What do u think the fan ticket setup will be this time?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

adenoid_hynkel

The Fly
Joined
Jan 21, 2004
Messages
112
After they had to clean up the mess of 2004 (and wonderfully, too, BTW-Thank you, Larry), will they want to deal with fan club tickets again for this new tour? or will it be general sale for all?
 
I'd like to believe that the U2.com membership will give people a presale advantage again, and I'm sure that some sort of presale will be done. Since everything will work over Livenations.com this time around, we're yet to see in what kind of disaster it will all end again. :) I, for my part, can't imagine a smooth presale/general sale.
 
So its probably worth signing up to U2.com then you'd say?
 
i have been thinking about joining but don't want to waste good money if there is not going to be a pre sale. live nation always have a pre sale on tickets and that's free to join.
 
Some sort of U2.com presale is a no-brainer. U2.com exists to generate money for U2 (why else would membership be so expensive?) and the promise of a presale will result in a massive increase in the number of people buying memberships.

I'll also be amazed if the presale isn't limited to one show per member like last time, so that people who want to go to multiple shows have to buy multiple memberships. I bought 6 memberships last time.
 
I just hope if there is a pre-sale they have will call only pick up--and you must present a valid photo ID. That is the way it should always be done. An ironclad way to prevent the scalpers and ebayers all over the country from f-ing up the intent of the pre-sale.
 
Seniority.

I'm a betting man that this is the route U2.com goes. If you haven't signed up by now (new accounts), consider yourself out of luck for presales. It is time that the site identifies with long time members with active accounts. This is as close as it is gonna get without bringing back the Propaganda lists to identify with a "fan" and not a broker/scalper.

This is pure speculation of course. However, this would seem to be the no-brainer route to go after the 2005 presales.
 
Seniority.

I'm a betting man that this is the route U2.com goes. If you haven't signed up by now (new accounts), consider yourself out of luck for presales. It is time that the site identifies with long time members with active accounts. This is as close as it is gonna get without bringing back the Propaganda lists to identify with a "fan" and not a broker/scalper.

This is pure speculation of course. However, this would seem to be the no-brainer route to go after the 2005 presales.

I hope there aren't too many U2.com subscribers from Austin, in that case... I've only been around a year.
 
Seniority.

I'm a betting man that this is the route U2.com goes. If you haven't signed up by now (new accounts), consider yourself out of luck for presales. It is time that the site identifies with long time members with active accounts. This is as close as it is gonna get without bringing back the Propaganda lists to identify with a "fan" and not a broker/scalper.

This is pure speculation of course. However, this would seem to be the no-brainer route to go after the 2005 presales.

The will-call idea mentioned above is a more ironclad way to sort out fans from brokers, but they may in fact go with what you suggest. I'd be a little disappointed given that I was a longtime Propaganda subscriber who didn't sign up for U2.com largely because it was such a mess.

Whatever the case I hope they learned something from the last go-round.
 
Seniority.

I'm a betting man that this is the route U2.com goes. If you haven't signed up by now (new accounts), consider yourself out of luck for presales. It is time that the site identifies with long time members with active accounts. This is as close as it is gonna get without bringing back the Propaganda lists to identify with a "fan" and not a broker/scalper.

This is pure speculation of course. However, this would seem to be the no-brainer route to go after the 2005 presales.

If that is right then I'm quite pissed off. So younger U2 fans who may not have been 'life time members' miss out on the chance of any presale? Way to 'go after the younger audience' lads! Also, I now don't know whether to sign up to the website or not, is it worth spending however much if I'm gonna get fuck all out of it with regard to tickets?!
 
If that is right then I'm quite pissed off. So younger U2 fans who may not have been 'life time members' miss out on the chance of any presale? Way to 'go after the younger audience' lads! Also, I now don't know whether to sign up to the website or not, is it worth spending however much if I'm gonna get fuck all out of it with regard to tickets?!



You pinpoint the whole reason that it should be seniority. If people sign up just to get tickets, screw them. If you give the same benefit equally to both old and new members, you end up with brokers & scalpers and people like the dude a few posts up who bought six memberships just to get six sets of presale codes. That's ridiculous.

