PreferredSeat.com Blog

Concert fans trying to buy tickets for  a show often wonder what happens to the good seats for concerts because they have no luck on their own. The Sacramento Bee is reporting today that the British oil giant BP has been giving away tickets to lawmakers, staff and relatives of staff for years.

Sacramento Kings tickets were given out in large numbers and concerts at the Arco Arena were also very popular free tickets. Since BP currently has the naming rights to Arco Arena they were given a suite and extra tickets for events that they then gave to state officials who do not think they were high enough $$ amounts to influence decision making.

There were several sections next to the stage that were set aside for just this purpose so the next time you go to buy a ticket at Arco Arena and you cannot sit near the stage, look over and see if you recognize any politicians. Then go over and ask them if they can help you get free tickets in the best seats as well.

Alan Jackson put tickets on sale last Friday for his Arco Arena concert in Sacramento on November 4th and ticket sales have been flat for the first few days of the on sale. After almost 5 days of ticket sales for Alan Jackson you can still find tickets in the 14th row from the stage on sale for face value.

Sacramento is a tough market with all the state employees furloughed and recent concerts by Carrie Underwood and Michael Buble have not sold out at the Arco Arena so it’s understandable that the Alan Jackson concert may get off to a slow start. But maybe the artists should start to think of the impact of $90 concert tickets in a very bad economy.

Some cities are doing great at this time and can sell out Alan Jackson or Michael Buble at their high ticket prices, but many cities are reeling from the economic downturn and maybe it’s time the artists strip down the road tour so they  can lower their concert ticket prices in economically depressed cities.

Michael Buble performed in Sacramento at the Arco Arena last night and you expect that he would have sold out the venue but that was not the case. For his Sacramento concert Michael Buble only sold out the lower level seating and the rear of the upper deck. Much of the upper level went unsold for one of the most popular artists on tour today.

And for the recent concerts by Carrie Underwood, Tool and the American Idols at the Arco Arena it was pretty much the same thing, fairly empty in the upper level. And Carrie Underwood usually has no problem selling tickets for her tour dates as the top country artist, but she only sold about 9,000 tickets for this show.

Even the Justin Bieber concert scheduled for Friday October 22nd at the Arco Arena has not sold very many upper level tickets though he has sold out concerts throughout his current tour. It doesn’t help that the kid is selling VIP packages at $391 per ticket for a cash starved city, but he wouldn’t understand what the parents buying his tickets are going through anyway.

A big part of the problem with the Sacramento area is not only the economy, but the fact that so many California state workers live in Sacramento and they have had so many furlough days resulting in a reduced pay of about 10%. Many Sacramentans have no extra income for entertainment any longer and concert tickets just don’t fit in the budget this year.

Sacramento is not the only city having problems selling tickets for concerts and other entertainment events. And some cities such as Pittsburgh do very well selling out multiple concerts and the Wells Fargo Center. But the lack of ticket sales will probably keep most of the major acts out of the Sacramento area for some time to come and those that do come to the Arco Arena may not sell out as they usually do.