Christopher BarrettLive Nation Entertainment-owned Ticketmaster said it has cancelled today’s public ticket on-sale for Taylor Swift’s tour following “extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand”.
The ticketing giant said millions of fans had registered in advance as “verified fans” with the aim of attempting to buy tickets for Swift’s 52-city US tour during the pre-sale period.
Ticketmaster issued a statement in which it said, “Based on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing), that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years.”
The ticketing arm of Live Nation is now facing political scrutiny over antitrust concerns and following complaints about what has been described as a chaotic pre-sale initiative. Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti is among those to have raised concerns about Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s perceived dominance of the ticketing market.
He said on social media, “Ticketmaster’s decision to cancel sales underscores the important need for accountability. Fans deserve a fair chance to buy a ticket. I’m encouraged by other stage AGs who are taking this issue seriously as well.”
According to Buffalo-based news station WGRZ, Skrmetti also said, “If it’s not a consumer protection [violation], but it’s an antitrust law that is violated, there is a wide range of options that are available.”