Taylor Swift public ticket sale canceled over excessive demand, Ticketmaster says

Tickets for Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour will not be placed on sale to most people Friday, after Stay Nation’s Ticketmaster mentioned there weren’t sufficient tickets to fulfill meet demand.

“As a consequence of terribly excessive calls for on ticketing methods and inadequate remaining ticket stock to fulfill that demand, tomorrow’s public on-sale for Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour has been cancelled,” Ticketmaster mentioned in a tweet.

The corporate introduced the cancellation hours after the CEO of Stay Nation’s largest shareholder blamed a surge of demand from 14 million customers, together with bots, for web site disruptions and sluggish queues for presales earlier this week.

The location was solely speculated to be open to round 1.5 million verified Swift followers, Liberty Media chief Greg Maffei informed CNBC.

Maffei mentioned Ticketmaster offered greater than 2 million tickets on Tuesday and demand for the celebrity’s 52-date tour “might have stuffed 900 stadiums.”

Shares of Stay Nation closed down practically 3% Thursday.

A lot of the demand for Swift’s stadium tour stems from the record-breaking launch of her new album “Midnights” and the truth that the singer has not toured since 2018′s “Repute” stadium tour. Her “Lover Fest” tour was canceled because of the pandemic.

The “Eras” tour is about to kick off March 17 in Glendale, Arizona.

Ticketmaster and Stay Nation got here underneath hearth this week after activists and lawmakers advised the corporate, which merged in 2010, must be damaged up following a storm of glitches and web site failures in the course of the presales for Swift’s upcoming tour.

Legions of Swift’s followers took to social media to complain in regards to the lengthy wait instances and confusion over “verified fan” tickets and presale codes. The verified fan program, which was established in 2017, was designed to maintain tickets within the palms of precise followers and never resellers.

However, that did not seem to work in a number of circumstances. Inside hours, tickets for the tour have been already up on the market within the secondary market at exponential markups.

“Eras” tour tickets are priced from $49 to $450, with VIP packages beginning at $199 and reaching $899. Secondary market costs could be seen starting from $800 to $20,000 per ticket.

Representatives for Ticketmaster and Swift’s touring firm, AEG Worldwide, didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.