Resale value of Travis Scott concert tickets has plummeted due to low demand

Travis Scott is set to launch his "Utopia-Circus Maximus Tour" on Oct. 11 with 40 arena concerts scheduled. This marks his first official tour since the tragedy at Astroworld in 2021. However, reports suggest that ticket sales have been sluggish, indicating a low demand for the show.

Jason Koebler of 404 Media reports that scalpers are finding it difficult to sell tickets for Travis Scott's "Utopia - Circus Maximus" tour on secondary markets. Koebler provided a link to the StubHub page for Scott's Raleigh show, where the cheapest tickets are currently priced at $14, less than a quarter of their $61.50 face value on Ticketmaster.

Tickets initially sold out after going on sale on Aug. 31, but Scott added more dates. The first-round sale offered tickets starting at $65 plus fees.

Due to decreased demand, show tickets are now available for as little as $10 in some locations. Scott will perform in New York City at Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Dec. 18th and 19th, with tickets starting at $59, which is a steal for a concert in the Big Apple.

When Scott visits Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida, tickets can be purchased for as low as $34. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, StubHub is selling tickets for $16.

Last month, there was a rush to buy tickets for the "Utopia - Circus Maximus" concert, which sold out almost instantly. According to Koebler, PFS Buyers Club, a website that typically buys rare U.S. Mint coins, has shifted its focus to buying tickets for popular concerts. It is possible that the PFS Buyers Club played a role in causing the initial buying frenzy.

"Ticket resellers leverage the credit card point maximizing community to create a human ticket-buying botnet allowing them yet another way to bypass Ticketmaster's ticket-buying limits and hoard tickets to resell at high prices while regular fans get left in the dust," Koebler shared.

It has come to light that resellers who invested in the tour now face the possibility of losing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. One buyer told Koeber that he purchased 123 tickets across several cities, spending a total of over $36,000. PFS promised a $25 commission to its members, but it has since gone back on its word and expressed that the website may suffer a significant financial loss.

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Ticketmaster has been criticized for its lack of protection against predatory scalping and controversial practices, including "dynamic ticketing" fees. This issue gained attention after Taylor Swift's Eras tour caused the site to crash in November 2020, leading to multiple lawsuits by angry fans. The matter has also triggered an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice into Ticketmaster's 2010 merger with Live Nation.

What is scalping?

Ticket scalping, also known as ticket touting or ticket reselling, is the practice of using automated software (bots) to purchase large quantities of tickets for events from licensed sources, with the goal of reselling them at a higher price. This practice often targets popular sports and music events.

Scalper bots make up 40% of online ticket purchases, buying tickets with automated software to resell them at a higher price, as found in a study of 180 ticketing websites by Imperva.

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Astroworld tragedy in 2021

On Nov. 5, 2021, Scott's Astroworld music festival turned deadly in his hometown of Houston, Texas, where eight people died. The crowd surge pushed concertgoers towards the stage, crushing and trampling fans.

Following the incident, Scott and the promoter, Live Nation Entertainment, have faced multiple lawsuits and a criminal investigation.

Houston Fire officials maintained an 11-page log on the night of the festival. USA TODAY exclusively revealed its contents on Nov. 11. The log details how the festival started with crowds rushing over barricades and how things escalated into chaos. It also documents the response of police, paramedics, and other officials to the growing crisis.

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