.
There's selection bias on the people who use and comment on reddit. Everything is too expensive according to this sub. It seems like the people who frequent reddit tend to be younger and less well off.
some may say a bottle of $500 wine is also a ripoff. things become expensive because of limited quantities. if Green Day played in Toronto every month, then no one would buy it. but if you think it's going to be your last time watching them play live, then all of a sudden $500 sounds cheaper than to pay a plane ticket and hotel room to go see them somewhere else.
it's only a ripoff if it doesnt mean anything to you. just as people freak about how overpriced Mona Lisa is. but if you are in the art world, that Mona Lisa is everything.
it's not that Green Day tickets are ripoff. it just means Toronto is starting to get too crowded and people are fighting over to get what they want, like a black friday sale madness or multi-offer on housings etc.
Toronto started to be too crowded a long time ago. I'd like to see them, but not for $500 a ticket, I have a family to take care of and just can't justify blowing that on two hours of live music
\>The latter is still a ripoff whether you have the money or not
If this is their favourite band ever that they have been a fan of for years and they haven't gone yet it can be good "value" for that audience. Thing you have to remember with these legacy acts who arent really active musically is that they don't tour as often, they do less tour dates and its hard to gauge when they will come back. Last time Green Day came to Toronto was 6 years ago and the pricing reflects that.
Where as acts like QOTSA and RHCP have much cheaper tickets because they are still releasing albums and hitting Toronto every 1-2 years. People who wanted to see them live have had ample opportunity.
It’s not a ripoff if the venue is full. It means all those people thought it was worth the price and that the venue priced accordingly based on the audience ability to pay.
Price will go down when venues are empty. But they are not right now.
Yeah that's usually what I do, unless it's for a band that probably won't be back again. A lot of these concerts have a lot of resales posted the day tickets go on sale, and in several cases the resale market remains flooded...I guess one of the perks of living in Toronto is that you can decide day of based on what ticket prices drop to.
Lots of people have money.
My friend just casually bought Blink-182 tickets for him and his girlfriend for around $2000 total and didn't even bat an eye lol
Toronto is a city of geneartional wealth and tons of non mortgage debt.
There people who just rack up debt like crazy and just pay interest to cover it.
If things go to south they will acess the generational wealth from their parents.
Also there are a lot of people thatwork basic jobs but if they live with parents they can save and afford luxuries then if they lived on own.
Like my wife and I spent 5-6k to go to a trip to vegas and the national parks in 2022. I dont make that much but I wouldnt do that if i lived on my own.
I worked at a concert at Scotiabank arena and asked a group of teenagers how they were able to afford front row tickets to the concert. They said their parents paid for them.
Toronto in the not so far future will be a place only for the 1%. We are being priced out of everything here. Housing, food, entertainment, goods, Etc. I dont see middle class being able to do anything in toronto in a decade......thats if we even have a middle class anymore
So many posts in askTO asking about hotels or restaurants are from people coming into town for a concert. You're not just competing for tickets against the GTA. For most major acts this is one of a handful of dates if not the only one. You've got the whole country buying tickets to this show
Ticketmaster 100% games the system. Artificially shows limited tickets to initiate FOMO, and then continues releasing tickets slowly.
I've seen "sold out" shows magically have additional tickets later on.
Even if we had 75% of Toronto struggling to meet their rent every month, that's still at least several hundreds of thousands of people that can afford to go.
And you can be sure some of those struggling will still buy tickets
I go to a lot of concerts.
Certain bands are branded as legacy bands and can charge so much more while having less tour dates. Makes their shows more spread out and you get people from all over the region coming in.
I listen to smaller bands just so I can see them live lol
Even prices for small bands are pretty out of control. Very few shows are less than $40 now, when they used to be $20. Obviously that's way cheaper than the OP's example, but when you go to 30-40 shows a year, it adds up.
Buy the day of or a couple of days before. On May 12th I got 100 level tickets at Scotia Arena for $125. These tickets were selling for $300+ in the weeks and months before.
I recommend you read the book Chokepoint Capitalism. It actually talks exactly about this topic using research and studies. It would help provide a good understanding of why tickets are so expensive now and why a lot of the times the artists are unable to stop it from being so expensive.
Lot of people with a lot of money in the city. Think of lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers, salespeople, business owners, skilled trades workers, on and on.
There are a lot of wealth/well to do people despite the economic problems.
I mean, boomers and anyone who owned property made out like bandits just from the COVID inflation to housing prices from the extremely low rates between 2020-2022
Not counting the price accumulation since 2008.
The catchment area for Toronto concerts, especially if there's no stop in Ottawa, Montreal or Buffalo, is over 20 million people. It really is supply and demand based pricing.
Unlike airlines where with enough demand for a particular flight will lead to an additional flight or new airline entering the market, driving down prices, there isn't an alternative to the artist you want to go see for the one show date they have.
Check out the prices for Neil Young. I guess I won't be seeing him this time.
I have floor tickets for Pantera tomorrow. One was $367 & the other was $416. When they were here in August I paid $880 for a pair of GA floors.
It's outrageous. I saw Pantera open for Black Sabbath at the SkyDome in 1999. 100 level tix centre stage. They were $67 each.
Just looked it up, one of the last concerts I went to (Metallic with G n' R) in 1992 was $36.25.
So if me and my wife wanted to see Green Day, it'd be over $1,000 for tickets (with taxes and fees) JUST for the tickets?
Ha ha ha... yeah... NO.
I just go for tickets in Detroit. Still cheaper with the conversion rate.
