A day after appearing in the armor of the loathed Lannisters in the season premier of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Ed Sheeran played the villain in real life. The singer’s management has cancelled thousands of tickets to his upcoming UK tours, claiming that they violated his stringent policies aimed at combating scalping.
According to the Huffington Post, the singer has cancelled over 10,000 tickets to his Wembley Stadium gigs in June of 2018. Originally priced between 49-88 pounds, these shows saw prices jump by as much as 10x in the secondary market.
Cancelled tickets will not work at the entry gates, instead going back to the primary seller to be resold at face value. It is unclear whether or not these tickets will be sold at the same “face value” which they were originally marketed, or dynamically priced at a higher level due to the overwhelming demand shown for the tour.
The artist’s representatives and Ticketmaster did warn that they would have extremely restrictive policies related to any secondary sales. Fans able to purchase tickets to the concerts would be forced to bring the ticket, photo ID, and the original card used in the purchase.
These measures “resulted in 90% of tickets being delivered into fans’ hands at the face value,” according to a representative. “The process of analysing sales and cancelling tickets purchased for purposes for resale will continue until the tour takes place.”
Fans who purchased tickets on the secondary market could be left high and dry, as it would be up to the policies of whichever marketplace through which they purchased their tickets to refund their money or not. As is often the case when artists or promoters sweep through and cancel tickets, it is the fans who end up suffering.
