KTNV 13 Las Vegas (12/28/2022)

Americans are paying more for event tickets across the board, with Pollstar estimating that the current average cost to attend concerts by artists like KISS and Garth Brooks is about $108 versus $28.50 in 1996, which is also nearly 18% higher than pre-pandemic prices in 2019. Andrea Luoma at the University of Montana credits the price surge to pent-up demand, along with artists inundating reopened venues at the same time. "It's at least 30% to 40% more expensive today to tour than it was pre-pandemic," she added. "And part of that is just because the cost of living everywhere has gone up so much. The only way the artist is really making money, [is] ... because they go on tour and then they sell merchandise." Billboard reported that concertgoers' money does not go directly to performers, with the base ticket price channeled into marketing, production costs and venue rental. "Just to break even a venue has to sell 80% of all the tickets," Luoma said. Promoters have also strived to supplement their 15% take of the profits with fees, which in some cases can outprice the ticket itself. Adding to ticket inflation is dynamic pricing, designed to keep tickets out of the secondary market and boost revenue. "The fact [is] that artists are suddenly charging $200 a ticket or $250 a ticket or $300 and up," Luoma observed. "That's just realistically ... keeping level with what else is out there when tickets were $6.25 back in the 1970s. If people were that upset over the ticket prices, they wouldn't go."

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