Oasis tickets sale opens with some standing prices in excess of €400 and 500,000 fans in queue (2024)

Tickets for Oasis went on general sale at 8am on Saturday morning but anyone hoping to secure themselves standing room or even a seat in Croke Park next summer simply by showing up on time is likely to have been disappointed.

The prices of some tickets left many users horrified with concert promoters MCD deploying a so-called dynamic, or in-demand, pricing model which saw some standing tickets more than double in price over the course of the first three hours of the sale.

By midday, there were still tickets up for grabs, although four standing tickets were priced at close to €2,000 when the service charges were added to the total cost with other so-called premium ticket packages costing even more than that.

Seconds after 8am, there were hundreds of thousands of people waiting in a virtual line with some users reporting that as soon as the sale window opened, the systems crashed with their place in the queue being replaced with messages such as: “Error 503 backend.max_conn”.

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But even those who were given seamless entry from the waiting room faced crushing disappointment with the vast majority a long, long way from the front.

Such is the popularity of the band – and the hype surrounding the reunion after almost 20 years – that more than 500,000 people had logged on to try to buy tickets within 10 minutes of the sale starting.

One of the reasons highlighted by fans for the high demand for the Croke Park dates was the fact that the Irish sale opened a full hour before tickets went on sale for the concerts in Britain.

Concert promoters MCD did not explain why that decision was reached and also declined when contacted by The Irish Times to say how many tickets would be up for grabs as part of the general sale.

However the likelihood is that a great many of the 160,000 tickets were already snapped up by thousands of people who took part in a three-hour presale on Friday evening.

And with most of those in the market for tickets likely to buy either two or four, the chances of the hundreds of thousands of people who found themselves at the back of the queue being able to buy tickets at a price that could be considered in any way affordable was largely impossible.

Affordability was definitely an issue with many fans shocked by some of the prices being charged. The cost of a large number of tickets was substantially higher than the initial price announced.

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In advance of the presale beginning, MCD said that ticket prices were starting “from €86.50″ not including booking fees, but with the Ticketmaster service charge included, the cost of a standing ticket to see the band came in at €176.75 with the price of many seats in the stands coming in at just more than €200.

And that was just the starting point when it came to prices.

As was the case for both Taylor Swift and Coldplay this summer, there were much higher prices attached to some tickets with some that came with an invite to a “pre-show party and exhibition fan package” selling for almost €550 and others that came with access to some merchandise selling for more than €400.

Within 30 minutes of the sale starting rumours circulated on social media that all the tickets were gone however, at 8.35am, Ticketmaster told fans that “the queue for Oasis is moving along as fans checkout. Tickets are still available for both dates so please hold your place in line”.

While that may have been true, the tickets that were left were at the very high end.

Oasis tickets sale opens with some standing prices in excess of €400 and 500,000 fans in queue (5)

Fans shared their experiences with The Irish Times.

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FAQs

It was expected that more than a million tickets for the band's gigs would sell out within minutes. Instead, the band announced all the tickets in Britain had been sold 10 hours later after many fans had spent the day in online queues.

Ticketmaster's 'dynamic pricing system' was criticised by appalled Oasis fans as tickets for the band's sought-after reunion tour reached as high as £355. The system, which has regularly been used in America, works by altering the prices of tickets based on demand similar to an Uber journey or seats on flights.

Oasis reunion live: Tickets officially sold out - as fans complain about surge in prices. Tickets have now sold out for the Oasis reunion tour that will see Liam and Noel Gallagher reunite fifteen years after their band split.

Noel and Liam Gallagher confirmed the band's long-awaited reunion on Tuesday, saying: "The great wait is over." Tickets for the Oasis Live 25 tour sold out within hours, with the band posting on X at 7pm that tickets for all 17 shows across London, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh and Dublin were gone.

The band's 1997 record, “Be Here Now,” became the fastest-selling album in British history with 696,000 copies sold in its first three days. Oasis has achieved eight No. 1 singles in the U.K.

“Dynamic pricing” on Ticketmaster, where prices rise in line with demand, set some remaining tickets at more than £350 - up from £135 when the sale began.

At its core, Ticketmaster's approach to dynamic pricing is a largely demand-based pricing model in which prices go up and down in real time based on the level of interest and the number of seats available.

Dynamic pricing uses algorithms and data analysis to set prices based on market demand. The algorithms analyze data from various sources, including historical sales data, current market trends, competitor pricing, and even weather data, to determine the optimal price for a product or service.

Oasis split in 2009 after many years of infighting, with Noel Gallagher officially leaving the band just before a performance at a festival near Paris. Even before the dissolution, the brothers had long had an antagonistic relationship and reportedly did not speak to each other for years after the breakup.

Oasis came to an end before a gig near Paris, France on 8 August 2009, following a fight between the Gallagher brothers in a backstage area, which reportedly resulted in Liam Gallagher breaking Noel's guitar.

Live events typically have a predictable sales curve. Following the presale rush, 20% of tickets sell within the first two weeks of going on sale. 30% of sales occur after the first two weeks but before the final two weeks of sales.

In 1996, two-and-a-half million people applied to watch Oasis play across two nights at Knebworth Park, near Stevenage, in Hertfordshire. In less than 24 hours, 250,000 tickets, costing £22.50 each, had sold out.

Oasis tickets sale opens with some standing prices in excess of €400 and 500,000 fans in queue (2024)