Ticketmaster is one of the largest ticket providers for live events like concerts, sports games, and more. They have exclusive partnerships with many major venues and artists, giving them a dominant position in ticket sales. However, this can also lead to frustration for customers when trying to buy tickets for in-demand events. Nothing is more annoying than getting stuck in a virtual “queue” on Ticketmaster as you wait your turn to buy tickets.
High demand and limited inventory
The most basic reason you may have to join a Ticketmaster queue is due to high demand for a limited number of tickets. Only so many seats are available in any venue. Popular artists and teams will drive significant demand that far outweighs the available inventory.
Ticketmaster uses queues to create a structured system for selling the tickets and dealing with the surge in traffic all trying to buy at once. The queue gives everyone an equal chance to get tickets by randomly assigning place in line. Otherwise, the ticketing website would simply crash from overload. Still, many more people want tickets than can get them. So you wait in the queue hoping to make it to the front before they sell out.
Some examples of events that commonly have long Ticketmaster queues due to extreme demand:
- Concerts for artists like Taylor Swift, BTS, or Harry Styles
- Big championship games like the Super Bowl or College Football Playoff
- The Olympics or World Cup events
Trying to buy tickets for events like these almost always involves a lengthy wait in a Ticketmaster queue.
Bots and ticket resellers
Another big factor is that brokers and ticket resellers use bots and other tools to buy up tickets quickly. They then turn around and relist the tickets on secondary market sites at huge markups compared to face value.
Fans trying to buy tickets for personal use have to contend with these sophisticated systems grabbing up inventory within seconds. This forces regular buyers into queues right from the start in hopes of getting any tickets at all.
It’s estimated up to 60% of tickets for hot shows and games can get scooped up instantly by these commercial ticket operations. They have the technology to get through Ticketmaster’s security and snatch tickets ahead of actual fans.
This artificial demand piles on top of natural consumer demand, forcing even more people into Ticketmaster’s queues.
Insufficient tickets for pre-sales
Another queue-inducing factor is Ticketmaster’s use of pre-sales for certain groups a few days before the general public sale.
Pre-sale access is given to groups like:
- Holders of a particular credit card associated with Ticketmaster
- Members of a venue’s email newsletter list
- Season ticket holders for a sports team
- Fan club members of the artist performing
The intent is to give special access to loyal groups before the mainstream buyers get their chance. But often, the allotment of tickets set aside for pre-sales is far too low for the number of pre-sale eligible customers.
Huge queues develop as this limited supply is open to pre-sale groups for short windows, sometimes as little as 4-6 hours. Even being eligible for early pre-sale access does not guarantee tickets. It just means joining an earlier queue competing for a small portion of total seats.
All remaining tickets then go up for the wider general public sale. Combined with bots beating everyone to the punch, regular fans have minimal inventory left to compete over via grueling queues.
Is Ticketmaster intentionally creating long queues?
Some consumers have accused Ticketmaster of artificially engineering the queue process to drive up demand and prices. Is it really just a scheme to make people panic and pay more?
The evidence on this conspiracy theory is doubtful:
- Queue lengths closely correlate to legitimate factors like event popularity, venue size, and pre-sale limits.
- There are plenty of unpopular events with no queue at all to buy tickets.
- Other major ticket sellers like AXS and StubHub use similar queuing systems for high-demand events.
It makes more sense that long queues result from organic supply and demand imbalances in the secondary ticket market. Ticketmaster has little incentive to intentionally frustrate buyers – it only damages their brand and customer experience. Their exclusive ticket deals provide ample business without resorting to shady queue manipulation.
Nonetheless, Ticketmaster’s dominance and lack of major competitors leaves few alternatives for fans desiring tickets. The queues seem unavoidable despite questioning Ticketmaster’s motives.
Is there any way around the queues?
Here are a few tips that may help bypass Ticketmaster queues in some cases:
- Get pre-sale access – Join fan clubs, venue newsletters and get special credit cards to get in early pre-sales when queues tend to be lighter.
- Buy on secondary sites – Be willing to pay higher re-sale prices to get tickets third-party instead of Ticketmaster.
- Go in person – For very popular events, lining up at the venue’s box office may be quicker than virtual queues online.
- Be ready right at the on-sale time – Don’t join the queue too late after tickets have already gone on sale.
However, for the biggest concerts and games, queues are essentially unavoidable no matter what tactics fans try. The bottom line is Ticketmaster dominates the primary market supply of tickets, forcing consumers to play by their rules if they want to attend popular events.
Is Ticketmaster doing anything to improve the situation?
With so much public complaints about queues, Ticketmaster has taken some steps to upgrade its sales operations:
- They developed Verified Fan – A system for having fans register early for sale access to screen out potential bots.
- Pre-sales now have CAPTCHA tests to make mass bot traffic more difficult.
- Timed ticket release schedules spread availability over multiple days rather than a single frantic on-sale.
- Reserved seating replaced general admission seating for more orderly sales.
However, these have provided limited relief from persistent queues. Fans see the Verified Fan system as just an earlier form of queue. Bots continue to bypass Ticketmaster’s technology. Timed releases have less effect for extremely scarce shows.
More impactful reforms like:
- Severely limiting ticket resale markets
- Curtailing pre-sales and reserved allocations
- Forcing paperless ticket names at entry
Would likely face fierce opposition from teams, artists, promoters, and brokers who financially benefit from current secondary markets. Queues are likely to remain a familiar part of the Ticketmaster sales process despite evolving practices.
Should Ticketmaster be broken up? What about government regulation of ticket sales?
Some advocates believe Ticketmaster’s dominance of primary ticket sales should warrant antitrust action to increase competition in the market. Possible remedies could include:
- Breaking up Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment
- Forcing Ticketmaster to divest major venues and clients
- Opening exclusivity deals so competitors can also sell tickets
Pros of breaking up Ticketmaster monopolization:
- Could improve consumer choice between ticketing platforms
- May increase supply and lower prices on the primary market
- Reduces ability to impose confusing fees and restrictions
Cons of breaking up Ticketmaster:
- Other big providers emerging like AXS show breaking up may be redundant
- Could make the user experience more complex managing multiple accounts
- Will not eliminate high demand queues as those stem from limited seating
In terms of regulating the industry, proposals have included:
- Capping ticket resale markups
- Banning ticket scalping bots
- Requiring more fee transparency
However, political and legal challenges exist to passing any legislation:
- Lawmakers have been hesitant to interfere in private sector transactions
- Powerful lobbyists represent secondary sellers against regulation
- Difficult to enforce extra layers of rules and bans
So while Ticketmaster queue frustrations are valid, breaking up or regulating ticket sales remains unlikely in the short term. Fans have minimal options beyond waiting indefinitely in queues for fair-priced tickets.
Conclusion
Despite some consumer hostility, Ticketmaster looks firmly entrenched as the dominant ticketing marketplace. Unless fans are willing to pay greatly inflated secondary prices, they must contend with burdensome queues due to forces largely outside Ticketmaster’s control.
While consumers can justifiably blame Ticketmaster for creating a flawed sales system, extreme demand, limited venue space, and other parties like scalpers profiting off scarcity are also major contributors. There is no silver bullet solution coming that will suddenly eliminate long waits in the Ticketmaster queue.
Absent more radical structural changes in the live events industry that appear improbable today, irritating queues will remain an inevitable part of the Ticketmaster experience when trying to buy the hottest tickets in town. Fans need patience and perseverance to hopefully reach that checkout page before the coveted seats are gone.