This Friday night, the planetary star Beyoncé will perform at the Stade de France, in front of 80,000 spectators. Among them, French but also Americans who have traveled thousands of kilometers to find tickets at attractive prices. The idea may seem far-fetched, but tickets actually cost less in Europe than in the United States.
Across the Atlantic, it is the Ticketmaster sales platform that sells tickets. Problem: no regulations are in place and prices are adjusted according to customer demand. During singer Taylor Swift's tour last November, it was necessary to pay $ 21,500 to see her at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Faced with these exorbitant prices, 26 people filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and the US Senate questioned last January the company's dominance in the events sector.
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"A concert and a journey"
But, according to information from NBC News, the situation does not seem to have changed. A Beyoncé fan, Kylyn Schnelle, wanted to attend her concert in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. On Ticketmaster, the ticket was offered at 800 dollars, or 730 euros. The young woman decided to compare prices with the same concert in London, where one of her friends lives. "When I looked at the ticket price in London, it was 167 pounds (about 192 euros), and the flight cost about 660 dollars (about 600 euros)," for a total of 792 euros, "the same price as the Louisville concert."
According to Jadrian Wooten, associate professor of economics at Virginia Tech, by buying concert tickets in Europe, the American public is "very creative". "You combine two experiences," he tells NBC News, "you're having both a concert and a journey, which you might have wanted to do anyway."