Sure, it's not as fair to people who only recently became rabid fans. I've been a fan for a long time, but have only been a member since 2005, and I know there are thousands who've been there longer than me, so I'm nowhere near the top of the list. Sure, there aren't a ton of great benefits to being a fan club member. But if you're signing up for a one-time thing simply to get a presale code, IMO it's perfectly justified that you're on the bottom of the pile. :shrug:
 
They should have a test of U2 nerdiness - the people who can answer the most U2 trivia questions correctly in five minutes get ticket priority.
 
mmmm well being a member of U2.com or not doesn't mean that you're not a huge fan of the band- I joined back in 2004/05 and then rejoined about 6 weeks ago (mainly because I forgot to rejoin the previous 2 years)- but I've been a fan on and off since the mid 80's

pre-sales are always fraught with problems regardless of who the artist is- if U2 played more shows then it may make life a bit easier- they could easily have done 4 shows in London last time round- but they're policy of underplaying everywhere except North America makes it even more of a bun fight

venue ticket sales is a good idea as long as you're willing/able to be at somewhere like Wembley at the crack of dawn- it certainly worked for us on Madonna's Confessions Tour- we'd never have got the tickets we did any other way

whatever they do with pre-sales this tour I'm sure the stress levels, frustration, anger etc will be the same as last time
 
Seniority.

I'm a betting man that this is the route U2.com goes. If you haven't signed up by now (new accounts), consider yourself out of luck for presales. It is time that the site identifies with long time members with active accounts. This is as close as it is gonna get without bringing back the Propaganda lists to identify with a "fan" and not a broker/scalper.

This is pure speculation of course. However, this would seem to be the no-brainer route to go after the 2005 presales.


i hope that it goes in this direction as well as having the presale tix set up as will call only. I agree it would be a no brainer and certainly a good way to go but who knows.
With Live Nation involved though it's all about money so I have a sinking suspicion that they will tack on another 'fee' for the presale. They aren't gonna be looking out for us fans that's for sure.
 
I agree that giving priority to long-time members would be fair, but the e-mail that was sent inviting re-subscriptions in November'05 said "we continue to look for fair ways in which we can distribute tickets to our fans on future tours but any solution will not be tied to this re-subscription". If they stick to this, they can't give priority to people who have been members from the start over people who failed to renew at the end of the first year.

Anyway, giving new members the same priority as long-time members will maximise the number of people who buy new memberships, so there's no question that that's the way they'll go.
 
You pinpoint the whole reason that it should be seniority. If people sign up just to get tickets, screw them. If you give the same benefit equally to both old and new members, you end up with brokers & scalpers and people like the dude a few posts up who bought six memberships just to get six sets of presale codes. That's ridiculous.

Sure, it's not as fair to people who only recently became rabid fans. I've been a fan for a long time, but have only been a member since 2005, and I know there are thousands who've been there longer than me, so I'm nowhere near the top of the list. Sure, there aren't a ton of great benefits to being a fan club member. But if you're signing up for a one-time thing simply to get a presale code, IMO it's perfectly justified that you're on the bottom of the pile. :shrug:

Well said :up:

I also joined in either '05 or '06. The only reason I've kept up my membership is the hope that that will somehow benefit me if they decide to do a presale again on this tour. I have no problem with them going with seniority, even if it means that I get left out of the presale. I also think memberships should be limited to one per credit card/billing address.

LiveNation presales will be chaos. My prediction is that their system will crash within minutes of the start of the first one if they do in fact open it up to everyone for free.
 
Anyway, giving new members the same priority as long-time members will maximise the number of people who buy new memberships, so there's no question that that's the way they'll go.

I think they will go this route as well - every member has the same shot at the premium tickets. U2 of late seem a bit annoyed with "class systems" in their fan base - hence the lottery system after Elevation.
 
Utoo, whilst I agree with what you're saying (although I've not 'just recently' become a big fan, I've been listening to them since I was 10) I just think its counter-productive to engaging and maximising this young audience that they seem constantly intent on attracting. All that happens is the oldest and cleverest fans who think to sign up in advance are guaranteed tickets; generally people who, in the majority of cases have seen the band multiple times. Whereas those who are younger and may not have experienced U2 live face a potentially much harder and stressful time trying to get their hand on tickets, which I believe is unfair just because some have been members of a website for longer.

Although I do acknowledge its a lose-lose situation and they wouldn't be able to sort something so that every fan would be happy.
 
