It has been a long road to get to a point where wearing a facial mask is now optional.
Like most of the world, I too am suffering from pandemic fatigue. After watching the stock market drop 20%, housing prices skyrocket, inflation go through the roof, new car price sticker shock and the cost of food and college tuition go up, it would be great to go to a live concert as a way to unwind.
Alas, this too seems to have priced people out.
In February, Beyoncé announced her fist World Tour in six years. There was only one catch: you had to be a Beehive member or a Citi credit card holder in order to get your tickets through Ticketmaster in the presale, if you wanted a chance to secure your spot.
If you were not previously a Beehive fan club member prior to tickets going on sale, then you were out of luck as you could not sign up just to get in on the presale.
However, you could apply and get approved for Citibank credit card, but there are no guarantees there.
Basically, you had to be a person of considerable means to get concert tickets. Either through internet access or good credit.
According to the United Nations, an estimated 37 per cent of the world’s population – or 2.9 billion people – have still never, ever used the Internet.
And then there are those that are not the best off financially and lack good credit scores.
According to the FDIC, an estimated 4.5 percent of U.S. households (approximately 5.9 million) were “unbanked” in 2021, meaning that no one in the household had a checking or savings account at a bank or credit union.
There are many people who do not have credit cards, let alone with just one issuer. This means that billions of people had no way to buy concert tickets. Only those with means were able to do so in the presale.
And for those with means, you would not believe the lengths they were willing to go through to get them. Some even bought tickets out of the state or even the country to get access to them cheaper.
It is also hard to get tickets after the presale as the Beyoncé concert had a lottery system. If you did not get an access code, after winning the lottery, then you were sh*t out of luck.
Getting concert tickets are starting to be harder than getting into college.
If you wait until after the presale, most tickets are gone.
Snatched up by the folks that could get access and then resold for a higher price. There were tickets going for as high as $9,800 on sites like StubHub and Vivid Seats.
I can’t even imagine paying anywhere close to $10,000 to go to a three-hour concert. That’s just insane! This is a one-night only event.
There were even tickets that were ranging for $500 all the way up to $3,500 for VIP. That is more than many folks are even paying for their mortgages across the country. There is no way to justify spending that type of money on one item or experience, if you truly do not have the resources.
Money like that could be used for down payments or closing costs on houses.
It is becoming more expensive to go see your favorite artist. Concert tickets are starting to become another status symbol and only for millionaires.
My suggestion is to create a fun savings account so that you have funds readily available when you do want to go to concerts, sporting events or travel. Do not put this on credit. You could wind up paying for this expense for years just to have fun for a few hours.
My advice: skip anything that puts you into debt, even concerts. Better to have your financial house in order than having fun. The fun will come after the money is in your bank account and not when its on empty.