Demand has plummeted for Taylor Swift’s “Reputation Tour” as the singer’s second round of dates at several venues – added due to what her management called “overwhelming demand” after the initial sales period – are languishing, with tickets available for less on the secondary market than Ticketmaster is asking on the primary for the new dates.
The Star Tribune in Minneapolis is the latest outlet to take on the often conflicting depiction of the tour’s success. Swift’s team, Ticketmaster and Billboard have trumpeted the overwhelming success of the tour, which saw her team turn the “Verified Fan” system into a hyper-monetized engine to sell albums, t-shirts, and various other products in order to “boost” one’s chance at purchasing tickets. Other outlets, like Forbes (and this one) have pointed to the hundreds – if not thousands – of tickets available at venues from the original onsale that have yet to go, and the fact that secondary prices are not well below primary.
So much for having to fight scalpers for Taylor Swift tickets this time around.
With Twin Cities fans once again being asked to jump through hoops this week to buy tickets for her newly added second concert at U.S. Bank Stadium, it’s probably worth pointing out that seats to the previously announced show are far from sold out – and they’re even selling well below face value on ticket resale sites such as Stubhub and VividSeats.
Looking over the offerings on those sites for the Sept. 1 concert (which went on sale in December), it’s easy to find seats throughout the stadium priced $100 or more less than what they are now selling for on Ticketmaster. Even some of the cheapest nose-bleed seats are available via resale sites at a $50 discount under face value, amounting to about a 25 percent markdown.
The pieces goes on to discuss the various places you can find tickets for far cheaper on the secondary market, much like we did a couple weeks ago.
Ultimately, the counter-argument is going to be the same – Taylor Swift and her management are going to be able to cry themselves to sleep atop a giant pile of cash if there are some empty seats for her shows. But one continues to wonder what kind of reputational damage this Reputation Tour may cause as these headlines continue to crop up.
