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February 17, 2008

Billy Joel's Shea show sells out in an hour...fans irate...tickets on StubHub for $100,000 each...

The Daily Swarm | Read Full Story >

UPDATE: 2nd show sold out.

Joel Fan:

It was even harder this time around for me. Getting in with the Citicard took a half hour longer than last week.

I feel so bad for everyone wanting tickets and not getting in. This is very sad and pathetic.

UPDATE: NY Daily News: Fans cry ‘foul’:

“I think we were misled,” said Kevin Lewis, 28, of Ronkonkoma, L.I., who bought 10 $95 tickets to Joel’s Wednesday, July 16 concert. Wednesday , the Mets added “a second – and final” Joel concert at Shea on July 18, a Friday night.

“They just really screwed people and totally diluted the value of these…Wednesday night tickets!” said Lewis, a mortgage company manager.

Mets officials said that since the 50,000 tickets to the first concert sold out in 48 minutes, demand dictated they add another show to accommodate as many fans as possible.

UPDATE: Billy Joel adds 2nd final show at Shea Stadium:

METS AND BILLY JOEL ADD SECOND – AND FINAL – SHOW FRIDAY, JULY 18 FOR LAST CONCERT EVER AT SHEA STADIUM

BILLY JOEL‘S “THE LAST PLAY AT SHEA” PRESENTED BY CITI®

Tickets Go On Sale This Saturday, February 23 at 9 A.M. (EST) at www.507TIXX.com

Music Legend Sets Shea Concert Record, Selling Out July 16 Show in 48 Minutes

NEW YORK, N.Y., February 19, 2008 – The New York Mets today announced that rock and roll icon Billy Joel has added a second – and final – show on Friday, July 18 in “The Last Play at Shea.” Tickets for the final concert event in Shea Stadium history go on sale this Saturday, February 23 at 9:00 a.m. at www.507TIXX.com and by phone at (718) 507-TIXX. Citi cardmembers also will have access to purchase preferred seats through Citi’s Private Pass® Program, available to all Citi cardmembers at www.privatepass.citi.com

Today’s announcement follows the fastest concert sell out in Shea’s 44-year history when more than 50,000 tickets sold on the Mets’ www.507TIXX.com ticketing system powered by Paciolan in 48 minutes.

http://www.507tixx.com/

StubHub

Earvolution:

Ticketing giant Ticketmaster was frozen out of the sales process as the ducats were sold through the Mets online ticketing system, 507tixx.com. As Citi Field is currently being constructed in Shea’s parking lot, it’s unsurprising that Citibank credit card holders received special preferences. However, 507tixx.com seemed quite ill prepared to efficiently handle the frenzy of Internet activity produced by the allure of one of New York’s own headlining the venue.

Starting at 9 a.m., hordes of ticket buyers were greeted with a message informing them that the servers were busy and a clock ticking off a 60 second countdown, after which another attempt would be made. With the average wait being more than an hour, it was hardly shocking to learn that by the time the server was free, all the tickets were gone.

Ticketmaster may soak their fans with exorbitant and unnecessary service fees, but at least they have the courtesy to tell you whether the show is sold out without killing your entire morning watching a clock tick.

JoelFan Forum:

I saw a LOT of tickets on sale BEFORE THEY WENT ON SALE. All that someone wouldn’t ,now is the seat location until the seller received them. Enough said about dirty play going on. It is BLATANT.All I know is IF there is a Saturday show, I will have to get them off of StubHUB or EBAY if I want to see Billy after todays fiasco.

Theres definately a leak here and tickets WERE sold days before they were supposed to go on sale but only to scalpers. I wont pay for scalpers tickets, if theres another show Ill try, and ill try again the day of the concerts to see if anything pops up, but i will not pay twice the face value for a ticket, the economy is too screwed up and thats one luxury i can not afford any more!


Post a comment

Previous comments include

#1 Jupiter says:

Blame your New York State Governor, legislators and attorney general for allowing the anti-scalping statutes to quietly lapse from enforcement. There are now no laws in place in the state of New York to protect either the fans or the artists from being swindled by these bastards. This means that the price placed on a ticket to any event in New York has no more value than the paper it is printed on. Caveat Emptor!

