It’s shaping up to be a busy and expensive concert season this summer in Toronto. With some big acts coming to the city, including Coldplay, Katy Perry, The Weeknd, and K-Pop group BLACKPINK.
However, many fans have said they’re shocked by how tickets to the South Korean girl group’s concerts in Toronto were sold.
BLACKPINK has a loyal following and when the band announced they were reuniting for a world tour that included a stop in Toronto in July at the new Rogers Stadium, many fans scrambled to get tickets, with some paying over $1,000 for a single seat.
However, after the July 22nd show sold out, the group’s promoters announced a second date with cheaper tickets, frustrating two BLACKPINK fans who had already purchased tickets for the first night.
“This is the first time they’ve gotten together again, so I was excited to join them at the stage and be able to watch all four of them,” said Yihan Luo of Toronto.
Luo bought two tickets for her and her friend, and because there was only one show announced when she purchased them, she opted to pay $1,000 for each ticket, even though the seats were in different sections.
However, hours after Luo bought the tickets, the band announced they were adding a second show for the next day.
It meant Luo could have bought tickets for the second concert at a cheaper cost and sat with her friend.
“Right now there are a lot of empty seats for the second show. There are better seats and better prices too,” said Luo.
Chris Yeung of Markham, Ont., also purchased tickets to BLACKPINK’s first night in Toronto as a birthday gift for his wife. He also planned to take his children with them.
Yeung says he paid $3,978 for four tickets - also in two different sections. But when a second date was added, he told CTV News Toronto he was shocked by the price difference and said he could have bought the tickets at a much lower price for the whole family to sit together.
“We just don’t want to go anymore,” said Yeung. “I feel very upset and I feel very bad for my kids as well as we wanted to sit together.”
Both fans said they wanted refunds but couldn’t get them.
According to Ticketmaster Canada’s website, artists set their own ticket prices and “the artist plans their tour with their manager, agent, and promoter. Together this group decides which venues to play (and) when to put tickets on sale.”
“I think for decades fans were severely undervaluing what the price of a concert was,” said music industry expert Eric Alper.
Alper told CTV News Toronto concerts are now the place where the artists make most of their revenue and doesn’t blame them for charging what the market will pay.
“They are not making much on streaming services, they are not making much on YouTube for playing their videos,” said Alper. “Everything is more expensive, the venues are more expensive, insurance has gone through the roof.”
Still, fans of BLACKPINK feel if an artists is going to play two shows in a city, they shouldn’t initially tell fans they’re only going to play one.
“That’s unfair and it’s a deception to the consumers and the fans as you hide the information that there are two shows.” said Yeung. “We feel really cheated.”
