The high cost of tickets to Rolling Stones’ Australian tour was revealed last Friday ahead of today’s pre-sale box office opening, but right on cue, scalpers and ticket touts are already taking advantage of the intense demand by offering up premium passes at hugely inflated prices online.
The ‘14 On Fire Tour will see the legendary rock institution playing five ‘one night only’ concerts across capital cities next March, presented by AEG Live and Frontier Touring, including a sold-out headline performance to an audience of 70,000 to open the refurbished Adelaide Oval, the band’s first performance in the SA capital in two decades.
Tickets to the sold out Adelaide concert are going for as much as $3,000 online – nearly six times the face value – from sellers on eBay and digital re-sale platform, viagogo, while General Admission tickets are already being offered for the Sydney and Melbourne dates for nearly twice the original $577 price tag, despite tickets not even officially going on sale yet.
There are currently no laws in South Australia against ticket scalping to prevent such profiteering, but in response, South Australian Attorney-General Jon Rau says a proposal to cap the re-sale of tickets to no more than 10% above their face value could be introduced, as ABC News reports. Tickets to the sold out Adelaide concert are going for as much as 3,000 dollars online – nearly six times the face value.
Similar to the proposed NSW anti-scalping legislation and the against scalping over tickets to this year’s Meredith Music Festival, Rau says the Major Events Bill is designed to protect consumers against ticket touts.
“The idea was in big events like that you could declare the event and that would protect the authorised offerers of merchandise and advertising from that sort of unauthorised [selling], basically ripping-off,” says Mr Rau. Additionally, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has indicated he will motion for a national Senate inquiry into ticket scalping this week.
The NSW government’s similar injunction into anti-scalping, first proposed in February, by empowering concert promoters with rights to refuse entry to those found in breach of their terms and conditions was designed to protect the consumer. But the law reforms were heavily criticised as doing more harm than good by ticketing companies, including Ticketmaster and viagogo.
According to research commissioned from the latter re-sale platform, 500,000 Australians were the victim of ticket scams and fraud in the last year, while the Rolling Stones promoters, Frontier Touring, have already been at the target of a spate of ticket scalping once already this year; responding to the backlash over fans who missed out on tickets to Bruce Springsteen’s forthcoming Australian Tour by damning “unscrupulous scalpers” and warning fans over being “duped” by online scammers.
Frontman Mick Jagger has previously expressed concerns about ticket scalping over the band’s concerts, the 70-year-old singer telling The Chicago Tribune that the re-sale secondary market should be made illegal while defending the high costs of their tickets by saying “there’s a price for everybody.”
The demand (and prices) for the Rolling Stones Australian tour have been driven upward by the limited amount of dates, the fact it’s been seven years since the band’s last trek, and the unspoken near-certainty that the March ‘one night only’ concerts could well be the Stones’ last ever visit to Australia.
The Rolling Stones Australian Tour 2014
Wednesday 19 March 2014 – Perth Arena, Perth WA
Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au [Pre-sale starts Monday 9 December 3pm Perth time]
Tongue Pit – $580.45
Category 1 – $580.45
Category 2 – $376.95
Category 3 – $200.95
Lucky Dip – $99.00
Saturday 22 March 2014 – Adelaide Oval, Adelaide SA (SOLD OUT)
Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au
Tuesday 25 March 2014 Sydney Allphones Arena
Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au [Pre-sale starts Monday 9 December 3pm Sydney time]
Tongue Pit – $577.70
Category 1 – $577.70
Category 2 – $374.20
Category 3 – $198.20
Lucky Dip – $99.00
Friday 28 March 2014 Melbourne Rod Laver Arena
Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au [Pre-sale starts Monday 9 December 4pm Melbourne time]
Tongue Pit – $578.25
Category 1 – $578.25
Category 2 – $374.15
Category 3 – $197.95
Lucky Dip – $99.00
Sunday 30 March 2014 Hanging Rock, Macedon Ranges
Ticketmaster 136 100 www.ticketek.com.au [Pre-sale starts Monday 9 December 2pm VIC time]
Category 1 – $576.60
Category 2 – $373.10
General Admission (Standing) – $153.10
Lucky Dip – $99
Wednesday 02 April Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Ticketek 132 849 www.ticketek.com.au [Pre-sale starts Monday 9 December 4pm Brisbane time]
Tongue Pit – $577.70
Category 1 – $577.70
Category 2 – $374.20
Category 3 – $198.20
Lucky Dip – $99.00
The Rolling Stones ’14 On Fire Australian Tour
frontiertouring.com/rollingstones Pre-sale: Monday 9 December to Tuesday 10 December
RollingStones.com $99 tickets: Monday 16 December – from 9am local times*
On-sale: Monday 16 December – from 9am local times
*visit frontiertouring.com/rollingstones for local times and ticketing terms and conditions
~ or earlier if pre-sale allocation exhausted
