Entertainment industry taking the **** on pricing
Discussion
Since Covid everything seems to have gone up - gig tickets, theatre tickets, 'Expo' ticket...and the latest one is the Gladiators tour.
Yes, I know it's probably going to be a bit council, but Little Miss H has been enjoying watching them on TV, so we thought it'd be a nice idea to get her and Mrs H tickets for her birthday to a show at the Birmingham NEC. Except a check of the pre-sale* today had us reaching for the mortgage calculator.
- seats up in the gods >£60 each
- decent seats >£80 each
- good seats £105 each
- ...and then there's all the VIP nonsense at double that without it being obvious what you're actually getting for your VIP-ness - "very important purse"?!?
Yes they state tickets start "from £45", but they're for the ones right in the top corner which will probably have a restricted view and require you to bring a pair of binoculars.
...so factor in exorbitant car parking (close to £20) and a bit of food/drink and you're looking at £175-275 for a few hours out for 2 people. £350-500 for a family of 4. Who the f
k has that sort of money?
(to compare, the original tour cost "about a tenner" per google, which would be £25/ticket at today's prices)
* Why do promoters do this? Just release the bloody tickets!
Yes, I know it's probably going to be a bit council, but Little Miss H has been enjoying watching them on TV, so we thought it'd be a nice idea to get her and Mrs H tickets for her birthday to a show at the Birmingham NEC. Except a check of the pre-sale* today had us reaching for the mortgage calculator.
- seats up in the gods >£60 each
- decent seats >£80 each
- good seats £105 each
- ...and then there's all the VIP nonsense at double that without it being obvious what you're actually getting for your VIP-ness - "very important purse"?!?
Yes they state tickets start "from £45", but they're for the ones right in the top corner which will probably have a restricted view and require you to bring a pair of binoculars.
...so factor in exorbitant car parking (close to £20) and a bit of food/drink and you're looking at £175-275 for a few hours out for 2 people. £350-500 for a family of 4. Who the f
k has that sort of money?(to compare, the original tour cost "about a tenner" per google, which would be £25/ticket at today's prices)
* Why do promoters do this? Just release the bloody tickets!
Yep. My daughter for the last few years since she got into goth / metal music has been attending various gigs, started off at a few smaller gigs and tickets were maybe £35-40 for local venues. Some tickets now are costing over £120 and she often has to travel to go see them which means then booking overpriced accommodation (prices get inflated when there's news that there is a gig nearby) close to the venue.
As she's not quite adult age yet she then has to have a "babysitter" go so that then doubles the cost! then there's the ridiculously inflated drink and food costs when you get there, its ridiculous
As she's not quite adult age yet she then has to have a "babysitter" go so that then doubles the cost! then there's the ridiculously inflated drink and food costs when you get there, its ridiculous
It's partly perceptional.
I have a ticket stub from Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA tour in 1984 which shows I paid £25 for it. Put that into an inflation calculator and that ticket today would cost £98. To see him on his last tour a few years ago would have cost £70 so the cost, proportionally, has gone down. Back in the mid 80s, I had little else to spend my money on and it was just me and my mates. Today, our frame of reference and spread of financial obligations is different so what we consider to be 'good value' is different to that years back.
But where it's not perceptional, I'm afraid it is was it is.
Look at Oasis and Coldplay last year - everyone was moaning about the dynamic pricing and cost of tickets yet every seat on every night was sold. Only when bands like that start paying to half empty stadiums is when costs will start to come down.
I'm not defending them or their actions but worth remembering that it's the promotors that carry the financial risk for shows. The bands, performers, venues, staff all get paid regardless of anything else and it's on the promotors to cover their cost and risk. Shows are more complex and more expensive to put on compared to those of the past. Whether that has added 'value' is subjective.
But sufficient people clearly do have the money to pay the prices being asked.
I have a ticket stub from Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA tour in 1984 which shows I paid £25 for it. Put that into an inflation calculator and that ticket today would cost £98. To see him on his last tour a few years ago would have cost £70 so the cost, proportionally, has gone down. Back in the mid 80s, I had little else to spend my money on and it was just me and my mates. Today, our frame of reference and spread of financial obligations is different so what we consider to be 'good value' is different to that years back.
But where it's not perceptional, I'm afraid it is was it is.
Look at Oasis and Coldplay last year - everyone was moaning about the dynamic pricing and cost of tickets yet every seat on every night was sold. Only when bands like that start paying to half empty stadiums is when costs will start to come down.
havoc said:
Why do promoters do this?
If you're a promoter, why would you sell a ticket for £50 if people are willing to pay £100?I'm not defending them or their actions but worth remembering that it's the promotors that carry the financial risk for shows. The bands, performers, venues, staff all get paid regardless of anything else and it's on the promotors to cover their cost and risk. Shows are more complex and more expensive to put on compared to those of the past. Whether that has added 'value' is subjective.
