Ticket Sales For Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour Aren’t Doing Well Nationally, But What About In St. Louis?

Ryan
2268 days ago.

Taylor Swift Brings Her Reputation Tour To St. Louis In September

Tickets to see Taylor Swift on her upcoming Reputation tour, set to begin May 8 in Arizona and coming to St. Louis on September 18, have been on sale since December 13. Various outlets are reporting that ticket sales thus far have been less than stellar.

Taylor Swift will play a concert at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis on September 18, 2018. The stop will be part of her Reputation World Tour.
Taylor Swift will play a concert at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis on September 18, 2018. The stop will be part of her Reputation World Tour.

Sales of Swift’s Reputation album have been great, however. Reputation returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart this week after occupying the spot for three consecutive weeks following its release in early November 2017. Reputation was the top-selling album of 2017, selling more than 3 million copies.

Despite Swift’s popularity and Reputation‘s success,  not a single date on Swift’s upcoming tour has sold out — according to the New York Post. 

The New York Post cites ticket prices as the chief reason for the disappointing ticket sales. A ticket in the very top row of University of Phoenix Stadium, the site of the tour’s opening date, can be had for $124 plus fees.  A Twitter user cited by the Post claimed the same seat she sat in during a stop on Swift’s 1989 tour for $150 would cost almost $500 for the upcoming tour.

Tickets Still Available To See Taylor Swift In St. Louis

Tickets for Swift’s St. Louis stop are decidedly cheaper, but still available. A ticket in the top row of The Dome at America’s Center, where the concert will be held, can be had for $46.50 plus fees.

About those fees. That $46.50 ticket will cost you $70.25 after fees. There’s a “service fee” of $16.50, then a” facility charge” of $3 and finally, an “order processing fee” of $4.35.

Those sub-$100 tickets might as well have you watching Taylor Swift from the Dome rafters. Floor seats are still available for the St. Louis show, but you might have to forgo paying rent for the month. A floor seat in the center section, 14 rows behind the section that requires a VIP package purchase, has a list price of $625 through Ticketmaster.  Add more than $100 in fees and that floor seat will cost you $725.30.

Want to be among the people standing closest to the stage?  Those are the sections that are only available as part of a VIP package. A single seat as part of the “Snake Bit Package” goes for $896. You at least don’t have to pay a “service fee” on top of that, though you’ll still be charged the $3 and $4.35 fees.

I looked at the Ticketmaster site today to see what tickets were still available for Taylor Swift’s St. Louis show. Surprisingly, the vast majority of the floor seats and the seats in the middle section of the stadium have been sold. The overwhelming majority of the seats still available are in the top section of the stadium.

In Kansas City, where Swift will stop at Arrowhead Stadium on September 8, many mid-level seats are still available. In New Orleans, the majority of the available seats are located in the highest section of the Louisiana Superdome, however a large amount of VIP package tickets are also still available.

Is The Verified Fan Program To Blame?

So are the high ticket prices the reason for the sluggish ticket sales? When Swift initially announced the Reputation tour, she also announced a partnership with Ticketmaster to utilize their #verifiedfan program, which we wrote about back in November.

The program’s intent, as explained by Swift and Ticketmaster, is to allow fans to buy the best seats at the concerts and keep them away from bots and others that will attempt resell them on the secondary market at a premium.

As Uproxx  pointed out, the system does appear to favor fans in the ticket-selling process — the wealthiest fans.

Fans registered for the program and put their names on a virtual “wait list” for ticket. Fans could move up on the list by doing things like watching Swift’s music videos on YouTube, purchasing the Reputation album, as well as other Swift merchandise.

The program appears to have kept tickets from flooding the secondary market at the expense of overall sales. With many concerts, scalpers are able to buy up many tickets the moment they go on sale and resell them on sites like Stubhub at a  (hopefully steep) markup.

As of today, a ticket to Swift’s St. Louis show can be had for $79.03 including fees. That’s almost $9 more than a ticket through Ticketmaster would cost.

Time will tell if this new strategy will work out for Taylor Swift. Considering the singer was worth an estimated $280 million ( including the estimated $170 million she made in 2016) before Reputation was released, it’s safe to say she will be okay if she makes a few dollars less from this tour.

Tickets to see Taylor Swift on her Reputation tour are too rich for my blood, but I wish her the best.

By the way, this performance from the 2009 CMA Awards will always be my favorite T-Swizzle performance.

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Ryan

Ryan is a weird dude. He doesn't cook, yet owns a plethora of kitchen gadgets. He rationalized buying a SodaStream while unemployed. He counts Step Up 2: The Streets as one of his favorite movies along with Footloose, Rent, Grease and Paul Blart: Mall Cop. He loves Mizzou but only wants them in the SEC so he can tailgate in Nashville. He owns a ShakeWeight and AbLounger, but still loves him some John Donut and Billie's Fine Foods. You can get more of Ryan at iLoveSoulard.com or just check the stool on the far end of the bar at iTap in Soulard.

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