Just for the record, non-specific presale codes (i.e., "access" & "horizon," etc.) are MEANT to get around. The promoters WANT people to think they are in on inside information. Why? Because they want to sell out. Period. If U2 wanted to have 100% control over their tickets, they would do so. They are among only a HANDFUL in the industry that maintains full rights to their own musical material. If they wanted control over seats for fans, they would take it, and there's not a promoter in the business that would refuse them, at least not since the WAR tour.
If only U2 fans would realize that U2 is also a business. The band WANTS sellouts. Do they want fans front and center? Of course. But not if it means empty balconies.
Typically, run-of-the-mill presale codes offer a specific allotment of presale tickets in not-so-in-demand locations (i.e., upper deck) so the tickets sell out, artificial demand gets created and, in some cases (particularly stadium shows) the broker gets left holding the bag and the fan can get a ticket last minute for cheap. Yes, sometimes...moreso than not, I concede, brokers make money, but typically at the expense of fans who are too lazy to do their homework. In either scenario, the venue is full.
Me? I have row 4 side stage tickets for Chicago, 4 GAs for NYC, 2 GAs for Boston, 6 seats for Toronto, and 6 GAs for Chicago that I will be able to trade for other shows.
And...I still have my Horizon presale code. On top of that, while the run-of-the-mill presale codes have little if no tickets left, I can still pull up beauties with my presale code.
How? I spent a little extra money (bought two presale codes from brokers and found GAs for barely more than face on eBay) and did HOURS and HOURS of homework. I and my friends/family will be able to see all the local shows. For Vertigo, I ended up with THIRTY tickets for the Buffalo show. Everyone I knew got seats at face value. How? Because I did my homework.
So, everything is not as it seems. Everything is not "shady." As much as we like to think the band is singing to us and only us, U2 is a mammoth corporation. Tours are a way to figuratively PRINT MONEY.
If everyone has to be "equal," then that's called communism. And Bono and Edge and Adam and Larry probably wouldn't work all those hours writing, playing, touring, for the same pay as you and I so we wouldn't get their great tunes. Bono'd be a preacher and Edge would be a Monk. Adam? Who knows. Larry'd probably still play drums though.
Well, thankfully for most this rant was in a not so public thread.
It's just so disappointing to me that so many U2 fans have this sense of entitlement that the band is only for them and that people who go out of their way to be resourceful to score tickets are breaking some Godly "code." Give me a break! If "fans" wouldn't pay more than face for tickets there would be no brokers. And if U2 wanted to keep tickets off the secondary market and micro-manage their event tickets, they would do what Dave Matthews (Wharehouse) and Pearl Jam (10 Club) and Tom Petty do (can you say "Prima Donna?"). I've been to those shows. They are NOT U2 shows. And they're fans ARE NOT U2fans.
At least I thought they weren't.
Everyone that bitches and moans about others getting what they want is, in my opinion, simply a communist who feels "entitled" to their "fair share" without being willing to go the extra mile to get it.
Of course, in my opinion, my opinion sucks. That's just my take.
Gillette presale code: Horizon
Meadowlands presale code: Access
Rogers Centre "Bills" presale: No code needed
Soldier Field presale code: Bears
If U2 didn't want it this way, it wouldn't be this way. Plain and simple.
Come to find out, I'll still have to try during the general sale because GA's aren't offered to those STH.
At minimum, he hooked people up, even made sure we had a place to crash and took us out for breakfast in Philly. Stand up guy, in my books)