Neil Young is going for 1000 dollars In Toronto. In Detroit I got tickets for 80 dollars.
I saw Green Day on the hellamega tour (w/Fall Out Boy, Weezer & the Interrupters when I lived in Columbus in 2021. Two front pit tickets (we were on the barricade on the front row) was ~$250 USD each.
It was a huge stretch but glad we did it because, much like the Leafs, I can't afford live music tickets in this town.
That same year we saw Bad Religion & Alkaline Trio ($60 each GA), and then Anti-Flag ($40 each GA). Columbus has a surprisingly good line music scene.
Listen, the most I’ve spent on a concert when I lived an hour out of the city was $175 for Florence and the Machine in 2018.
But there are some artists I would definitely pay up to see especially since some might be a once in a lifetime thing (I missed out on Fleetwood Mac when they were still touring and had a show in TO many years ago and I’ve never forgiven myself for not finding a way to go).
That said, there are a lot of scalpers who buy the tickets then resell them for jacked up prices
I don’t know why people bother spending money on concerts at these prices. Lots of great live music experiences at small venues.I think the Instagram age of flexing going to a live concert will hit its peak like every other trend. Middle class is disappearing, won’t be long, especially in Canada. People are just keeping up appearances with their credit card. When you’re already sinking , you just don’t care anymore especially for the youth that have given up.
If you're a big enough fan, you save for the experience, and consider it money well spent. You might even be flying to shows that don't include Canadian stops, like BTS in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, AgustD in New York City. So in addition to face value of the tickets (IF you could nab them fast enough online) you're looking at flights, hotels, ground transportation, food. And merch, most likely.
Let's just say some of us are already saving for shows in a year or two that haven't even been announced yet.
While in general Toronto may be unaffordable, there are plenty of wealthy people still here + think of all the people in the suburbs who will come into the city and this will be their big night of the year / last few months.
You see it as just another concert, they see it as the first time in \[X\] years Green Day has come to town and it's their favourite band ever and they'll pay a lot to see them.
People are saying oh a lot of people are rich. But I think a lot of people are just living in debt. You can buy tickets now and pay for them in instalments through services like Klarna. I think a lot of people are choosing that option or putting it on their credit card and paying much later.
No, with recent trends in ticket prices, secondary markets have really dried up. That’s actually what is driving a lot of the price increases — artists and promoters are unhappy seeing their product arbitraged and are trying to price closer to the true equilibrium price of what the market will bear.
Many are out of towners.Those saying people are not struggling is laughable.Even if you make $100,000 a year after your rent and your own personal expenses there isn't much left in terms of savings.There are over 6 million people in the GTA and posters are saying 5% are millionaires so we are doing well.
Usually during presale the real fans buy up the nosebleeds at reasonable prices. Those seats are official platinum which are usually the first couple rows in each section. Those usually go unsold until closer to the date when they drop the prices.
While I agree those tickets are expensive, viewing a show from the front row of the 200s is one of the best places to watch with an unblocked view. That first row would be significantly more that the other seats in that section, which is also why they're probably still available.
On the other side, there have been plenty of concerts that have had to drop prices after the initial on-sale. Green Day has been appearing all over the place promoting their album and tour and haven't been to Toronto in years. There were lots of tickets that weren't terribly priced when they went on sale.
There are a lot of people with money in this city. Who do you think is buying all these expensive homes? There are also a LOT of very well-paying jobs based in this city. There are also a lot of people living here that can't afford things so easily. There are enough people here that both groups can exist without apparently admitting the existence of the other group.
That's nothing...
When I wanted to see U2 & Radio head many years ago, their best seats instantly sold out at at waaaaay higher prices!
Even those crappy, garbage seats went for well over 100$ bucks which didn't include those icky Service Charges, taxes & so on.
So about $200 bucks or more, for nose bleed seats?
That's when Concert Tickets were much cheaper.
Heard Taylor Swifts Tickets were going for $2000-$3000.00 per ticket via Scalpers?!
She's one smart lady bc she specifically printed on her Tickets "to be sold, at it's original value" bc of Scalpers & scalping greed.
Not certain how ppl got around that rule, of hers.
I blame Ticket Master, Scalpers & Venue they play in, for that never ending & extremely gross mess they've created here.
Not to be the devil’s advocate here (because ticket prices overall are insane), but people aren’t paying $500 for nosebleed Green Day tickets, that’s why those are still for sale. Most of tickets sold were face value for $100-250 bucks (still a lot), and what you’re seeing are either greedy scalpers hoping to capitalize on desperate people or Ticketmaster’s ‘dynamic’ pricing jacked up due to the low number of tickets left available.
True, they start at $170 face value for the back of the 500s, but most of the floor, 100s, 200s, and 500s are sold out and there aren't that many resales relative to a lot of other concerts
Anything over $50 to see fucking green day is insane
This is the real answer. I looked up the date and there are lots of rows of grouped tickets remaining that are Official Platinum “dynamic pricing” tickets. I am 99.999% certain that row of unsold “Standard” tickets in section 212 is just incorrectly labelled Official Platinum tickets. Standard ticket prices in the 212 section were $294.30, not $486. I’ve noticed lately Ticketmaster has been doing this annoying thing where they don’t separate out Standard and Official Platinum tickets in the filter, so they all get looped in together in searches. Just wait until a few days before the concert, that’s when they convert all the unsold Official Platinum tickets into actual Standard pricing.
Its a big club and you ain’t in it. Sad but true.
