Clearly vibing with "Anti-Hero," Ticketmaster cancels public sale for Taylor Swift's Eras tour
After a presale for Taylor Swift's first tour in five years saw nearly 14 million people attempt to buy tickets, a planned Friday public sale won't be happening
Swifties, fly your red knit scarves at half-mast today: Ticketmaster is nixing Friday’s planned general public sale for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour.
“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,” Ticketmaster shared via Twitter on Thursday afternoon.
The Eras Tour is one of Swift’s biggest ever, and she’s no stranger to a stadium. Proponing to celebrate the many different seasons of her career alongside a bevy of top-notch supporting acts, including Phoebe Bridgers, Paramore, and Haim. Shows kick off in Glendale, Arizona on March 18, 2023.
The massive 52-date tour—Swift’s first in five years—saw nearly 14 million people try to buy tickets during presale, leading to extensive frustration among fans, per Live Nation chair Greg Maffei. Maffei tells Forbes that Ticketmaster planned to open presale to 1.5 million “verified” Swift fans, but were met with exponentially more fans (and bots) trying to purchase tickets.
All in all, Swift sold over 2 million tickets in presale. Swift and her team have yet to share any statements about the cancellation, or update fans on when—and more importantly, if—they’ll be able to secure tickets.
The Eras Tour has become a canary in the coal mine of sorts for Ticketmaster (well, if the canary has been coughing and sputtering on ash for years). A long-criticized 2010 merger between Ticketmaster and Live Nation has effectively created a monopoly in ticketing. Lawmakers like Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez have been publicly critical of the merger in recent days as survivors of the presale lament the state of affairs.
“Daily reminder that Ticketmaster is a monopoly, its merger with LiveNation should never have been approved, and they need to be reigned in,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted on November 14, the day Swift’s presale began. “Break them up.”