As Taylor Swift Eras Tour prepares for Chicago stint at Soldier Field, local fans sue Ticketmaster

Leah Hope Image
Wednesday, May 31, 2023
Local fans sue Ticketmaster over Taylor Swift Eras tour tickets
An Elmhurst woman is among hundreds of fans suing Ticketmaster, Live Nation over the debacle when she tried to purchase Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An Elmhurst woman is among hundreds of fans suing Ticketmaster over the debacle when she tried to purchase Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets.

Last November, Jennifer Kelly was her friends' point person to get them tickets for the Soldier Field shows in Chicago, which are this weekend. She shared her screen as she said she frantically tried and failed to get them.

"I felt devastated," she said.

Taylor Swift 'Eras Tour' at Soldier Field: What you need to know before you go

Kelly is now among 300 Swifties suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster for the ticketing problems and, as their attorney argues, the monopoly the company has over ticket sales.

"This is not about one concert or one tour and ultimately and it's not about one artist, it's about every artist, every consumer," said attorney Jennifer Kinder.

"Hopefully it has a domino effect and affects all different kinds of fandoms. We should be able to go see our favorite artist, that's one of the little joys in life," Kelly said.

Patrick Dalton, a fan from Sandwich, is also part of the litigation. He recalled seeing no ticket options, but third party sites with tickets available seconds into the November sale.

"These are not Swifties. They would never give up their tickets, especially price gouge them the way that they did it was a literal mess things need to change," he said.

As of Wednesday morning, just two days before Swift's first Soldier Field show, resale tickets were going for thousands, even tens of thousands, of dollars. On StubHub, the most expensive Friday and Saturday tickets on StubHub were $16,245 each for front row floor seats, while on Sunday the most expensive tickets, in Section 222, were listed for $92,149 each.

The cheapest single seats to be on the field were $2,138 on Friday and Saturday, in the further back field sections. The cheapest overall Friday ticket was $1,401 for a seat with a limited or obstructed view, on Saturday for $1,368 for Section 428 and on Sunday for $1,154 for a seat with a limited or obstructed view.

ABC7 reached out to Ticketmaster, but have not gotten a response. Previously Live Nation, the parent company of Ticketmaster, defended itself, saying in part, "Live Nation takes its responsibilities under the antitrust laws seriously and does not engage in behaviors...that would require it to alter fundamental business practices."

The fans we spoke with were eventually able to get tickets, but say they still have bad blood with Ticketmaster.