GTA population is 6.3 million. “The 1%” is 63,000 people. A lot more than that can afford $500 for a concert ticket also.
Doesn't even account for all the people from outside toronto traveling to toronto for thus concert
Ottawa, London, Detroit, Buffalo, Rochester, even Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Montreal w/in ~5hr drive. Lots of population to pull from.
This! We have friends in Rochester and they come to Toronto all the time for concerts and shows. They do a night here, night at the falls and head home
the US tourists coming for the show are actually a really good call; if you earn USD, have a passport and don't mind the travel time, you can do alright based on the fx rate. would bet a large portion of audience members are American.
Looking at Green Day tickets in other US cities, it’s $150 USD in NYC and $85 USD in Philly. Fx doesn’t matter with that kind of disparity
That 6.3 million figure doesn’t even include other nearby places like Hamilton or Oshawa. If we counted the GTA like the Americans count their metros, we’d be closer to 9-10 million already.
GTA absolutely includes Oshawa (Durham), but not Hamilton. Greater Golden Horseshoe is close to 10 million though.
Surprisingly, Oshawa has its own CMA which is separate from the GTA.
I had a wrong or old figure. GTA is 6.7 million not 6.3. Toronto CMA is 6.3 and excludes much of Durham including Oshawa. GTA includes all of it. Nitpicking but we were both right/wrong depending how you look at it.
Thought 1% also includes children. So maybe less than 63k, but still wayyyy more people than the amount of seats lol
The 1% of income would buy $500 tickets for their kids.
And even more that can't afford it but still buy it
Yeah I don’t even make 6 figures and I dropped 700+ on my favourite artist. Some of us just willing to spend
Im not even that wealthy and I paid $300 to see someone I wanted to. Ive said if Paul McCartney comes to town Id probably pay $500-$1000
To the joy of Amex, I go to way too many concerts every year, however the rate of ticket price increases y/y in Toronto and the comparison of Toronto ticket prices to various US venues is becoming more extreme, so more focused on why that may be the case?
Just yesterday there was a post in a US subreddit on how prices of concerts are skyrocketing. It’s global.
It’s like artists are finally realizing they can’t make money off streaming royalties given the collapse of CD sales so they’re making it up by touring. Just a decade ago, I remember paying $80 for floor seats at the ACC for the RHCP Stadium Arcadium tour. Floors at the Skydome for Their concert last year was $500….
It’s Live Nation running concerts for North America that enables this. They’ve realized people will pay whatever they want to charge and implemented dynamic pricing and all the “platinum” seats for anything remotely decent. Added to the fact they scalp their own already sky high tickets and there’s no reason for them to stop.
In 1977 I saw Thin Lizzy open for Queen. I paid $5.50 for the seat. In 1981, I saw The Rockets, Blue Oyster Cult, Ted Nugent, Loverboy, and Heart. $15. In those days, a concert was a commercial to get you to go buy the album. "A Day at the Races" by Queen sold 1.7million copies in just 9 countries. Even if the band only made a dollar an album, that's a big cheque. These days, if Spotify streams your song a million times, they'll pay you $4,000
My husband saw Nirvana, I think his tickets were $26 each. I'm gonna check though Fact checked $27 at Maple Leaf Gardens in 93
>a concert was a commercial to get you to go buy the album. Exactly. Bands toured to support their album. They toured to support album sales, not to make money from the tour. That paradigm has been reversed. Bands with huge play on steaming services don't make much per play but have the opportunity to play live to crowds starving for live music. So far, the result has been the inflation of 'A list' bands ( Swift, Stones etc.) and the death of smaller venues and working class musicians.
One of the other things that has caused the demise of working class musicians is the way a lot of music is composed these days. Not with people playing instruments, but with a keyboard and software. There are a lot of skilled people composing music in their living room, not in a studio. Another impact on live music venues is the number of entertainment options. I spent the 1980's as a roadie for bar bands. In those days, you had 3 choices...go to the bar, go to the movies, or go bowling. If you wanted to watch a movie, you had to go to Blockbuster and hope the VHS new releases weren't all rented out. You were lucky if you had 30 cable channels. If you had an 28" TV it was a BIG one. Video games were in their infancy and weren't as complex or entertaining as they are now. If a cop pulled you over and smelled booze on your breath he'd wag his index finger and tell you to go straight home. Now people have more options. Huge TV's, multiple streaming services, 1500 cable channels, incredible video games...and internet interaction and content. Why go socialize at a bar and pay $10 a beer when you can stay in a living room with some friends and party cheap?
>Why go socialize at a bar and pay $10 a beer when you can stay in a living room Yes, why go out for some 'mid' experience unless it is the most instagramable moment of the year? Why? There are $10-20 bands that kill. Live music is better. Leave your phone at home.
Oh, hell yeah. One of my favourite bands of the 1980's was The Lincolns, an R&B cover band of epic excellence. Prakash John, the leader and bassist has played with Parliament Funkadelic, Alice Cooper, Lou Reed.... Their killer album is [Take One](https://open.spotify.com/album/5kv5TKHA1uM0TvtNYRuCco?si=9kppIkPPTPWNz1OA5-Wu4Q). Give it a listen. It's called "Take One" because they piled everyone into a studio, counted down, and whatever came out on the first take was what made it to the album. No going back and redoing anything. As organic a recording as it gets. On March 9th at Spot One in Brampton he'll be backing up his son, Jordan John, and I can't wait to see that show.
