‘Really Pisses Me Off': Taylor Swift Issues Statement After Ticketmaster Presale Saga (2024)

Taylor has entered the chat.

After days of silence, Taylor Swift has finally addressed the dramatic saga that was the ticket drop for her upcoming "The Eras Tour" this week.

📺 24/7 Chicago news stream: Watch NBC 5 free wherever you are

Swift said it is "excruciating for me to watch mistakes happen with no recourse."

"There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I'm trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward," she wrote in an Instagram story. "I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It is truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."

Swift's fans were left questioning after thousands were stuck in queues for hours, others lost their places in line due to technical glitches on Ticketmaster's site and inventory was left so low that general public sales were canceled Friday.

Swift acknowledged the many who were unable to get tickets, saying in her message "all I can say is my hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs."

In a blog post that no longer appears on their site, Ticketmaster sought to clarify the details behind the saga that had so many fans disappointed. The company did not respond to NBC Chicago's request for comment as to why the post was later taken down, however.

The site said that its "verified fan" registration program, designed to amplify real human accounts for ticketing and weed out bots, ultimately could not handle the traffic that came in.

The company noted that it invited 1.5 million people to participate in an on sale event for the upcoming stadium tour, which includes a stop in Chicago. Another 2 million so-called "verified fans" were put on a waiting list.

"Historically, working with Verified Fan invite codes has worked as we’ve been able to manage the volume coming into the site to shop for tickets. However, this time the staggering number of bot attacks as well as fans who didn’t have invite codes drove unprecedented traffic on our site, resulting in 3.5 billion total system requests – 4x our previous peak," the company said in the now-deleted post. "Never before has a Verified Fan on sale sparked so much attention – or uninvited volume. This disrupted the predictability and reliability that is the hallmark of our Verified Fan platform."

Feeling out of the loop? We'll catch you up on the Chicago news you need to know. Sign up for the weekly Chicago Catch-Up newsletter.

In response to the high demand, Ticketmaster said it "slowed down some sales and pushed back others" in an attempt to "stabilize the systems," but that ultimately led to long wait times for many fans.

In total, more than 2 million tickets were sold for Taylor’s shows on Tuesday – a number Ticketmaster said is "the most tickets ever sold for an artist in a single day."

The CEO of Liberty Media,Live Nation'slargest shareholder, sought to defend the event promoter in an interview with CNBC.

"It's a function of Taylor Swift. The site was supposed to open up for 1.5 million verified Taylor Swift fans. We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots, which are not supposed to be there," Greg Maffei said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street" Thursday.

Fans left empty-handed during the presale were then given another blow.

One day before tickets were set to become available to the general public, Ticketmaster abruptly canceled the event for the general public, citing "insufficient remaining ticket inventory."

Tickets are currently available on resale markets, but they're being accompanied by lofty price tags, ranging anywhere from $500 to more than $12,000.

Ticketmaster in its post acknowledged that it has much work to do to improve systems for such events.

Due to extraordinarily high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet that demand, tomorrow's public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled.
See Also
A Timeline of Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce’s Relationship What is the oldest NFL stadium? Soldier to SoFi in age When Do Taylor Swift Tickets Go on Sale For ‘The Eras Tour' Shows in Chicago?Ticketmaster Breaks Down What Happened During Taylor Swift Ticket Saga
— Ticketmaster (@Ticketmaster) November 17, 2022

Swift's 52-date stadium visit is slated to run March 17 through Aug. 9 of 2023 throughout the U.S. and is expected to expand to international dates, as well.

The tour announcement followed Swift's release of her 10th album, “Midnights."

Taylor SwiftNov 17, 2022

Tennessee AG Investigating Ticketmaster After Taylor Swift Ticket Chaos

newsNov 16, 2022

Taylor Swift Tour Ticket Fiasco Leads to Calls for Ticketmaster and Live Nation to Break Up

ConcertsNov 15, 2022

Ticketmaster Extends Presale Period for Taylor Swift ‘Eras' Tour to Deal With ‘Unprecedented Demand'

Dates for Taylor Swift's "The Eras Tour" are below:

FRI, MAR 17, 2023
STATE FARM STADIUM
Glendale, AZ
with Paramore & GAYLE

SAT, MAR 18, 2023
STATE FARM STADIUM
Glendale, AZ
with Paramore & GAYLE

FRI, MAR 24, 2023
ALLEGIANT STADIUM
Las Vegas, NV
with beabadoobee & GAYLE

‘Really Pisses Me Off': Taylor Swift Issues Statement After Ticketmaster Presale Saga (2024)

Tennessee AG Investigating Ticketmaster After Taylor Swift Ticket Chaos

Taylor Swift Tour Ticket Fiasco Leads to Calls for Ticketmaster and Live Nation to Break Up

Ticketmaster Extends Presale Period for Taylor Swift ‘Eras' Tour to Deal With ‘Unprecedented Demand'

References