I just finished trying to purchase tickets for one of Prince's two shows later this month in Toronto at the Air Canada Centre and was shocked at the ridiculous prices he's charging for his Welcome 2 Canada Tour. He's playing in the round, so to speak...the stage is actually in the shape of that silly symbol he bizarrely used in place of his name for several years and most of the floor seating looks to be reserved for people purchasing really pricey VIP packages, which bothers me. Knowing that there were few "regular" non-VIP floor tickets (at $268 a pop, which includes Ticketbastard's grubby charges), I decided to try for good lower bowl seats that were near centre ice where the main part of the stage is, assuming they would be less expensive. Well, I was thrilled when I landed four tickets in row 21 of the lower bowl looking directly down on the stage, but I was floored when I saw that they were also $268 each. For seats in the bloody stands! Screw that. Just out of curiosity, I did a little more searching to see what Prince was charging for other sections in the arena. Tickets in the lower bowl, but at the ends and corners of the arena and furthest from the stage were $193, tickets in the upper level at centre ice were $117, and tickets in the section right beside the previously mentioned one were $67. Nice.
I realize that Prince is a huge touring act and plenty of other artists charge a lot for concert tickets, but I just lose some respect for most of them when I compare their prices to someone like Bruce Springsteen, whose ticket prices top out at about $110-120, or U2, who sold general admission floor tickets to their most recent mammoth tour for just $70.
And here's the thing that severely pisses me off about this whole experience: I bought a 14th row floor ticket for Prince's Musicology Tour in 2004 at the same venue and only paid $115. Even if you adjust for inflation, that's straight-up greed in my opinion. Of course, I'm sure both shows will sell out quickly, which means he's just charging what the market will bear, so what do I know?
I blame The (damn) Eagles. They're commonly looked at as the band that pushed concert ticket prices into the stratosphere back in the 90's.