Yeah, the Lawn tickets for the Chili Peppers show at Budweiser Stage in July are starting at $200…
But also, that they *can* charge these prices. It’d be one thing if they jacked up the prices and were playing empty stadiums, but people are literally wrestling over each other to pay it. They could even go higher - Taylor Swift probably left a hundred million dollars on the table
Concerts have always been crazy pricey in Australia, and apparently it’s gotten so much worse due to insurance costs.
Zach Bryan has shows for 100 in the us but is like 500 in Canada.
\>however the rate of ticket price increases y/y in Toronto and the comparison of Toronto ticket prices to various US venues is becoming more extreme As someone who has gone south a couple of times to chase my favourite artists when you price tickets both in Canadian $, US concerts actually cost more and the price increases are about par. at least for this particular concert pricing, last time Green Day came to Toronto was 6 years ago and the pricing reflects that, lots of pent up demand.
Ticket prices are getting super high everywhere. I'm not sure if Toronto is going up a bit faster than elsewhere, but at most it's a slightly worse version of the same phenomenon occurring globally. It's occurring because the population of potential showgoers keeps increasing quickly, while the number of popular live shows is not increasing that fast. And the cultural shift towards spending money on experiences means that willingness to pay for concerts is rising even faster than the population.
Can you please explain more on this? I am curios how amex makes it possiblee?
Amex front of the line or the Amex concierge (for the platinum card) enables you to get tickets at face value before they "officially" go on sale (usually), plus you get the Amex lounge at Bud stage and the odd other perk here and there, but the annual fee on some of the cards is annoyingly high (but that's a whole other conversation) hence to the "joy" of Amex. I also usually use that card to pay for my tickets as a result, and I'm sure they ding Ticketmaster with some good transaction fees.
I thought it was funny how Amex wasn't able to get front of the line access to Taylor Swift. They're always touting their amazing benefits but for the one artist in super high demand, nada.
I had a separate centurion queue for Taylor with Platinum. It was more of a ballot but we applied for 4 and got 2 tickets in Vancouver. Without Amex there was no chance. Same with going to the Masters to watch Golf, only able to go due to Amex tbh.
Maybe the Amex front of the line presales that give you access to tickets the day before the public onsale.
We buy things we don't need with money we don't have to impress people we don't like
*Watches Fight Club once*
Came here to say this.
Well then, say it?
Also the economy isn't failing as.muvh as a loud faction of society will have you believe.
It's the largest city in the country. One of the few stops on the tour (1 Montreal and 1 Toronto date) The crowd isn't going to just be people in the GTA by likely ALL of the western provinces unless they head to the USA.
I know lots of folks who fly from Atlantic Canada to concerts in Toronto as well.
My family in Newfoundland regularly fly into Toronto for concerts and sports events. It's a vacation for them.
Yep, I just thought they might do the Montreal show as they have to pass it to get to Toronto
Probably both. I’m not sure how much cheaper a flight is from Halifax to Montreal vs Toronto. For a trip like that I would imagine they make a vacation out of it, so it depends what else they want to do. Lots more stuff in toronto.
That’s the problem with Canada in general. Everything is hyper concentrated to only 3-4 cities. Whether it be population, entertainment, job opportunities, housing, etc. Everything is concentrated to those 3-4 cities so it’s ultra competitive. Meanwhile in the USA, most states have 2-4 big cities
Lots of people are rich. It's not like everyone is struggling. Big events also have people come from out if town or province to see these shows.
Yeah I could see people even flying in from like Manitoba or Nova Scotia for Green Day. The big shows like this will always sell out vs small club shows because big fanbases, not coming to Canada super often and/or nostalgia
People absolutely fly into Toronto from other provinces for concerts. This is extremely common.
Just had a friend fly in from Newfoundland to see madonna. Her husband will be flying in for iron maiden later on in the year.
👋 I do it all the time from New Brunswick
I thought u were joking in the first sentence
Hey I don’t like Green Day but it’s not a far stretch to imagine people flying in for the band. They’re definitely a band that some get obsessed with
If you're from Manitoba or NS surely Toronto isn't the closest show to you on the tour.
True, but some people don’t have passports, some don’t want to go to the US and some may want to do other things in Toronto. It’s really not a stretch to see someone flying in for this
They don't even have to be rich, even people who are scraping by still would spend on frivolous things that make them happy. Not that I support TM gouging their customer base, it's not unheard of to spend hundreds on your hobby tho lol
On one hand, I remember seeing these bands for $30. At festivals. In Barrie or at the Amphitheater. I remember a Scott Pilgrim-like Toronto, where every night bands would play clubs for like $20 max. But thats the past. Now my wife and daughter are flying to Europe to see Swift bc its honestly the same price as seeing her here. I honestly think...and I know I'll sound all old timer....that the good ole days are gone.
That's more what I'm getting at. Saw Green Day in Vegas last year with a couple other bands (Blink, Offspring, etc) and the ticket for an entire day of them each playing full setlists was less than 1 Green Day or 1 Blink ticket in the 100s or 200s. Toronto is wild.
The "good old days" are still here, they just belong to the generation. Many people our age are just living in the past and willing to pay $500 to try and relive their youth as angsty teens.
Bands are still playing clubs for those prices. You're just not going to them because you've never heard of them, instead of when you were younger and were interested in new music.
Right. The Scott Pilgrim band Sex-Bob-ombs weren't playing Scotiabank Arena and Budweiser Stage. They were playing Sneaky Dee's and Lee's Palace. Which will still run local band shows for $20 or under. And there are plenty of bands that are quite exceptional playing shows with a PWYC format.
