tigermilk

these presale tix are probably the best remaining after promoters, sponsors, label et al have taken their cuts...there is hope that some of the very best tix may be returned

Well, I will have an educated guess that at least 50% of tickets will go to promoters, sponsors, record label etc. MSG is about 20,000 capacity. Notice the band is not saying how many tickets it is giving away?

Hi Melissa! Getting comp for shows is a matter of asking. I would recommend you calling the MGM hotel for reservations and saying you are interested in staying and gambling there and would it be possible to get comp tickets for coldplay. They will obviously want you to spend a lot of money-just booking a $200 room won't be enough. If you are taking a suite or prepared to put up some serious gambling money or book spa services etc then no problems. When I gamble here I will ask a dealer about the chance of getting comp-but you need to play at a table a while. I play roulette or blackjack for about an hour and will ask the dealer about getting comps-usually i get a free meal, but I have got tickets for some shows. It is not a freebie option! If you play the tables for that amount of time you can lose a lot. I have never tried to get comp tickets for a gig I wanted to go to-because it is not always easy to do and can cost you a small fortune, but I have seen a few bands at the Hard Rock thru getting comp tickets that night. But it is easier to get comped for a show that isn't sold out....for instance you have to spend over $10,000 to get comped to see Rolling Stones. But just be brazen, polite and phone up and ask! It is their job to get you stay there and spend money, so they will try and sweeten you. If you need any other questions answering i'll try help!

Hey! Those were the same kinda seats i got offered. I took U13! The view at the sides is pretty good. The MGM feels pretty small inside! From those seats you have a decent chance of catching a camera. I just prefer to be looking straight on at the stage. But its a good view and chances are you will be stood up anyway.

Hey jonny! You might wanna take 1st level....i live in vegas and have a lot of knowledge about ticketing here. the mgm takes 25% of tickets for its comps, execs etc. So it is very hard to get those floor level seats. I got them last time by waiting till it sold out, I waited till a week or two before the gig till the comps came back and went on general sale. This is risky, because you have to be lucky to get them-i have some inside knowledge on when they do this but theres no set date-it happens constantly! and it is a trickle of tickets-not a flood!

Yes, I did several searches, like six times..they were all similar areas. Stubhub is asking $400 for the seats I got. I think I will try general sale but I am not expecting any better. MGM Las Vegas gives around 3,000 tickets in comps at the casino. I may try and scalp better tickets on the day of the show, when scalpers online really cut deals to avoid taking a huge loss.

So I got a ticket from the presale-i found someone who had a code. The tickets I got were for MGM in Las Vegas. They were $100 each plus $15 fees. They aren't great ticktes for $100, though similar tickets are on stub hub for $400. I did six searches for tickets and these were the best ones I could find. It seems like 70% of the tickets are $100, with the back of the arena the cheaper seats. Not great! It is near impossible to get great seats at the MGM-they all go to casino comps! Oh well, I will see if I can get better on the general sale!

I got presale tickets for Las Vegas, they were $100 and they aren't great! I am disappointed really, they are off to the side but near the front of the stage.

You make a good point in many ways....the free show is more a industry event than for fans. Ultimately, the fans are paying for this really, I mean $100 for a ticket at face value-nearer $130 with ticketing fees.

Hi KissesBirds! If you bought a ticket today off ebay, then I would do a few things first-check out the sellers feedback-only accept 100% feedback and read the comments. look for buyers saying 'got tickets in good time' etc. Also read every detail of the listing from when you get tickets, also look for the refund details-this is so important if the gig got cancelled for any reason, you want to make sure you are getting a full refund and not a refund on the retail value of the tickets. All in all, I would say you will probably be alright! But I will share some advice! Scalped tickets are more expensive before they go on general sale and the 10 days after it has sold out! Generally, prices fall on stubhub and ebay after this and you may get a better deal. However, you have to weigh that up!

There is a suspicious week gap between Phoenix and Las Vegas. A week holiday for a big tour isn't an option-you have to pay for roadies and equipment etc....so there must be some dates they haven't released.

No good seats will always be on general sale, its down to numbers and luck if you get them!!

Hi there! I can answer that for you. Most venues have sponsors, for instance Jobing.com sponsors the arena in Glendale. As a result they get a certain amount of tickets. Also for some venues you can pay a membership and get tickets to every show at that venue. The Las Vegas show at the MGM Grand, has 3,000 tickets for the MGM to give away as comps etc-to get a comp at MGM involves spending money on suites and gambling. Also the concert promoters receive tickets and distribute them to the band, record company, roadies and competitions, local radio etc. So although you can have a venue with 10,000 tickets-some 2,500 may already be sold, even before a general sale. On ebay/stubhub you will see those tickets. If you bought those tickets today, you still might not get your actual ticket for some weeks-or even two days before the show. This is because the seller might not have the ticket in hand but they have been promised this ticket from whatever source-sometimes the tickets may pass through several hands ie. venue to promoter to roadie to friend of roadie to ticket agent. Buying through ebay or stubhub is generally safer and the tickets real but there are problems. I know of instances where sellers have failed to get the promised tickets or the tickets not arriving. So you must always be aware of this risk. But generally it is better than buying from criaglist, scalpers at venue. Personally, I have no time for the secondary market/scalpers, but thats my opinion. All this is is advice for some people who feel they have to use these agents.