But sufficient people clearly do have the money to pay the prices being asked.
Edited by StevieBee on Wednesday 25th March 16:04
I don't get all the hate on people complaining about pricing, whether its gas and electric, petrol prices or ticket prices etc. Its the idiots that are prepared to pay the prices that are dictating what is charged, not the companies. The only way to bring prices down is not to pay for them. Its entirely possible to use less gas or electric, not drive to unnecessary places, not go to gigs and so on and so forth.
Down the road from me the diesel price at the local garage is 182p per litre, the opposite way its 168p at ASDA, the best course of action is no-one use the garage and all go to ASDA, its not that much further away, and then when the price comes back to normal still use ADSA until the local garage has to drop its price lower than ASDA to attract customers back. People could be much more frugal than they are in just about every aspect in life to drive prices into the ground if they had any gumption.
Down the road from me the diesel price at the local garage is 182p per litre, the opposite way its 168p at ASDA, the best course of action is no-one use the garage and all go to ASDA, its not that much further away, and then when the price comes back to normal still use ADSA until the local garage has to drop its price lower than ASDA to attract customers back. People could be much more frugal than they are in just about every aspect in life to drive prices into the ground if they had any gumption.
StevieBee said:
It's partly perceptional.
In some instances yes, albeit was The Boss at the height of his fame back then? Plenty of bands were cheaper to see on the way up.I remember going to gigs 20-30 years ago and paying £15-20 a ticket in most instances (so £30-50 now), and whilst the lower ends of the industry are still selling at that level, the big names / big venues are nowhere near.
With theatres it's definitely NOT - I get the impression that whole industry is trying to make up for being abandoned by the government during Covid. West End shows 20 years ago were <£20, but now try finding a ticket for anything major which is £40 or less (the inflated equivalent) - they've stratified it so much that the best seats are >>£100 for most shows, and even so-so ones are still +/-£80 in many cases.
asfault said:
You are poorer because the UK has fallen in the world rankings of wealth.
And how does that affect the cost of running a show IN the UK using UK performers? Your statement is correct, but it's simply not relevant to the vast majority of UK theatre or other entertainment, nor to that much of any gigs beyond the biggest international stars.havoc said:
StevieBee said:
It's partly perceptional.
In some instances yes, albeit was The Boss at the height of his fame back then? Plenty of bands were cheaper to see on the way up.Don't go, then. I don't go to a lot of stuff because I don't think it's worth it. Just like I don't eat at a lot of places or visit a lot of places or go into a lot of places or stay at a lot of places. Others do, so they pay.
Since I'm prone to tangents, why are National Trust and similar places so expensive?! I wouldn't pay more than £5 to go into a random stately home. If I went in, they'd get extra money when I buy food and drinks, too, even if I'm only visiting for an hour (the time it takes to shuffle round a random building, going, "That's nice." before forgetting about it), but £18?
Since I'm prone to tangents, why are National Trust and similar places so expensive?! I wouldn't pay more than £5 to go into a random stately home. If I went in, they'd get extra money when I buy food and drinks, too, even if I'm only visiting for an hour (the time it takes to shuffle round a random building, going, "That's nice." before forgetting about it), but £18?
Frane Selak said:
I don't get all the hate on people complaining about pricing, whether its gas and electric, petrol prices or ticket prices etc. Its the idiots that are prepared to pay the prices that are dictating what is charged, not the companies. The only way to bring prices down is not to pay for them. Its entirely possible to use less gas or electric, not drive to unnecessary places, not go to gigs and so on and so forth.
Down the road from me the diesel price at the local garage is 182p per litre, the opposite way its 168p at ASDA, the best course of action is no-one use the garage and all go to ASDA, its not that much further away, and then when the price comes back to normal still use ADSA until the local garage has to drop its price lower than ASDA to attract customers back. People could be much more frugal than they are in just about every aspect in life to drive prices into the ground if they had any gumption.
we have a tesco petrol station in town, usually 2-3p less than the BP station,Down the road from me the diesel price at the local garage is 182p per litre, the opposite way its 168p at ASDA, the best course of action is no-one use the garage and all go to ASDA, its not that much further away, and then when the price comes back to normal still use ADSA until the local garage has to drop its price lower than ASDA to attract customers back. People could be much more frugal than they are in just about every aspect in life to drive prices into the ground if they had any gumption.
however my cars all run rough on the tesco stuff,
StevieBee said:
From memory, Born in the USA tour ran for five nights at the old Wembley Stadium - each night a sell-out. So, yeah, I'd say he'd reached his fame height by then :-)
I couldn't remember offhand.Hoofy said:
Don't go, then.