#2 msova says:

This really isn't about scalpers. It's about 507TIXX.com unprepared and incapable of handling this type of event. Sure, it's nice to avoid all of Ticketmaster'svarious "convenience charges." Still, I'd prefer to pay a few extra bucks so I can actually get tickets when they go on sale. When 507TIXX.com started officially selling tickets at 9:00 last Saturday morning, I had four separate browser windows open, each one giving me that damn 60 second countdown. The clocks were all at different intervals, and still, by the time I FINALLY got in, all the tickets were gone! If any more shows are announced, I really hope Ticketmaster is involved. Those guys are crooks, but at least they're reliable crooks.

#3 djd says:

my god this is horrible.

#4 jeff says:

weird how ticketmaster is auctioning tix now. why didn't they handle in the first place?

http://www.ticketmaster.com/auction/1...

#5 mjg63 says:

I'd be mighty pissed off if I purchased tickets for the July 16th show, advertised as the last show at Shea, and then found out that I was no longer attending THE last show!

#6 dennis says:

Live Nation, who is handling the Billy Joel concert severed relationship with Ticketmaster several months ago. 507Tixx was a joke and unable to either anticipate and/or handle the traffic. Tickets were on sale on various sites days before the "official" sale. I read that Mets season ticket holders were offered the opportunity to purchase in advance. Now a 2nd concert ( not surprisingly) has been added so those individuals who purchased tickets to " The Last Play at Shea" will now see " The Next To Last Play" at Shea. The average concert goer / ticket buyer doesn't stand a chance these days.

#7 cdispod says:

I just checked stubhub and there are hundreds of tickets for the Friday night show that haven't yet gone on sale.

I tried last weekend, had 6 tickets but an undetermined error occured and I lost them! I'll try again this week, but if I don't get tickets I won't be buying them from anyone selling them above face value. I hope those that underhandedly got tickets and are trying to sell them at rediculous prices get stuck with them.

#8 Anonymous says:

I have chosen to be one of those people who are on either ebay or StubHub selling tickets I was able to purchase. Yes, the economy is horrible. Yes, its crazy that face value of these tickets cost me $112. But As a huge Billy Joel fan that was always forced to pay above face value and also broke as a skunk, have decided that if I cant beat them, join them. Selling a few of my tickets will hopefully bring me the opportunity to afford to pay for myself to go. Not everyone on stubhub is trying to rip you off. Perhaps they are just going with the current market value. As long as people are willing to pay hundreds for a ticket, there will be people selling them. The one thing I am pissed about is that these tickets are not for the last play at shea, they are for the "Second to last play at Shea" If anything, they should have had any additional shows perform before July 16th.
Atleast good ol Billy is willing to accomidate fans.

#9 kristin says:

I am so mad that they added a second show. The first show was billed as a final show, but now is a second to final show? What the hell... this is no fair to the people who bought tickets, it's like under false pretenses.

#10 D-Train says:

For those of you that bought tickets for July 16th and are upset that a 2nd show was added, all I have to say is: "WAAAAAAA". Be happy that you even got tickets because I spend an hour last week and an hour today and never got through. If you want to boycot the show, let me know and I'll be glad to take the tickets off your hands. Just be happy that you at the very least have tickets to either show...By the way, they did say that if there was a big demand that there could be a 2nd show...

#11 dave says:

SCREW ticketmaster. screw 501tixx. and buy the Billy Joel album.

#12 Donna says:

Yesterday I got tickets to the 7/18 show. But, I was online and by 8:50 they were already telling me tickets were sold out for the show. I was getting nuts needless to say. The website was like so overloaded. I tried the number and by 9:15 i had 2 tickets in section 120 i was shocked. I then decided i should get 2 more...i got threw again by 10:15 ...tickets sold out. I hear though a 7/14 show may be in the works..but dont know how that rumor holds. Good luck all you billy joel fans.

#13 SNK in Ronkonkoma says:

I was able to purchase bad seats for the first concert which does not bother me since I go to all his shows. But when trying to purchase tickets for the second show I was suddenly bumped two seperate times after getting through and getting good seats. When I put my card in and went to pay each time I suddenly was booted. Something was not right. It is amazing how many seats the slime who sell for a profit have. True fans are always screwed. Shea and 507tixx.com sould be investigated. Something just was not right !