A broker would be found on ebay, stubhub, ticketsnow...you can buy tickets on stubhub already and you can see where your tickets will be. This is not my endorsement of any of those sites, just be careful you are not scalped with tickets that do not arrive or are fakes. My recommendation is only buy from an official outlet.

okay...here are all my secrets for ticketing for high demand shows. i worked for a UK ticket agency called 'gigsandtours' the only way to get the very best tickets is to pay for them thru ebay, stubhub or ticketsnow. so leaving that option aside and you are going for general sale. first, there is no advantage in waiting at the box office. most box offices now discourage waiting. but some still have waiting. if your box office does general sale, they will probably restrict it to a certain number-usually 100. they can choose the following method-a random drawing of a number, first come first served etc. this can be down to pure luck! second, ticketmaster...there is no advantage using outlets. if it is a hot show, they will give people in line a random number and tickets will be sold accordingly. if you have a number 3, this does not guarantee you a ticket. if you are called out at 5mins after general sale they can be all sold out. i have found that a lot of ticketmaster outlets are in grocery stores etc, so there is no guarantee they will be ready to serve you at 10am sharp. the phone is no better. if you are early, you can't buy tickets and won't be held in the queue. ticketmaster now has a small staff for phone sales so it is hard to get thru. again once tickets are sold they are sold! so this leaves using the web! if you want tixs then when you select the show you want to go to and select your tix, always select best available. this lets the computer, search all the tickets available at that precise moment. all goes well you get tickets that are good. also only ask for the minimum amount tickets-i prefer two to four. why? if you ask for say 8 tixs, the computer has to try and find 8 tixs in a line together-this reduces your chances considerably. if you use multiple computers, this helps but often someone misses one screen and loses tickets on hold. don't constantly refresh your screen-if ticketmaster detects 10 refreshes in a short period of time, it can block you(the systm thinks you are an automated program). if you only have one computer, just try and buy tickets for one show because if you select multiple shows your browser will only browse and search for tickets at ticketmaster just once. if you had tickets held for new york say, and you then tried searching for chicago, you can lose your new york hold. so you get tickets and the best available are poor-well you either take whats offered or you search again. searching again is sometimes a bad option for hot shows, you can get lucky but more often than not you will be out of luck. finally, you find the show sells out like instantly! well do try and search for the next 15 minutes to see if anyone lets tickets go-ticketmaster lets you search and hold tix for 5mins. so always some tickets churn back in to the system. Still no luck!!! ebay, craigslist....hold on there is one last hope. promoters/venues hold an allocation of tickets, sometimes the promoter allocates all its tickets but then as some go spare. these could go to general sale-usually within a week. also ticketmaster does a sweep of its system and sometimes find spare tickets ie. credit cards which are declined. these can spew back in to the system at any time or day-i find usually 4-5 days after a sale, the promoters/sponsors return tickets. these are usually the front row tickets too. last time, coldplay played mgm grand in las vegas, the tickets sold out in 5 mins....but mgm grand returned 1,000 tickets a week later-which it was holding for comps! i got fourth row seats through this. anyway, that is all i can pass on for general advice...there are things i know but they are venue specific...there are no magic passcodes or programs that can help you-you can run automated programs but you need at least half a dozen computers to do this to really enhance your chances. basically, if you get offered any tickets take them-even if they are at the back of an arena, that way at least you can go! if you have terrible tickets you can try and barter your terrible tickets and trade up somewhere. hope that helps!!

To put this in perspective...radiohead US Tour tickets started at $39 to $75. Tickets went on sale to WASTE/Radiohead fans first, then commercial pre-sale then general sale. I got four best price tixs($75) for Hollywood Bowl for $315 from WASTE. The same top price tix will cost over $500 for coldplay with ticketmaster. There is an addage that if you look after your fans they will always stay your fans through thick and thin. I think coldplay have made some odd decisions lately over ticket prices etc...i remember the complaints when they played South America and ticket prices were what the average person earned in a month. Some of the things coldplay do suggest they care more about the corporate/sponsors than the fans.

Of course Coldplay has a say! They might not know about the Best Buy thing but the management do and they take orders from the band. The BestBuy promotion won't appeal to a younger demographic-you have to be over 18 to have a account! And BestBuy is not a store with a young demographic-their demographic is middle class, suburban males who buy big screen TVs, bib ticket items. Just go in your local Best Buy and you see who they cater for. As for CDs, well they stock a very mainstream selection that is typically $15-you get a better, cheaper selection at Wall-Mart and Target. If this is the fan base who coldplay values more then I am not sure I want to see them anymore.

These tickets are real!! Most venues have sponsors, part of the sponsorship is you get tickets. Also, staff at venues get tickets and certain venues you can pay to get tickets for every event. So yes there are tickets already sold. The MGM Grand in Las Vegas is the worse...of the 13,000 tickets some 3,000 are comps from the casino, 1,000 are promoters and they hold back another 1,000 or so for other stuff...so it is nearly 40% sold out already. The high prices are $100 plus fees, so nearer $120! This is actually better than when they played Hard Rock and tickets were $150 plus $30.

if you need several hundred bucks-which you don't have, for something which isn't essential then i would suggest you don't go. alternatively, you eat cheapily, turn off your computer, sell your guitar or computer or go find a job that contributes to the lifestyle you want to live

i am very disappointed about the lack of presale to fans...to talk about 'make trade fair' so much and then not to bother making ticket distribution fair to fans, smacks of double standards. its even worse that best buy shoppers get first pick!