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IT TOOK JUST minutes for U2′s Joshua Tree 30th anniversary gig in Croke Park to sell out this morning, but fans with deep pockets can still pick up tickets.
With a capacity of almost 78,000, Croke Park is among the largest stadiums on the European leg of the The Joshua Tree Tour, but that didn’t stop fans snapping up the tickets in less than five minutes. However, some fans were left angered by the fact that hundreds of tickets immediately popped up on SeatWave, a company owned by Ticketmaster, who sold the original tickets.
The SeatWave tickets start at €290, some €250 more expensive than the cheapest tickets which went on sale today. Some tickets are being sold for as much as €1,019.
SeatWave bills itself as a Ticketmaster company which allows fans who missed out on sold-out gigs to purchase official tickets. It allows fans to sell their tickets, even within minutes of purchase. The company charges a 10% “success fee” on sales and allows customers set their own selling price. That means that the higher the price for “secondary market” tickets, the more money SeatWave stands to make.
Tickets are also available on eBay and DoneDeal. On eBay, touts are offering tickets for between €250 and €350 each. These tickets have left some fans angry, accusing Ticketmaster of promoting touting.
Fine Gael TD Noel Rock has been a vocal advocate of a law banning touting, calling for Ireland to shut down SeatWave with a similar law to one used in Belgium. His anti-touting law is with the Oireachtas Bills office and he hopes to have it debated soon. The bill will make it unlawful to sell tickets for major sporting musical or theatrical events for over their face value. Rock has said the law will protect consumers.
The sale of the U2 tickets came on the day that the presale for the London showing of Hamilton kicked off. The Tony-winning musical is the subject of one of the most lucrative secondary markets in the world. The New York Times estimates that scalpers can make between $3 million and $7 million a month from resold tickets.
The London sale features strict anti-touting measures, including a ban on buying for others and requirements that the credit or debit card used to purchase is brought by the ticket holder, along with with ID.
When Ticketmaster was asked about their view of anti-ticket touting laws in Ireland, a company spokesperson said in a statement:
“U2’s The Joshua Tree tour has been exceptionally popular. With artists of this stature, demand often far outstrips the supply of tickets. Ticketmaster is committed to the overall ticket buying process to ensure artists get tickets into the hands of fans and never places tickets on secondary market sites.”
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Disgraceful company, stole the entire game off of a smaller developer, then sued the original developer for copyright infringement to boot. Complete and utter w*****s
Not a bunch to be trusted.
They also trademarked the word “Candy” in Europe.
Didn’t know that.
And there was me about to post a happy comment, oh well expect the worst and you’ll never be disappointed.
used to play it, got to level 167 i think, never paid a thing cos… its rigged. you could be stuck on a level from repeated play in one sitting, come back 2 days later, clear it right away. they see you’ve not used it in a while, so let you move on again. Got bored of it then. Logged into recently and im back at level 1, think they revamped it or maybe they do that if you stop using it for 6 months.
If you have kids near this, don’t let them pay a cent.
Not with a barge pole! Remember Zynga.
Bain of my life
I heard chuck norris just made it to level 587,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. He is halfway to completing the game.
On level 421 and I never have & never will pay a cent to play! :-)
Level 500 is impossible. I really don’t think it’s possible without buying extra moves or help. It’s the very last level so if you wanna finish the game you’ll have to pay up.
Level 500… Seriously, it’s driving me insane at level 86…
Got past it and on 508 now. There are no last levels, it goes on and on and on, taunting me to keep going or fail!!! Aaaah!!
No. Level 500 is the last level in Candy crush saga unless it haven’t done an update.
Dam it! Just updated it. Not on the last level anymore. Dam you Candy Crush!!
Passed level 500 yesterday after a month . Nightmare level
Hahahahaha, see it never flucking ends!! It’s a diabolical plot!!
Feel rather sorry for guy who made Candy Stripe, which King blatantly ripped off and netted loss of earnings as result.
You can still get the original Candy Stripe on Play store.
413 million profits with 12.5% tax! That’s over 51 million to the exchequer. thanks candycrush……… or not?
93 million people with their heads down tutting!!
…mind you, it seems like a little more of a realistic valuation
They’re not giving a valuation as far as I can see though, unless their multiplier is about 1.2 in which case barge pole distance is about as close as private investors are ever likely to get! They’ve just said how much they plan to raise, but no indication of market cap in this article. If the valuation is right they’ll get plenty of interest, lots of m&a in the industry so plenty willing to have a punt in the hope a tech giant might move for them down the road.
Good point(s).
If off to spend my money on cheap hookers so.
Always a sound investment! As long as the return doesn’t involve a trip to James’ of course!
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