Can non-members of the U2 site get tickets?
I dont want to pay to join the site
Yes. I've never been a member of any paying site/club except this one. Last tour I pretty much got every ticket I wanted, though only one of my dozens (between myself, husband, and any friends I was buying for) I actually got through TicketMaster during a general sale. Most of mine were face-value purchases from other fans. During a tour a new sub-forum will open up and there will be tickets for sale/trade. I also got some from scalpers, probably could have gotten face value if I tried harder but they were shows I needed to plan for in advance and couldn't gamble. One show I randomly decided I wanted to see the day before, drove 9 hours without a ticket, waited at the box office all day, and got a GA ticket drop at 5pm.
For all my bitching and moaning about scalper prices, GA lottery procedure, etc, I ended up seeing 10 shows (and only one involved me paying for a plane ticket and hotel room - Hawaii - because I was on my honeymoon) and was in the ellipse 3 times, front row twice. So I saw three times as many shows as I originally intended (3) and beat the 1/8 odds of making it into the ellipse.
So all in all, I'm still a happy fan, still maintain that it's my choice to see shows and the band doesn't owe me shit just b/c I think I'm a bigger fan than someone else. I'll tell you one of the highlights for me was in Detroit, my friends and I got scanned into the ellipse and there was this girl screaming next to us, she was a "newbie fan" she said, her first U2 show ever and she was front row, spitting distance from Edge, and it was totally cool. People can't help when they are born. I was with a good friend who has been a U2 fan since 1984 and that's the year I was born.
My main gripe about last tour was not the tickets or the GA or the lottery, but the lack of basic communication between the U2 camp and the venues. For example in Detroit I was nearly assaulted by security because I was carrying a camera. For one, I did not intend to bring my camera IN (I was in the parking lot, taking pics with friends), but second, U2 staff had made it clear to fans that they didn't care about point-and-shoot cameras. There were also several times fans got mixed messages about taking in a small backpack or purse. Like how hard is it for someone to type up a list and ask the venue to pass a memo around to their security staff? I'm not a confrontational person but at the same time I don't like 5 different people giving me different answers when I politely ask a legit question.