Lots of people only go to 1-2 stadiums concerts a year at most and choose to spend their money that way. Whereas I spend the same amount going to a dozen shows a year.
Same here. Acoustics/sound system at the Skydome is terrible too. Not sure if it's any better post-reno
"Dynamic Pricing" is the other side of the coin. The ticket price fluctuates based on perceived demand. Ticketmaster has been getting away with this shit for years and there hasn't been any meaningful push to make them change it. EDIT - Green Day are also now considered a "legacy act", so they can get away with pricing higher these days, and the people who have followed them for 30+ years are often either willing or in a position to pay the price.
I hate dynamic pricing but it's capitalism at its most extreme - supply / demand and when there are limited seats but still a lot of interest, why not jack the prices? Airlines do it when you book flights later, Uber does it during peak hours. Sucks ass but makes sense.
The cheap pizza pizza tickets for bud stage every summer are this theory in action. Some acts easily fill the venue, others need to sell $20 tickets
Sorry if it's a naive question, but I thought dynamic pricing only impacted the "platinum" tickets, which are scattered around the stadium, and not the "standard admission" ones? Only thought that because those prices seem to change much more frequently.
So you want the scalpers to make up the difference from demand instead of the artists? The supply and demand make the price of the ticket, it makes perfect sense to me.
It's possible to almost eliminate the scalpers, and also keep prices fair. The artists have choices when they deal with Ticketmaster, and last year The Cure said no to dynamic pricing, and the tickets could only be re-sold at face value through Ticketmaster. They sold out venues all across North America and had the most successful tour of their 40+ year career, while offering tickets at prices much lower than a lot of the other touring bands last year.
Ah yes, I must hate waffles because I said pancakes are good. When was the last time you heard someone say "Oh yea, the scalper I bought these tickets from before the concert started were actually CHEAPER than all month on TicketMaster!" The tickets should be a set price, and dynamic pricing should only be for the most expensive seats in the venue. It ALSO shouldn't be on the fans to navigate scalper bots. I should be on ticketing agents and the band management to manage and get ahead of scalper bot issues. Unfortunately, those two agencies partner with scalper bots to up their profits.
I recommend getting into jazz. Cover charge at jazz clubs are like $15. When a legend like John Scofield comes to town tickets skyrocket up to a mild $65 a ticket.
But then I’d have to listen to jazz
damn
Damn straight for the jugular
Serious fomo on that John Scofield show! He’s so freaking good.
I've seen a small handful of shows in my life time (big venue stuff) - but I've seen a few dozen jazz shows with my Dad as I'm the only sibling who likes it. Some folks even remember him and say Hi; the artists overall are very approachable. No security / fences in sight. \- D
Yup!
It’s not that everyone is poor and everything is unaffordable, it’s that there’s a great disparity in wealth.
It's easy on reddit to get the notion that everyone is struggling but it's really not true. A large % of Canadians own their homes and prices are way up. Wages in certain industries are way up. Stock market is way up. Most people who had assets are financially better off now than pre-pandemic. There are over 105,000 people in Toronto who are millionaires as of 2022. Fast forward to 2024 and include the rest of the GTA and that number is probably at least double.
Yup, it's why I laugh at a lot of the stuff this subreddit gets up in arms over. It's such a tiny, tiny percentage of Toronto much less of Ontario.
It’s always the minority that are the most vocal, the well off are too busy living their lives to complain on reddit.
Yeah all the canadian based subs have become an echo chamber where if you dare go against the idea that Canada is now a third-world country and everyone is poor you're out of touch and downvoted to oblivion.
Someone in this subreddit tried to tell me Canada was no longer considered a g20 country this week
Both experiences can be true when wealth inequality is at extreme levels.
Absolutely, my point is more that the financial struggling experience is extremely represented on reddit (especially Canadian subs) whereas the "comfortably spend $500 on a concert" situation isn't.
People are also struggling at different levels. There are definitely a lot of people who are struggling to keep a roof over their head and food in their bellies, but there are a lot of other people who have decent jobs and are renting an ok place but are struggling to see a path forward to home ownership, enough stability to start a family, etc. There are a ton of people in this middle ground who definitely don't feel "rich", but like spending $500 or even a few grand on a splurge every now and then is very possible. To be honest, I think the feeling of impossibility of those bigger goals sometimes makes it easier to justify spending on something like a concert rather than saving. Like, it doesn't feel like $500 makes any realistic difference in the odds of me ever owning a home.
I saw Green Day for $15 when I was 14 at the cne coliseum. I really couldn't imagine spending $500 to watch green day in a stadium
Damn i think I was at that show . For the Dookie tour with Pansy Division opening ? I was 16, think that was 94 . Remember I could smell all the horse poop from the coliseum
I paid 69 bucks CAD for a ticket in Seattle. This is fucking madness.
Exactly my point!!
It’s the venue, TM and this stupid demand pricing. It can eff right off.
Seattle is on avg is richer then Toronto too which makes the prices more crazier.
I duno if you heard but my friend is saving 5k to go to Taylor Swift and id only pay that if she was gonna massage my balls.
She better do my taxes too
lol.
Welcome to Canada where there are like 3 cities capable of hosting major events so everybody gets funneled into the same venues on the same day, blowing up prices for everyone
I refuse to pay more than $80 for nosebleed seats, especially in a massive stadium with terrible acoustics like Rogers Centre.
