Culture 5 min read By Arthur Ellington
Bono Says U2 Has «No Problem» Charging Wealthy Fans $1,500 for Tour Tickets
U2 frontman Bono has defended the band's tiered ticket pricing for its upcoming Greatest Show on Earth tour, saying wealthy fans who want to pay high prices are welcome to do so, while the band keeps its best seats affordable.
Bono has defended U2's tiered ticket pricing for the band's forthcoming Greatest Show on Earth world tour, saying the group has «no problem» allowing wealthy fans to pay premium prices while keeping the best seats in the house affordable for ordinary concertgoers.
Speaking on The New York Times' «The Interview» podcast in an episode released on 17 October, the U2 frontman said: «We also have no problem separating rich people from their money. Rich people have feelings, too. If they want to pay very high prices, we've no problem.»
The comments come as U2 opens presales for the tour, which begins on 23 February in Mexico City. The band has also been named the halftime act for the NFL's first Thanksgiving Eve game, which streams on Netflix on 25 November.
Bono, 66, also acknowledged that many fans are likely paying more than they should. «If they're in America, we want people to feel really good about the choice to pay a ticket — and probably pay too much for it — to see us,» he said.
Asked how much control the band has over pricing, Bono said «very little». What U2 can do, he argued, is protect the most sought-after spots. «What we do in our band is we take the best seats in the house — we've done this all our life — and make sure that they're often the most affordable,» he said.
That approach dates back decades. When U2 announced its Vertigo//2005 tour, general admission floor tickets, pitched as offering the best view at the lowest price, were set at $49.50 in North America plus service fees. Other artists have adopted similar tactics: Olivia Rodrigo reserved $20 tickets for her GUTS tour, though it was unclear how many were available.
The gap between U2's cheapest and most expensive tickets has widened since 2005. For the band's 2023–24 residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, tickets started at $140 including taxes and fees, with 60% priced under $300 alongside a limited number of premium seats. General admission floor tickets could not be transferred and could be resold only at face value, a rule intended to curb scalping. At the top end, seats in the residency's (RED) Zone sold for $600, with part of the proceeds going to the anti-AIDS organisation Bono co-founded.
Pricing for the 2027 tour follows the same tiered model. In São Paulo, base prices before online fees range from R$500 (about $100) for a «Fan Ticket» to R$7,547 (about $1,510) for an Ultimate VIP Hospitality package, according to TicketNews, citing Ticketmaster Brazil. The Fan Ticket buyer's location in the stadium is not revealed until show day. General admission floor tickets cost R$790 (about $158). North American and European dates have been promised but not yet announced.
Concert tickets have become a politically charged issue in both the United States and Britain. Artists, promoters, venues and ticketing platforms all take a cut of each ticket, but much of fans' anger has focused on Ticketmaster. In April, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary illegally maintained monopoly power, and that Ticketmaster overcharged fans $1.72 per ticket. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia brought the case to a verdict after the Justice Department struck a settlement a week into the trial. The states are now seeking to break up the company. Live Nation has said the verdict is «not the last word» and will appeal any unfavourable rulings.
Ticketmaster also faces a separate lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission and seven states, which alleges the company knowingly let brokers use thousands of accounts to circumvent ticket limits and then profited when those tickets were resold on its own marketplace. According to the complaint, an internal review found that just five brokers controlled 6,345 Ticketmaster accounts holding 246,407 tickets. A federal judge refused to dismiss the case last month, and in an October 13 filing Live Nation called the suit «misguided».
Dynamic pricing, under which prices rise with demand, has drawn criticism too. Ticketmaster has long said artists and promoters set those prices. The issue drew government scrutiny in Britain after Oasis reunion tickets surged well beyond their advertised price.
What Bono did not say is how many cheap seats near the stage U2 actually offers. TicketNews notes that low-priced allocations such as Brazil's Fan Tickets are often small and tend to sell out early in a sale, leaving most fans to choose between full price and the resale market.
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