80% of Boston hotels report slower bookings for World Cup amid high ticket prices

[GiqueCee]

13. I'd be curious to know...

... the range of those ticket prices. Tickets for musical performances are obscene. Sixty years ago I could afford tickets for a show by the biggest band on the planet, the Beatles, of course. But I also saw Led Zeppelin, the Stones, the Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers, and dozens of other great bands. In the summer of '67, the city of Boston had concerts on the Common FOR FREE! They performed right across Boylston street from where I worked, and, weather permitting, I'd eat my lunch while listening to some the best yet-to-be-famous bands of the 20th century. That would be impossible now. Tickets for a good seat at a Stones concert now is around $600. Google says that's the starting price for a nose-bleed seat to a Taylor Swift show. Good seats are $2,000-$5,000. No wonder she's a billionaire. I don't begrudge her a penny; she is reportedly exceptionally generous to those who make her shows possible , and even to admirers, but corporatists like Ticketmaster and other such corporate exploiters have ruined it for everybody.