Dimension 20 Addresses Ticketing Situation After Madison Square Garden Sells Like the Eras Tour
Over the weekend, Dimension 20 released a statement about their plans for future live events after Ticketmaster’s monolithic arms squeeze fans.
Capitalism continues to be the main villain in Dimension 20’s campaign arcs, though ironically, this latest instance casts capitalism as their real-life villain. I know, when isn’t the bad guy capitalism?
The latest spat with Brennan Lee Mulligan‘s longtime nemesis came about when the recent Dimension 20 live show at Madison Square Garden started selling tickets so fast that it triggered Live Nation’s money detectors, better known as “dynamic pricing.”
Dimension 20 Sells So Fast It Triggered Live Nation’s Capitalist Greed Engine
We’re not here to talk about how dynamic pricing is a scam (it is) or how it sucks for everyone involved in the transaction EXCEPT for the person scooping up the profits–in this case, ultimately, Ticketmaster. But we are here to talk about Dimension 20’s response!
Over the weekend, with Dropout TV preparing for a two-week hiatus (because everyone deserves a break), the show issued a response via Twitter, explaining the situation. In a nutshell, after tickets for their Madison Square Garden went on show, they sold fast enough that “dynamic pricing,” which is a more PR-friendly way of saying surge pricing, kicked in, causing some tickets to try and sell for upwards of $1,500. Of course, nobody can afford that easily, and it’s not fair to the fans who missed their chance, something D20 addresses in their statement:
“The last time Dimension 20 had a live show was in 2019 – nearly 5 years ago – in the Bell House theater in Brooklyn, New York. It seated around 200 people and we had to work to fill it. We expected our live show at Madison Square Garden to go roughly the same, just on a bigger scale – given we were punching so high above our weight class, we would have to work pretty hard to fill the Garden.”
Or so they thought. Tickets quickly sold, as mentioned above. But it turns out that Dimension 20/Dropout had not been informed about either dynamic pricing or the “platinum tickets” (the ones that shot way up in price) beforehand:
“We communicated to Live Nation that it was Dropout and the cast’s desire to opt out of all dynamic pricing tickets for this event and for all events going forward. Thankfully, the average cost of all tickets sold so far (over 15,000 now!) is $119, meaning the vast majority of fans attending got tickets at a much more reasonable price, and dynamic pricing nonsense only kicked in for the few remaining seats.”
But, with that said, D20 has already outlined a plan to make sure those fans who got priced out of the event have a chance to see the show at any rate. Because the cast and crew of Dropout are extremely based. Part of the plan involves a Dimensioneer Lottery – a system through which individuals can get a lottery for the opportunity to buy up to two tickets for $35 each. The rest involves making the VOD accessible for all Dropout subscribers, which was already part of the plan.
It’s an interesting moment when live play shows start to draw the kinds of audiences that sell out mega-arenas like the Garden. But even Taylor Swift faced difficulties with Ticketmaster. When will there be a congressional hearing for the Gauntlet at the Garden? That’s what I’d like to know.
In the meantime, there’s still plenty of time to catch up on the Unsleeping City.
