When I was in line waiting to get into the heart at the Colombus Elevation show you asked how my experience was getting tickets through Ticketmaster. I said, "great".
Principle Management does NOT suck. I think they have done a great job over the years of managing the band and pleasing its fan base.
However . . . they need to know what a disaster this was for most of the longtime fans. I recall being in the heart for several Elevation shows and almost everyone had fanclub tix. Now, most of these tickets will wind up in the hands of the ticket agenices in a most under handed and sleazy fashion. Is this what they really wanted?
They are trying to promote the tour, as per Elevation, as offering the best seats for the cheapest price (of course this deflects attention from the skyrocketing top price for gold circle). Now, if real fans MUST have GA tickets, they will end up paying more than gold circle by buying them from ticket agencies (aka scumbags). Once again, I ask: is this what they really wanted?
They need to take control of the situation. The presales are over, but they can try to ensure that the remaining GAs (that have not already made their way to the scalpers) really go on sale to the general public. They also need to prevent another disaster with future presales.