Blunt, but accurate. But it doesn't answer the question of 'why' they're now so expensive when they never used to be. Other than because they can / because there's always a mug that'll pay the asking price. It feels to me like post-Covid it took a sudden turn upwards.48k said:
Look up the price of theatre tickets or ballet or premier league football.
Newsflash: events are expensive
But if you read my post they never used to be (even inflation-adjusted). Theatre I've already mentioned. Ballet I've no idea but it's always seemed like it's aiming for exclusivity (a bit like Goodwood). Premier League...again, didn't used to be.Newsflash: events are expensive
Hoofy said:
Don't go, then. I don't go to a lot of stuff because I don't think it's worth it. Just like I don't eat at a lot of places or visit a lot of places or go into a lot of places or stay at a lot of places. Others do, so they pay.
Since I'm prone to tangents, why are National Trust and similar places so expensive?! I wouldn't pay more than £5 to go into a random stately home. If I went in, they'd get extra money when I buy food and drinks, too, even if I'm only visiting for an hour (the time it takes to shuffle round a random building, going, "That's nice." before forgetting about it), but £18?
National Trust seem to have really doubled down on the membership model. Since I'm prone to tangents, why are National Trust and similar places so expensive?! I wouldn't pay more than £5 to go into a random stately home. If I went in, they'd get extra money when I buy food and drinks, too, even if I'm only visiting for an hour (the time it takes to shuffle round a random building, going, "That's nice." before forgetting about it), but £18?
We went for a stroll around Petworth house on mothers day, the place was absolutely rammed. One of the kids is too old for the family membership so we had to pay £20 odd for them.
If we'd had to pay full price as a family of 5 it would have been well over £100, who's paying that to walk around a house for an hour, that was only half open!
It makes the family membership at circa £150/year exceptionally good value.
Something else to consider with gigs is that pre-streaming, bands would tour to promote an album and their back catalogues. Tours were costed on a break-even basis because when a band came to town, sales of their records in that town would increase pre and post gig. We'd all buy singles, albums, special releases and the like.
These days we spend next to nothing on music. Unless you're an Ed Sherran or Taylor Swift, the amount an act gets from streaming is pitiful. So the 'offer' has flipped - the music promotes tours and its the tours that earns acts their money. We don't spend as much as we did buying music but the trade off is that if we want to see a band live, that money we don't spend buying LPs and singles is spent on gig tickets instead.
I doubt that this would balance exactly but will lessen the perceived increase in ticket prices when taken into account.
These days we spend next to nothing on music. Unless you're an Ed Sherran or Taylor Swift, the amount an act gets from streaming is pitiful. So the 'offer' has flipped - the music promotes tours and its the tours that earns acts their money. We don't spend as much as we did buying music but the trade off is that if we want to see a band live, that money we don't spend buying LPs and singles is spent on gig tickets instead.
I doubt that this would balance exactly but will lessen the perceived increase in ticket prices when taken into account.
StevieBee said:
From memory, Born in the USA tour ran for five nights at the old Wembley Stadium - each night a sell-out. So, yeah, I'd say he'd reached his fame height by then :-)
Agree he was pretty famous and sold out many big venues, but the last couple of tours were well over £100 and probably nearer £200.Agreed, it's all shot up in price and what would have once been a good night out, relatively small venue but good band is now the cost of seeing a fairly large band 5-6 years ago.
We had a leaflet through the door about a local festival, nothing major, the line up from what I can tell isn't anything wowing. I thought maybe it'd be fun for the kids depending on the cost as it said it was family friendly. Kids tickets are £48 but adult tickets are £120, so for us as a family of five you're approaching £400 before you've even spent any money in the festival. Admittedly it's 3 days long but when you consider you could spend another £300 over the course of the weekend it's a staggering amount of money in my opinion.
We had a leaflet through the door about a local festival, nothing major, the line up from what I can tell isn't anything wowing. I thought maybe it'd be fun for the kids depending on the cost as it said it was family friendly. Kids tickets are £48 but adult tickets are £120, so for us as a family of five you're approaching £400 before you've even spent any money in the festival. Admittedly it's 3 days long but when you consider you could spend another £300 over the course of the weekend it's a staggering amount of money in my opinion.
Roofless Toothless said:
I remember going to the Marquee club in Wardour Street in the sixties to see bands like Cream and Fleetwood Mac for well less than a ten bob note.
Roxy Music at the Glasgow Apollo in 1974 was £1.50; that's worth about £15 nowadays. Price at the Glasgow Hydro a few years ago - £100+. Great show though...havoc said:
Hoofy said:
Don't go, then.
Blunt, but accurate. But it doesn't answer the question of 'why' they're now so expensive when they never used to be. Other than because they can / because there's always a mug that'll pay the asking price. It feels to me like post-Covid it took a sudden turn upwards.Gassing Station | The Lounge | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff