Oasis announce dates in the US, Canada and Mexico – and no dynamic pricing

  • 9/30/2024
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Oasis have announced that their reunion tour will take them to the US, Canada and Mexico in August and September 2025. The band previously teased the news on billboards in New York, Toronto, Chicago and other cities. “Be careful what you wish for,” the advertisements said. They will play Toronto Rogers Stadium on 24 August, Chicago Soldier Field on 28 August, New Jersey MetLife Stadium on 31 August, Los Angeles Rose Bowl Stadium on 6 September, and Mexico City Estadio GNP Seguros on 12 September. US rock band Cage the Elephant will support across all dates. The tour will not be subject to Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing scheme – which saw saw £135 standing tickets for the UK and Ireland tour hiked to £337.50 plus fees owing to demand, and led to the UK’s competition regulator launching an investigation into whether Ticketmaster breached consumer protection law. In a statement, the band’s management said they wanted to “avoid a repeat of the issues”. “It is widely accepted that dynamic pricing remains a useful tool to combat ticket touting and keep prices for a significant proportion of fans lower than the market rate and thus more affordable. “But, when unprecedented ticket demand (where the entire tour could be sold many times over at the moment tickets go on sale) is combined with technology that cannot cope with that demand, it becomes less effective and can lead to an unacceptable experience for fans.” Which? head of consumer rights policy Sue Davies called it a “damning admission” that the band had got it wrong the first time around and called for Oasis and Ticketmaster to refund the difference in UK ticket prices as billed and sold. “Which? believes the pricing practices used for the first round of Oasis ticket sales could have breached consumer law as its research found some fans weren’t properly warned about the use of ‘in demand’ pricing. It is extremely unfair to let fans queue for hours for tickets only to find that they are no longer available at the advertised price. “If the CMA’s investigation finds that Ticketmaster customers may have been misled about ticket prices, it could open the door to individual fans making court claims.” The new dates will be Oasis’s first in those territories since 2008, when they toured Dig Out Your Soul. The band’s first American tour for Definitely Maybe from 1994-95 remains infamous: after an inebriated, messy gig at Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles, Noel Gallagher left the band for several days. The international dates come in addition to the 19 sold-out UK and Ireland dates already announced, which include five additional dates to the original total of 14. After the initial sale in August left many fans without a ticket – after hours of technical issues and queuing frustrations – the band added two new shows at Wembley Stadium to be sold through a staggered invitation-only ballot, with fans who were unsuccessful in the initial sale first to be given access. In a previous statement, the band said they had been unaware that dynamic pricing would be used in the UK sale. “Inevitably interest in this tour is so overwhelming that it’s impossible to schedule enough shows to fulfil public demand,” they said. “As for the well-reported complaints many buyers had over the operation of Ticketmaster’s dynamic ticketing: it needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used.” In the wake of the ticketing fiasco, the government announced that it would include dynamic pricing in a review of ticketing promised in its election manifesto. Consumer law experts added that while the practice was not illegal, Ticketmaster may have breached consumer regulations if the potential price increase on basic standing tickets was not made clear to fans. Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices and has argued that dynamic pricing discourages ticket touts by aligning prices with market value. It is believed that the ticket prices for Oasis gigs were set by promoters SJM Concerts, MCD and DF Concerts & Events. In a typically combative response, however, Liam Gallagher shrugged off criticism over the pricing by telling one complainant on X to “shut up” and another to buy “kneeling tickets”.

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