Iron Maiden Successfully Combats Ticket Resales

Ahead of Iron Maiden’s UK arena tour, which commences May 4, the metal legends published figures showing that listings on secondary sites went down by more than 95 percent compared to 2011. 

AP Photo / MTI – Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden
Sziget Festival, Shipyard Island, Budapest, Hungary

When tickets went on sale for Maiden’s 10-date 2011 Summer UK arena tour, 6,294 tickets appeared overnight on three of the biggest secondary ticketing platforms: Viagogo, Seatwave and Getmein.

The band changed its strategy, offering mostly paperless tickets and ensuring that physical tickets would carry the name of the purchaser and require the purchaser’s credit card and ID on entry, among other measures.

When tickets for the upcoming tour went on sale in 2016, only 207 tickets appeared on one secondary platform, Viagogo.

While in 2010 Getmein and Seatwave accounted for 67 percent of the listed tickets, both sites delisted the Maiden tour at the band’s request, thereby reducing the options for power brokers to sell.

The band’s ticketing partner, Ticketmaster, says “over 100,000 tickets sold the first day, all at the intended

“Stubhub also agreed not to list any Maiden tickets, so it was only Viagogo who decided to list and then, before tickets had even gone on sale to the general public, misleadingly stated there were only a few tickets still available presumably to justify the excessive pricing,” a statement released by Iron Maiden reads. Most of the 207 tickets listed on Viagogo in 2016 were bogus and are now in the hands of the relevant authorities investigating criminal activity.

“The few genuine tickets which made their way onto Viagogo have been made null & void per our conditions of ticket purchase,” the statement continues.

Maiden’s promoter, Live Nation, said that overall sales are higher than the equivalent sales point in 2010, and that customer feedback has been excellent. Maiden manager Rod Smallwood said he was “delighted” that the paperless ticketing system and other measures instigated in the UK proved a “massive deterrent to touts and counterfeiters.

“We want to thank our fans for their enduring support and patience. We appreciate that our stringent policy has meant fans having to jump over one more hurdle in the ticket-buying process but the results speak for themselves and I think everyone can agree this was well worth it,” Smallwood said. “On the first day of public sale, we sold over 100,000 tickets nationwide direct to genuine fans through the proper legitimate channels. This is an incredible achievement and victory for concert-goers, not least as this is a full 12 date UK tour we’re undertaking, not just a couple of dates in the bigger cities.

“We’ve calculated that around one million pounds worth of mark-up on tickets, is not sitting in the hands of touts, but instead the tickets are sitting in the hands of the fans at the correct price and we think that is a great result and makes all our efforts worthwhile.”

The manager went on to say that “secondary ticketing sites operate a billion pound profiteering industry offering little to the consumer in return for their hugely inflated prices.

“There have been many instances highlighted in the UK media recently about the reselling of tickets for corporate or personal gain so we very much welcome the excellent work of the FanFair Alliance and the fact that the Culture, Media & Sports Committee recently re-opened the debate in the House Of Commons on this ongoing problem and trust that common sense and good judgment will prevail.”