Is Weekends With Adele seeing a demand collapse over its ticket prices and sales strategy? The pop diva’s residency is seeing headlines over reportedly soft interest in the performances in Las Vegas, which are running through the spring at The Colosseum at Caeasar’s Palace.

The Sun, a UK tabloid, recently published a story quoting a “source” that the shows aren’t even drawing full attendance, necessitating the use of seat-fillers and reflected in the ticket prices.

“Adele’s performances have been great, but weirdly the early desire to hear her sing has decreased – and that is reflected in the price of tickets,” a source close to the situation told The Sun. “And the assumption is that costs will keep dropping as she approaches the conclusion of her tenure in March,” they continued.

Weekends With Adele has been something of a saga for fans of Adele, who were thrilled when the run of shows was announced, only to see that turn sour when the shows were abruptly postponed on the eve of the opening show, using the excuse that COVID delays had kept the production from being ready to get off the ground – despite some fans already being on the way to Las Vegas due to the late choice to call things off. It was a full six months full of rumors and innuendo before the rescheduled dates were announced, moving the run to a November through March 2023 window and adding several shows.

Fans were also upset about the aggressive ticket pricing for the shows, which had a tiny fraction of the available tickets priced at $100 for the most remote sections of the venue, with everything else priced well into the $1-5,000 range from the box office using “platinum” dynamic surge ticket pricing systems from Ticketmaster. The same happened when the shows were rescheduled in the summer of 2022.

The pricing complaints have become commonplace for live events in recent months, as Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary have encouraged artists to go along with the surged pricing model that has fattened up their bottom line to record highs in recent quarters. Bruce Springsteen’s use of “dynamic” and “platinum” ticket pricing schemes for his 2023 U.S. tour dates with the E Street Band have drawn widespread scorn, and even plans by the New Jersey Assembly to hold hearings about the systems at some point when the legislative body in in session.

It seems possible that Adele’s management has fallen into the same “slow ticketing” trap that Taylor Swift’s team did during her Reputation tour. In that run, the “verified fan” program was used to convince consumers that demand was enormous, sparking fear-based purchasing of tickets based on the assumption that paying inflated prices if you even had a chance to buy would be your only shot to see the shows. In reality, prices were so high that many venues were forced to dump massive quantities of tickets for pennies on the dollar (or give them away free) as show dates approached and huge chunks of the building would have been empty otherwise.

According to discount ticket resale marketplace Ticket Club, the average ticket prices for Weekends With Adele have fallen significantly since their initial sale dates. In the immediate aftermath of the run of shows going on sale in late 2021, consumers were paying an average price per ticket of a jaw-dropping $4,555 at TicketClub.com, even more stunning considering members at that website do not have service fees added to their prices like other ticketing outlets. That number fell quickly, however, falling to $2,753 in January of 2022, and further still to $2,171 on average in February after the run was postponed. Since the run was rescheduled (and more tickets went on sale) in August of 2022, the average ticket price sold has dropped further, with consumers paying an average of $1,786 per ticket, including a monthly low of $1,506 per ticket in December of 2022.

With the second batch of shows set to begin on week from today, ticket prices are still high, but much less so than they had been according to anther ticket resale marketplace, ScoreBig. Tickets to the January 20 Weekends with Adele show start as low as $822, while tickets in the 100 level close to the stage can be had for as low as $1,815 – a huge drop from their asking price during the initial sales period, and likely to continue dropping as the show date approaches.

The question on whether or not the initial ticket prices are to blame for what appears to be a developing problem for the show’s promoters (though notably not the singer, who reportedly was paid hundreds of millions up-front for the run) is difficult to answer. But it does appear possible that Weekends With Adele is another example of aggressive surge pricing and the hiding of the true demand from consumers has led the biggest fans to pay the highest cost for a show, which is likely to have a steep cost in long-term fan sentiment related to how things went for those who coughed up thousands of dollars over a year ago to see a show they could have apparently waited out and paid pennies on the dollar for the same seats.

Ticket Links

Adele tickets at MEGASeats – 10% off using code TICKETNEWS
Adele tickets at Event Tickets Center
Adele tickets at ScoreBig
Adele tickets at StubHub
Adele tickets at Ticket Club | Free membership using code TICKETNEWS
Adele tickets at TicketNetwork
Adele tickets at TicketSmarter

Weekends With Adele Schedule

All shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

Friday, January 20
Saturday, January 21
Friday, January 27
Saturday, January 28
Friday, February 3
Saturday, February 4
Friday, February 10
Saturday, February 11
Friday, February 17
Saturday, February 18
Friday, February 24
Saturday, February 25
Friday, March 3
Saturday, March 4
Friday, March 10
Saturday, March 11
Friday, March 17
Saturday, March 18
Friday, March 24
Saturday, March 25