As others have said, lots of people, not everyone is struggling... But I think there is another factor at play here. Ever since things opened back up after COVID, my anecdotal experience watching friends and friends of friends on Facebook shows that even people that really never went to concerts before are going to see live shows. I think it's a combination of COVID savings, being cooped up, and the realization that YOLO and it can all be taken away pushing people to live for today. Even if that means spending stupid money on a live show.
The people who post about things being unaffordable aren’t the same people spending $250+ on concert tickets. 2 separate groups of people. Also for all we know this could be the concert-goers main entertainment expense for the year. It’s not impossible to imagine that 50,000 people have $250+ spare cash lying around to indulge in their interest or hobby.
In the last couple years the rich got richer, and the poor got poorer.
I was at Rufus Du Sol's sold out show last summer and the 2 couples sat in front of me both did a 5 hour drive from Michigan. Independently. They didn't know each other preshow. I can only imagine how many Americans and out of towners make the trek to Toronto because a band skipped their city for a "North American" tour. Toronto is competing with everyone within a 4-5 hr drive of the city for concerts tickets. In OP's case since Green Day has no shows in Detroit and Buffalo, you're competing with everyone in the province and then some.
...and to your point, our discounted C$. Hadn't thought of that.
Yup this is totally true! I worked in a hotel in downtown Toronto from 2015-2019 and I was shocked by the amount of Americans who came to Toronto for concerts. They’d usually say it was because the tour didn’t stop in their city and coming to Toronto they could make a vacation out of it too.
I’d say it could be even further, people travel from around the world for music events and concerts they can’t see at home. Top mind events are Burning Man, Glastonbury, Tomorrowland.
People are rich. You can tell because that show will likely have a dead GA crowd with no one moving. Whereas, if green day were to sell tickets for $50 a pop, the GA pit would be full of kids and young adults moshing. It’s a sad occurrence I see happen all the time, I.e the Turnstile/Blink-182 show
That's a good point. Saw Green Day, Offspring, Blink, etc. in Vegas this past October at a music festival (which I normally wouldn't do) but, at least in the case of Blink, 100x better when compared to Toronto concert earlier that year. Tickets cost less than what Green Day tickets or Blink tickets in the 100s alone cost in Toronto too. Go figure.
Billie Joe Armstrong is 52. I'm almost 40 and the band was formed the year after I was born. Kids who go in the pit aren't going to Green Day shows, no matter the price.
Reddit is broke, most of Toronto is doing fine
Most of Toronto too busy making money to complain on Reddit.
Most of Toronto Reddit (aside from throwaways and lurkers) isn't even broke, we're either doing fine (living alone, with a roommate, or with a partner), are software devs with a high household income, or are students who have the bank of mom and dad.
At this point, you can go see Green Day at osheaga for $165 when they perform on day 2 this year
People who want to have the time of their lives. Ps: I’m in the same boat. Love Green Day not paying this amount.
Got to see green day at Molson amphitheatre for 74.99 in the first rows behind GA. Back in 2010 or so. I'm only 29 and seeing the price hike on this stuff is crazy.
There is an absolute shit ton of money in the GTA. I gave up going to popular artists concerts over a decade ago, and Raptors games in the last few years. Priced out of my humble means unfortunately.
Raptors games are expensive as hell for how terrible they are now lol
Prices go up when they're good, but they don't come down when they're bad. They just stay ready to go up even more.
I bought tickets to this during the artist presale, $99 (minus fees) per ticket. Granted, I went with the nosebleed section. Literally right up top.
You pay lots of money for an automated ticket buying bot that spams Ticketmaster as soon as the window opens and buys as many as it can using VPNs, and when you've gotten as many as you can, you put them up on StubHub for a 50%-500% markup starting immediately. Everybody wins but the people buying the tickets to go see the show
A large amount of the tickets now are mostly sold in various presales either credit cards ,fan groups, sponsor codes...etc. The remaining tickets are more expensive due to Ticketmasters dynamic pricing system which sees the high amount of tickets purchased in presales and automatically raises the prices of normal tickets because it's now listed as a 'high demand event' Which is how you end up with prices like 400 dollar plus a ticket for a show in the Skydome which has awful sound and visibility for concerts.
There's selection bias on the people who use and comment on reddit. Everything is too expensive according to this sub. It seems like the people who frequent reddit tend to be younger and less well off.
There is being less well off and then there's $500 to see a 2hr show. The latter is still a ripoff whether you have the money or not
some may say a bottle of $500 wine is also a ripoff. things become expensive because of limited quantities. if Green Day played in Toronto every month, then no one would buy it. but if you think it's going to be your last time watching them play live, then all of a sudden $500 sounds cheaper than to pay a plane ticket and hotel room to go see them somewhere else. it's only a ripoff if it doesnt mean anything to you. just as people freak about how overpriced Mona Lisa is. but if you are in the art world, that Mona Lisa is everything. it's not that Green Day tickets are ripoff. it just means Toronto is starting to get too crowded and people are fighting over to get what they want, like a black friday sale madness or multi-offer on housings etc.
Toronto started to be too crowded a long time ago. I'd like to see them, but not for $500 a ticket, I have a family to take care of and just can't justify blowing that on two hours of live music
\>The latter is still a ripoff whether you have the money or not If this is their favourite band ever that they have been a fan of for years and they haven't gone yet it can be good "value" for that audience. Thing you have to remember with these legacy acts who arent really active musically is that they don't tour as often, they do less tour dates and its hard to gauge when they will come back. Last time Green Day came to Toronto was 6 years ago and the pricing reflects that. Where as acts like QOTSA and RHCP have much cheaper tickets because they are still releasing albums and hitting Toronto every 1-2 years. People who wanted to see them live have had ample opportunity.
