Did Bruce Springsteen Cancel His Shows In Philadelphia Due To Low Ticket Sales? In The Midst Of The Ongoing 'Dynamic Pricing' Controversy, Questions Have Been Raised

Bruce Springsteen canceled two gigs in Philadelphia earlier this week because he’d “taken ill.” Some speculate that the last-minute cancellations are the result of low ticket sales fuelled by “famously aggressive” dynamic pricing techniques.

On Wednesday, soon before showtime in Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park, Springsteen’s management revealed the postponements on social media. Aside from canceling the concert scheduled for the 16th, The Boss also canceled a second performance scheduled for this evening.

“Due to Bruce Springsteen’s illness,” the relevant tweet states, “his concerts with The E Street Band at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia on August 16 and 18 have been postponed.”

While the details of the alleged sickness are unknown, images and videos from previous concerts are still being posted to the 73-year-old’s social pages, and additional tour dates, commencing on August 24th in Foxborough, Massachusetts, are anticipated to go ahead as planned. (The cancelled Philadelphia shows have yet to be rescheduled.)

As previously said, several analysts and outlets believe that the cancellations, like those made during the first leg of the same tour, call into question The Boss and his management’s long-controversial ticket-sale approach.

“Specifically,” TicketNews inquired, “did the tour’s famously aggressive use of surged ‘dynamic’ ticket pricing and ‘platinum’ prices doom the tour to an endless cycle of postponements for poor-selling shows that is only just getting started?”

According to the same outlet’s review of available tickets (via the Paciolan/Tickets.com system in place for Citizens Bank Park events), the Philadelphia dates were flooded earlier this week with “a large quantity of previously held-back tickets,” ranging in price from $80 to “several hundred dollars” apiece.

Though the system does not offer a seat-by-seat map of ticket inventory, TicketNews tracked the Ticketmaster map for Springsteen’s Foxborough event on Saturday the 26th. According to a screenshot, despite not appearing “as recently as last week,” 10,000 passes were available to purchase at the time of writing.

The freshly available tickets, according to the publication, were purposefully held back by organizers to give the sense of restricted availability and, as a result, “deceive those shopping for tickets to” pay the asking rates. Few passes were displayed for Thursday’s gig at the same venue, probably due to hold-backs intended to boost sales for the Saturday event.

Finally, passes offered on third-party resale platforms could be obtained for significantly less than the stated pricing of “official” tickets (again, at the time of writing), with price floors and fees continuing to drive up the totals of Ticketmaster offerings. (Previously, Live Nation committed to all-in pricing in the United States, but stated that the shift would begin in September.)

Moving ahead, it will be important to closely monitor fan demand and ticket sales for Bruce Springsteen shows, especially given exorbitant ticket prices’ well-documented potential to turn off even the most ardent fans.

Did Bruce Springsteen Cancel His Shows In Philadelphia Due To Low Ticket Sales? In The Midst Of The Ongoing ‘Dynamic Pricing’ Controversy, Questions Have Been Raised

Bruce Springsteen canceled two gigs in Philadelphia earlier this week because he’d “taken ill.” Some speculate that the last-minute cancellations are the result of low ticket sales fuelled by “famously aggressive” dynamic pricing techniques.

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