Fans hoping to score tickets to the NBA All Star Game’s Saturday events in Indiana were fuming, blaming Ticketmaster for a messy process as ticket sold out in minutes, despite the sale being restricted to state residents. Tickets to the event in February 2024, part of Indianapolis hosting the NBA’s high-profile weekend, were set aside for local fans, but many say that failed to work in their favor.
“Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of Indiana,” read the statement on Ticketmaster’s website. “Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside Indiana will be canceled without notice and refunds given. There is an 8-ticket limit for sales to this event.”
At 2 p.m. on July 24, 10,500 tickets went on sale, and in about 20 minutes they were all gone.
Paces writer Scott Agness shared his purchasing experience at the southeast corner of Lucas Oil Stadium, with more than 60 fans in line waiting for the box office to open for business.
“I only saw four purchases made over the first 20 minutes. One of the couples explained the holdup was because they’d choose the tickets to buy at the window, then they would be gone. And that was the ongoing challenge once again on Ticketmaster.”
In order not to be turned away without seats, he also opened up the app. And the rest was a common Ticketmaster ‘situation’: “You’d select seats and it would take about 10 seconds. Then return an error saying those specific seats had been claimed, so try again. Again. And again. Just like was being said at the ticket window. It was a vicious loop that I was in for more than 100 tries. I lost count,” wrote Agness.
“It’s what was most frustrating — the false hope. It would’ve been far better to get stuck in queue and never had a chance to buy. How about a ticket raffle, anyway?” he added.
Early tickets’ getting crushed in minutes left locals of Indiana disappointed as one of them rightfully put it, “Since I live here now, I was trying to see if I could get them for here.”
Doug Stafford tells WRTV Indianapolis he thinks those who want tickets are going to have to find them from other recourse.
He says he was scoring tickets to reward some young Pacers fans he mentors. “I thought what better time to be able to experience an All-Star game in Indianapolis and I guess I was naive in thinking I’d purchase those tickets,” he concludes.
The tickets were sold at prices between $24 and $79 (excluding order processing and service fees).
Lucas Oil Stadium will host All-Star Saturday Night, whereas the Pacers’ home Gainbridge Fieldhouse will be the site for the NBA All-Star Game on February 18, 2024.
Ticketmaster has been in the spotlight with poorly-managed ticketing operation of highly anticipated events particularly, for quite a deal of time. Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour is the most sensational one among others: Tickets went on sale, and things went poorly on Ticketmaster, causing major headaches and a suspended sale. This statement may well be adjusted to any of the purchasing process of the tour; either it be in France or any city in North and South America.
The ticket sales process for the massively popular tour has been enormously controversial the entire way, as Swift’s initial sales process for Eras Tour dates in the fall of 2022 was marred by terrible system meltdowns on Ticketmaster and the complete cancellation of any public general ticket sale. Swift fans have filed lawsuits, and been subject to enormous stress as shows have approached.
Lately, organizers of the Farm Aid event slammed their ticketing vendor, Ticketmaster, after a buggy sales process left fans disappointed over the weekend. The event, which is set for September in Indiana, saw its general sales period on Saturday afternoon, but fans reported numerous issues accessing the system, drawing complaint from the event operators in a post to their official social media channels over the weekend.
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