#14 Thirteenburn says:

As I see it, the off-site ticket brokers such as this 507tixx.com, as well as the credit card companies who "sponsor" these shows are the ones responsible for the debacle that happened with both Joel shows, as well as the imbecilic fans who are willing to pay upwards of $3k to $10k over face value to scalpers.

I may be crazy, but I think that the bands themselves need to step up and make it to where only the venue and approved off-site vendors (here where I live it was a place called G.I. Joe's and now just called Joe's) are allowed to sell tickets, and must do so to fans in person on a first come, first served basis and only a two ticket maximum. It worked brilliantly back in the 70's and early 80's before the ticket "brokers" (Ticketmaster and 507tixx.com are nothing more than pro scalpers in my humble opinion) got involved and only so they could get their "cut".

And it's a fact that street scalpers have inside people working at those very companies who give them preferential treatment in return for kickbacks. Couple that with the fact that most of the choice tickets go to the radio companies who promote them, as well as the Ticketmasters, etc., as well as their families and friends, effectively screwing the average fan into either not going, or having to pay some ridiculous price to do so.

And do the bands and artist's such as Billy Joel give a rats ass about you, the fan? Of course not. As long as they sell out, they get their millions, play the shows and then they forget all about it. And spare me the usual clap-trap about "it's all economics and supply vs. demand and it's a sellers market and it's called capitalism."

Whatever.

All I know is, is that back in the late 70's and early 80's I never had a problem with getting tickets when I wanted to see whomever was playing in the Seattle/Portland area and rarely did I have to pay a scalper to do so. And in those rare instances when I did, I NEVER paid more than $20 over face value, as most scalpers knew that they couldn't make any money by charging insane and assinine prices as they do today.

But again, it's just as much the fault of the ticket companies and credit card companies as it is the fault of the fans themselves, and until someone gets a clue and pulls their collective heads out of their collective asses, it's never going to change and will only get far worse.

And the recording industry, their labels, the artists and the RIAA wonder why their profits are plummeting in the face of "illegal" downloading of their artists music? If you ask me, the REAL illegality happening is that of the companies who were responsible for the entire "Joel at Shea" fiasco, as well as the promoters and even in some instances, the artists themselves who allow this shit to continue unabated.

I could be wrong here, but in the words of the great Metallica:

"You know it's sad but true..."

Cheers!!

#15 Steven Patrick Morrissey says:

only on long island do you see this hubbub over this overrated artist. i'm a diehard mets fan and i could care less about this.

he's not even a mets fan, ferchrissakes!

#16 Vicki says:

Billy Joel hates that die hard fans of his cannot get tickets to his performances. He was interviewed years ago about this.

I think he even said this was a reason why he hated to play concerts..because of the unfairness to his fans.

I just saw a ticket on sale on ebay... Buy it Now...around $5500. in the wheelchair section..........

I tried for an hour both days and didnt get one ticket. I am so disappointed. BUT I REFUSE TO BUY FROM THE SECONDARY MARKET.

#17 The Kid says:

What's going on with the secondary market has been going on for quite some time. By 2000 - Brokers were charging 3-400 to sit in a Pavillion from everyone from Phish to Matchbox 20 to u2. U2 tickets were the spark actually. And they were selling. It was bound to happen unless strictly prohibited by law. I saw 60 min do one story on it - focusing on parents spending $250 a seat for their kids to see Jonas Brother or Miley Cyrus because "Thats all they want for Christmas" The ticket industry has gotten ugly for sure - but that unfortunately not the biggest travesty in this particular situation.

The biggest travesty here is the addition of a 2nd Final show after the first Final show. Let's face it - to get tickets for this you had "to go to extremes" and I felt so jibbed and shafted as a fan upon the announcement of the Friday show. For starters I wanted to attend the official last show - second - I Would have much rather gone on a Friday!

I just hope Billy is aware of all of this and his die hards - like I - are rewarded for our effort the first time around with something truly unique tonight. Cant Wait !!!

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