Bruce Springsteen's Milwaukee show is sold out. Resale tickets range from $200 (for behind the stage) to $5,112.
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Elation has turned to anger for some Bruce Springsteen fans, with some first hand tickets for the Boss' first U.S. tour dates since 2016 with the E Street Band reportedly going for over $4,000 through Ticketmaster.
The Milwaukee contingent may be a bit peeved with the Boss, too, after tickets went on sale Wednesday morning for the band's Fiserv Forum show March 7.
Journal Sentinel business editor Jim Nelson endured the wait on Ticketmaster, but he did manage to score two seats — separated from each other, unfortunately — in the arena's lower bowl for $225 each, not including fees.
Among the few tickets left for the Milwaukee show Wednesday morning was a stray seat behind the stage for $150 — quite steep considering the "rear view" as its listed on Ticketmaster — and seats in the first row behind the floor pit for up to $2,475. Those prices do not include fees.
But by Thursday morning, the only tickets remaining on sale through Ticketmaster were "verified resale tickets" already purchased, and being sold, by other people. And the prices are now higher.
As of Thursday morning, the cheapest ticket for the March 7 show was $200 — for a seat in the very last row of Section 217, behind the stage. That doesn't include the $45.50 in fees, but for what it's worth, one of those tickets is an aisle seat.
And now, front-row seats on the floor behind the standing-only general admission area are going for $5,112 — up nearly 70% from Wednesday, when they were being sold as first-hand tickets through Ticketmaster. And fees for those tickets are a whopping $1,162.98 each.
Prices for those tickets may change; demand is extremely high. Not only will it be Springsteen's first Milwaukee appearance since 2016, but the Boss didn't book a Chicago date for this leg of the tour.
Tickets have been going on sale on a rolling basis for Springsteen's 31 U.S. arena shows scheduled for February through April. Ticketmaster is the primary ticket seller for most of the dates, with prospective ticket buyers required to register for first access.
But the backlash was swift when the first shows' tickets went on sale July 20. The price for some first-hand floor seats was more than $4,000 as a result of Ticketmaster's "dynamic pricing" system, which adjusts the price in real time due to demand.
By comparison, the pricing for the 2016-'17 “River Tour,” the last time the E Street Band hit the road, was below the industry average at $68 to $150 for a typical arena show, according to the Asbury Park Press.
The furor was so loud last week that Ticketmaster Sunday took the rare step of releasing some data for the first Springsteen shows that went on sale. According to Ticketmaster, about 88.2% of tickets were sold at face value, from $59.50 to $399 before service fees, resulting in an average ticket price of $202. Just 1.3% of total tickets across the shows sold for more than $1,000, according to Ticketmaster.
Springsteen himself hasn't commented about the controversy, but his longtime manager Jon Landau addressed the backlash in a statement to The New York Times Tuesday.
“In pricing tickets for this tour, we looked carefully at what our peers have been doing. We chose prices that are lower than some and on par with others," Landau said.
“Regardless of the commentary about a modest number of tickets costing $1,000 or more, our true average ticket price has been in the mid-$200 range," he continued. "I believe that in today’s environment, that is a fair price to see someone universally regarded as among the very greatest artists of his generation.”
The Journal Sentinel's Jim Nelson and Chris Jordan of the Asbury Park Press contributed to this report.
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Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bruce Springsteen resale ticket prices for Milwaukee show up to $5,112
