Madonna’s upcoming Madame X tour is struggling to sell tickets — at least according to a report in the NY Post.
But Madonna’s promoter, Arthur Fogel of Live Nation, says reports of sluggish sales are “absolute lies.”
Madonna has previously sold out shows in Madison Square Garden and Yankee Stadium, so what gives? Maybe fans have moved on — gotten older, lost interest, the list goes on. But Madonna’s promoter went on the attack in an interview with Pollstar, saying the sluggish sales headline is totally false.
We looked at the Ticketmaster live seat map referenced in the Post’s original piece. There are still hundreds of seats available for most of Madonna’s upcoming shows, which take place in 2,000-3,000 seat halls.
Here’s a look at the seat map for Sunday, November 24th at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA. The Wiltern theatre’s official capacity is 1,850.
Plenty of seats are sold, but each of the colored dots is an available seat at the time of writing. A cursory glance through the rest of the live seat map reveals hundreds of available seats in cities across the United States.
So how did Madonna go from selling out Yankee Stadium in 20 minutes to this? Well, the Material Girl’s ticket sales performance may not be as sluggish as these seat charts hint.
Live Nation says the increased number of seats available is because of the increased number of shows.
“We added 10 shows in New York alone to accommodate Madonna’s vast fanbase. With the first round of tickets completely fulfilled and delivered to verified registered fans, Live Nation released a limited amount of additional tickets yesterday (Monday).”
Fogel says Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan platform made tickets available to fans before putting them on sale this past Monday. The platform is designed to reduce scalping, so fans have more opportunities to get the tickets they want.
All 17 New York shows at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House still have at least 150 seats available, including opening night. Madonna’s Madame X album dropped today and could help bolster sales momentum. Though none of the five songs released before the album dropped debuted on the Billboard Hot 100.
Maybe there’s a problem here?
You’re right, there is a problem here. First and foremost, when Madonna or Live Nation or any artist/ticket company puts limitations on the tickets to “reduce scalping” that often means consumers are having their rights infringed upon. In this instance, every state Madonna is playing on this tour has laws allowing for consumers to resell their tickets, so why is Live Nation openly creating an environment where it is difficult for consumers to exercise that LEGAL right?
Secondly, if Live Nation wants to stop scalpers, they should reflect inwards, as their “Official Platinum” seats are nothing more than them scalping their own tickets. I guess Live Nation is only against scalpers when it’s someone other than themselves doing the scalping.
There *is* a problem here, you’re looking for problems. What a stupid fucking story that just wastes space. Clickbait bullshit. Delete.
Shame on any company that deals with Madonna . Her arrogance , greed , and I don’t give a shit attitude towards her fans after making them wait 3 to 4 hours and still not on stage and then selling Polaroid selfies with fans for $1000 each is just disgusting!