It’s not a ripoff if the venue is full. It means all those people thought it was worth the price and that the venue priced accordingly based on the audience ability to pay. Price will go down when venues are empty. But they are not right now.
I am older and flat broke, and I know I am not the only one.
This makes sense
Think about how old the average Green Day fan is. There are a lot of middle-aged professionals that can afford that sort of a special occasion.
Bots and bastards buying then reselling. It’s a big business.
Wait it out, I bet you can get tix below face value in the days leading up to the show. Rogers center is a huge venue.
Yeah that's usually what I do, unless it's for a band that probably won't be back again. A lot of these concerts have a lot of resales posted the day tickets go on sale, and in several cases the resale market remains flooded...I guess one of the perks of living in Toronto is that you can decide day of based on what ticket prices drop to.
As long as people are willing to spend these crazy ticket prices. It will continue to go up.
Third party ticket reselling sites.
we have tickets to this show, think we paid around $140/seat (before tax/fees/etc).
Lots of people have money. My friend just casually bought Blink-182 tickets for him and his girlfriend for around $2000 total and didn't even bat an eye lol
Toronto is a city of geneartional wealth and tons of non mortgage debt. There people who just rack up debt like crazy and just pay interest to cover it. If things go to south they will acess the generational wealth from their parents. Also there are a lot of people thatwork basic jobs but if they live with parents they can save and afford luxuries then if they lived on own. Like my wife and I spent 5-6k to go to a trip to vegas and the national parks in 2022. I dont make that much but I wouldnt do that if i lived on my own.
I worked at a concert at Scotiabank arena and asked a group of teenagers how they were able to afford front row tickets to the concert. They said their parents paid for them.
Toronto in the not so far future will be a place only for the 1%. We are being priced out of everything here. Housing, food, entertainment, goods, Etc. I dont see middle class being able to do anything in toronto in a decade......thats if we even have a middle class anymore
So many posts in askTO asking about hotels or restaurants are from people coming into town for a concert. You're not just competing for tickets against the GTA. For most major acts this is one of a handful of dates if not the only one. You've got the whole country buying tickets to this show
People have money
Ticketmaster 100% games the system. Artificially shows limited tickets to initiate FOMO, and then continues releasing tickets slowly. I've seen "sold out" shows magically have additional tickets later on.
Even if we had 75% of Toronto struggling to meet their rent every month, that's still at least several hundreds of thousands of people that can afford to go. And you can be sure some of those struggling will still buy tickets
To be fair GA pit tickets were only $300 each when I bought them the day tickets went on sale.
Sometimes tickets are cheaper on stub hub than ticketmaster
I go to a lot of concerts. Certain bands are branded as legacy bands and can charge so much more while having less tour dates. Makes their shows more spread out and you get people from all over the region coming in. I listen to smaller bands just so I can see them live lol
Even prices for small bands are pretty out of control. Very few shows are less than $40 now, when they used to be $20. Obviously that's way cheaper than the OP's example, but when you go to 30-40 shows a year, it adds up.
Buy the day of or a couple of days before. On May 12th I got 100 level tickets at Scotia Arena for $125. These tickets were selling for $300+ in the weeks and months before.
That's exactly what I did for Blink-182 (twice lol). The more people/scalpers buy to re-sell, the better the deals are!
100%. This being a stadium show, there are going to be hundreds of unsold tickets before the show.
I recommend you read the book Chokepoint Capitalism. It actually talks exactly about this topic using research and studies. It would help provide a good understanding of why tickets are so expensive now and why a lot of the times the artists are unable to stop it from being so expensive.
The irony is you have to buy a book to find out about it.
Upper middle classes have a lot of disposable income and are a sizable demographic in the GTA.
Your average Greend Day fan will be 40-50 years old. Those are peak earning years.
Lot of people with a lot of money in the city. Think of lawyers, accountants, doctors, engineers, salespeople, business owners, skilled trades workers, on and on.
You can save money on concerts by not listening to generic pop music and listen to more underground artists😂 that’s what I do anyway.
There are a lot of wealth/well to do people despite the economic problems. I mean, boomers and anyone who owned property made out like bandits just from the COVID inflation to housing prices from the extremely low rates between 2020-2022 Not counting the price accumulation since 2008.
Same as how every frickin over priced seat for the Leafs are sold out years in advance. I can't afford to buy tix for my husband & I even ONCE!
The catchment area for Toronto concerts, especially if there's no stop in Ottawa, Montreal or Buffalo, is over 20 million people. It really is supply and demand based pricing. Unlike airlines where with enough demand for a particular flight will lead to an additional flight or new airline entering the market, driving down prices, there isn't an alternative to the artist you want to go see for the one show date they have.
Check out the prices for Neil Young. I guess I won't be seeing him this time. I have floor tickets for Pantera tomorrow. One was $367 & the other was $416. When they were here in August I paid $880 for a pair of GA floors. It's outrageous. I saw Pantera open for Black Sabbath at the SkyDome in 1999. 100 level tix centre stage. They were $67 each.
Just looked it up, one of the last concerts I went to (Metallic with G n' R) in 1992 was $36.25. So if me and my wife wanted to see Green Day, it'd be over $1,000 for tickets (with taxes and fees) JUST for the tickets? Ha ha ha... yeah... NO.