Anyway, giving new members the same priority as long-time members will maximise the number of people who buy new memberships, so there's no question that that's the way they'll go.

Then history repeats itself. The band apologizes again. The Propaganda lists come back out again.

I'm not against new fans getting tickets via a presale. What I am against is that I have yet to see a system that can tell the difference between a new fan and a broker/scalper. Maybe will call will be the way to go to get the newer fans a fairer chance. Same credit card as purchase must be shown with photo ID at the window.

Personally, I'll try and see them with every stop in the Vancouver, Seattle, Calgary area. I think at least twice minimum.
 
Unless they had some sort of name on ticket and ID thing, its a hard thing to avoid. Then There'd be a problem of people not having ID and so on...

Why cant people just stop being twats?! :madwife:

We need a U2 Mafia to kneecap these people :hmm:
 
I have no expectation that it will be any better/easier than last time. Regardless of how long I've been a fan, what clubs I have or have not subscribed to, I don't feel like U2 owes me personally anything. Of all the ideas floating around about how to handle pre-sales and memberships, the only one that sounds worth doing to me is the idea of using will-call and the buyer must present the credit card that purchased the tickets. Bringing back Propoganda lists and giving those people priority....how would that even work? I mean, the main goal is selling the tickets, and U2 have no problem with that! In fact the problem is just that....everything sells out in seconds.

My strategy is same as last time...get a group of fan friends together and pool resources. Buy anything we can get. Use what we don't want to trade for what we do want.

My main worry is not that I as a fan won't get priority, but that Livenation would be able to handle the load that is a U2 ticket sale. This I have yet to believe until I see it. Even on Ticketbastard I've had to wait a long while in queues.
 
Utoo, whilst I agree with what you're saying (although I've not 'just recently' become a big fan, I've been listening to them since I was 10) I just think its counter-productive to engaging and maximising this young audience that they seem constantly intent on attracting. All that happens is the oldest and cleverest fans who think to sign up in advance are guaranteed tickets; generally people who, in the majority of cases have seen the band multiple times. Whereas those who are younger and may not have experienced U2 live face a potentially much harder and stressful time trying to get their hand on tickets, which I believe is unfair just because some have been members of a website for longer.

Although I do acknowledge its a lose-lose situation and they wouldn't be able to sort something so that every fan would be happy.

I do agree with just about all of what you're saying. I think the issue to me is that letting people sign up and immediately have an equal chance to get a presale code really just opens the whole thing up to tons of scalpers. Scalpers & brokers, IMO, are what really make it hard for all fans to go to shows, young and old.

I don't have a solution except to agree with others that all tickets should be sold on a will call basis. It sucks if you can't make the show, but it's the best way to prevent scalping that I can think of. How other stratifications of tickets are distributed would matter less if scalpers taken out of the picture.
 
Haha at this point in time I'm resigned to the fact that general sale will be unsuccessful and will have to end up buying tickets in the second-hand market, am I right in thinking LiveNation has a system of doing this?, it is one way of them trying to get the tickets into the hands of real-fans rather than the scalpers. I know that Ticketmaster does have such a facility. Even if it does mean paying a higher price. :sad:
 
Remember though that plenty of people who consider themselves to be 'real fans' will also scalp tickets as well. The problem is any ticketing organisation that allows you to buy, say, up to 8 tickets with the same credit card. If it's me, then I just buy what I actually need and can afford, which is usually 2 tickets. But there are those who have the means to buy a lot more than what they need - if it says you can buy 8 tickets when you only want 2, then why not buy a few more and then hawk them on eBay for a nice profit? So the real fan gets to go to the gig, but his / her manipulation of the system for personal gain means that several more tickets are removed from the general sale. If that happens a lot, then it's easy to see how tickets end up on the secondary market in huge numbers.
 
I agree that giving priority to long-time members would be fair, ........
Anyway, giving new members the same priority as long-time members will maximise the number of people who buy new memberships, so there's no question that that's the way they'll go.

Of course it would not be fair to give priority to long-time members.
Why should an 'old fan' of 40, who already joined 10 concerts get priority over a young new fan of 18 who discovered the group recently ?

everybody who has a paid membership should get the same priority.
furthermore, they should reserve ALL tickets for presale before releasing them in general sale and they should make you identify yourself to prevent scalpers.
 
Back
Top Bottom