Taylor Swift Fans Promise Revolt After Ticketmaster Cancels the Eras Tour’s Public Sale

We finally know what Taylor Swift wrote “The Great War” about. 

After two days of chaotic presales for supposedly verified Swift fans and Capital One cardholders desperate for a shot at seeing the artist’s upcoming Eras Tour, Ticketmaster has come baring more bad news: Due to “extraordinarily high demands” on their site, the general sale planned for November 18 has been canceled. According to the company, which is owned by Live Nation Entertainment, there is “insufficient ticket inventory” to meet the public demand. 

They should have added, “I’m the problem. It’s me.” It might’ve softened the blow a little.

Starting on November 15, many fans who received codes from the Ticketmaster registration lottery were devastated to come away empty-handed after waiting for hours in online queues, only to be left out of the sale or even to make it through but be unable to purchase tickets due to glitches, high-speed purchasers, and severe price gouging (which Ticketmaster gently refers to as “dynamic pricing”). 

A Capital One presale event was scheduled for the same day but was ultimately pushed to the 16th after “unprecedented demand” on Ticketmaster. Despite the switch, Capital One cardholders were met with similar problems the very next day. 

If you thought the reaction to presale-mageddon was bad, Taylor Swift fans who were unable to score tickets (this writer included) seemed to reach their breaking point after Ticketmaster’s latest announcement. “Swifties are about to January 6th Ticketmaster,” joked writer Jill Gutowitz. 

“Ticketmaster should really have a way of canceling tickets being resold at insane prices and this isn’t just for Taylor Swift fans—this was literally just a nightmare for Paramore and Arctic Monkeys, and it’s only getting worse,” writer Ira Madison tweeted. Something of this nature appears to be possible, as Ed Sheeran canceled more than 10,000 tickets to his 2018 tour and required IDs at the door of his concerts to make sure the names matched the tickets, per BBC. 

Swifties aren’t the only ones gearing up for a fight. On November 16, the Tennessee attorney general announced he’d be launching an investigation into Ticketmaster after the events of the past few days. “Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti is concerned about consumer complaints related to @Ticketmaster. He and his Consumer Protection team will use every available tool to ensure that no consumer protection laws were violated,” Skrmetti’s office tweeted. 

“If it’s a consumer protection violation and we can find exactly where the problems are, we can get a court order that makes the company do better. That makes sure the problems that happened yesterday don’t happen again,” Skrmetti said during a news conference, per CNBC. “If it’s not a consumer protection [violation], but it’s an anti-trust law that is violated, there is a wide range of options that are available.” He continued, “There is an incentive there for the company to profit twice off the sale of these tickets. I am not saying it happened, but we are going to make absolutely sure it didn’t.”

Feeling helpless? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared a way to take action against the “Ticketmaster monopoly.” 

The Great War on Ticketmaster is clearly underway.