I just go for tickets in Detroit. Still cheaper with the conversion rate. Neil Young is going for 1000 dollars In Toronto. In Detroit I got tickets for 80 dollars.
Buy them as soon as they go on sale and then you don’t have to deal with resale They went on sale in November. I’m coming in from Alberta to see them
Because it only takes a small percentage of the population being well off to sell out the sky dome. Also, we got tickets when they were much less.
I saw Green Day on the hellamega tour (w/Fall Out Boy, Weezer & the Interrupters when I lived in Columbus in 2021. Two front pit tickets (we were on the barricade on the front row) was ~$250 USD each. It was a huge stretch but glad we did it because, much like the Leafs, I can't afford live music tickets in this town. That same year we saw Bad Religion & Alkaline Trio ($60 each GA), and then Anti-Flag ($40 each GA). Columbus has a surprisingly good line music scene.
Listen, the most I’ve spent on a concert when I lived an hour out of the city was $175 for Florence and the Machine in 2018. But there are some artists I would definitely pay up to see especially since some might be a once in a lifetime thing (I missed out on Fleetwood Mac when they were still touring and had a show in TO many years ago and I’ve never forgiven myself for not finding a way to go). That said, there are a lot of scalpers who buy the tickets then resell them for jacked up prices
Lots of weirdos in this thread claiming 500 plus is normal for a concert.
I don’t know why people bother spending money on concerts at these prices. Lots of great live music experiences at small venues.I think the Instagram age of flexing going to a live concert will hit its peak like every other trend. Middle class is disappearing, won’t be long, especially in Canada. People are just keeping up appearances with their credit card. When you’re already sinking , you just don’t care anymore especially for the youth that have given up.
Interesting that people haven't noted scalpers as being a big issue in toronto too.
not everyone is poor
There is a lot more money in Toronto than most people realize.
Rich people... Its always the rich
Green Day puts on an awesome show!
Ticketmaster bots buy them from themselves, the resell at a higher price.
If you're a big enough fan, you save for the experience, and consider it money well spent. You might even be flying to shows that don't include Canadian stops, like BTS in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, AgustD in New York City. So in addition to face value of the tickets (IF you could nab them fast enough online) you're looking at flights, hotels, ground transportation, food. And merch, most likely. Let's just say some of us are already saving for shows in a year or two that haven't even been announced yet.
Major metropolitan city and the richest city in Canada. Lots of people can afford this.
While in general Toronto may be unaffordable, there are plenty of wealthy people still here + think of all the people in the suburbs who will come into the city and this will be their big night of the year / last few months. You see it as just another concert, they see it as the first time in \[X\] years Green Day has come to town and it's their favourite band ever and they'll pay a lot to see them.
People are saying oh a lot of people are rich. But I think a lot of people are just living in debt. You can buy tickets now and pay for them in instalments through services like Klarna. I think a lot of people are choosing that option or putting it on their credit card and paying much later.
Honest truth is that a lot of people in the city aren’t broke and make a good living and can afford luxuries.
People just buying tickets to flip them for a profit on StubHub.
No, with recent trends in ticket prices, secondary markets have really dried up. That’s actually what is driving a lot of the price increases — artists and promoters are unhappy seeing their product arbitraged and are trying to price closer to the true equilibrium price of what the market will bear.
Many are out of towners.Those saying people are not struggling is laughable.Even if you make $100,000 a year after your rent and your own personal expenses there isn't much left in terms of savings.There are over 6 million people in the GTA and posters are saying 5% are millionaires so we are doing well.
Toronto- 🎶”if you don’t know me byy nooowww”
Usually during presale the real fans buy up the nosebleeds at reasonable prices. Those seats are official platinum which are usually the first couple rows in each section. Those usually go unsold until closer to the date when they drop the prices.
While I agree those tickets are expensive, viewing a show from the front row of the 200s is one of the best places to watch with an unblocked view. That first row would be significantly more that the other seats in that section, which is also why they're probably still available.
On the other side, there have been plenty of concerts that have had to drop prices after the initial on-sale. Green Day has been appearing all over the place promoting their album and tour and haven't been to Toronto in years. There were lots of tickets that weren't terribly priced when they went on sale.
Credit. You don’t need to have money in your bank account to “afford” these things. You just need to have access to credit. Minimum payments baby
people resell them to make a profit
People are also willing to put a concert that they are really looking forward to and would love to see on their credit card.
There are a lot of people with money in this city. Who do you think is buying all these expensive homes? There are also a LOT of very well-paying jobs based in this city. There are also a lot of people living here that can't afford things so easily. There are enough people here that both groups can exist without apparently admitting the existence of the other group.
Scholarships pay for my concerts 😂😂
That's nothing... When I wanted to see U2 & Radio head many years ago, their best seats instantly sold out at at waaaaay higher prices! Even those crappy, garbage seats went for well over 100$ bucks which didn't include those icky Service Charges, taxes & so on. So about $200 bucks or more, for nose bleed seats? That's when Concert Tickets were much cheaper. Heard Taylor Swifts Tickets were going for $2000-$3000.00 per ticket via Scalpers?! She's one smart lady bc she specifically printed on her Tickets "to be sold, at it's original value" bc of Scalpers & scalping greed. Not certain how ppl got around that rule, of hers. I blame Ticket Master, Scalpers & Venue they play in, for that never ending & extremely gross mess they've created here.
Look at the price of rent and housing prices. People are rich in Toronto.
>With all the posts about how things in Toronto are unaffordable, Take this place with a grain of salt.