Expect average concert ticket prices to go up at new Milwaukee Bucks arena, experts say

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When the new, $524 million home of the Milwaukee Bucks opens next year, team leaders hope to bring in big acts and more tours annually than the doomed BMO Harris Bradley Center.

Expect the average cost of a concert ticket to go up, too, industry experts predict.

Work is done on the exterior of the new Milwaukee Bucks arena.

"There's no doubt the arena is going to want to draw in as many shows as possible...," said Dean Budnick, editor-in-chief of music news site Relix and co-author of the 2011 book "Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped."

"Premiere acts know a shiny new venue will want premiere acts, and the shiny new venue is going to have to pay for them," Budnick said.

They also know that new venues have top-of-the-line amenities and benefit from a "honeymoon period" where event attendance, and sales, should be substantial.

That combination attracts top-tier talent that may have skipped a market in the past and whose major paydays frequently drive up ticket costs, said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of concert trade publication Pollstar.

The average cost for a concert ticket at the new arena — publicly financed by taxpayers to the tune of $250 million — will also likely go up because of its design.

About 65% of the forthcoming arena's 17,500 seats will be in the lower bowl, which will typically allow promoters to sell more higher-cost tickets compared with the Bradley, where about 40% of seats are in the lower bowl.

Price increases will also go up to see the Bucks, about $6 or so for the majority of tickets, according to the team. There's greater sticker shock for season passes: one lower level center seat will cost 37% more in the new arena compared to the same seat at the Bradley Center, the Journal Sentinel found, although season pass sales are at the highest levels since at least 2001, thanks certainly to the team's rising star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Music fans won't see such a large price discrepancy for artists playing the new arena compared with recent tour Bradley Center stops.

"The main driver on concert ticket prices is an artist's input," said Charlie Goldstone, president of Madison-based Frank Productions Concerts, the 12th-largest concert promoter in the country according to Pollstar. "They don't want to underprice their tickets, but many artists want fans to see them and not have to break the bank to do it."

With record sales down drastically in the digital era, "live shows are essential to the bottom line," Budnick said. North American concert ticket prices have been ticking upward across the board — hitting a record average of $76.55 in 2016, according to Pollstar — with five consecutive years of record gross, reaching about $7.3 billion last year.

Bucks leadership is eager to benefit from the booming business. Team President Peter Feigin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last year he hopes to have 20-plus tours each year. That's ambitious — in the strongest concert year across a three-decade run, the Bradley hosted 17 tours.

The forthcoming arena's general manager, Raj Saha, told the Journal Sentinel last week that more concerts will be announced before the end of the year. Two shows have been announced so far: pop rock band Maroon 5 on Sept. 16 and comedian Jim Gaffigan on Sept. 22.

With just two shows announced so far, Saha and Feigin "weren't ready to discuss" concert ticket prices at the new arena, spokesman Barry Baum told the Journal Sentinel in an email.

In the case of Maroon 5, which played the BMO Harris Bradley Center last February, there is a noticeable price increase for tickets. The most economical tickets for the new Bucks arena concert are $49.50, before fees, up $16.50 from the cheapest seats at the Bradley Center show. The costliest tickets, excluding VIP packages, are $149.50, an $18 increase.

Tickets are up between $16.50 and $18 per ticket to see Maroon 5 at the forthcoming Bucks arena next September, compared with similar seats at the band's BMO Harris Bradley Center show in February. But prices are up a little higher at other shows on the tour.

But don't blame the new arena effect: ticket prices are up across the country for the band, which is touring behind new album "Red Pill Blues."

Maroon 5's St. Louis fans will need to pay $146.50 for the best general tickets at the Scottrade Center Sept. 13, up $23.50 from the band's show there two years ago.

At the band's XL Center show in Hartford, Conn., the best standard tickets are $149.50, also a $23.50 increase for comparable seats for a 2016 concert that was canceled.

A look at concert ticket prices at the three-month-old Little Caesars Arena in Detroit shows that tickets aren't automatically higher for acts that played arena shows in the city previously. The top-tier standard tickets for Trans-Siberian Orchestra next month are actually $4 less than similar seats for the group's Detroit show in 2016.

The Journal Sentinel also examined ticket prices for tours hitting the three-month-old Little Caesars Arena in Detroit — and discovered that there is no cookie-cutter approach when it comes to pricing shows at a new arena.

Top-tier standard tickets for Katy Perry's Caesars appearance Dec. 6 are $200.50 — up a whopping $72 from the best seats at Perry's "Prismatic World Tour" stop at Detroit's since-shuttered Palace of Auburn Hills arena in 2014.

By comparison, top seats at Perry's Q Center show in Cleveland are $150.50, compared with $103.50 for top tickets for her 2014 appearance.

Top-tier standard tickets for Katy Perry's December concert at the recently opened Little Caesars Arena in Detroit cost $72 more than comparable seats at her 2014 show at the Detroit area's since-shuttered Palace of Auburn Hills arena.

But in the case of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, at the Caesars arena Dec. 23, the best seats are $4 less compared with the group's show at Auburn Hills last December.

The costliest Detroit tickets — $72.50 — are actually $11.50 less than the best seats for TSO at the Bradley Center Dec. 29.

In fact, a recent study by fare aggregator Wanderu suggests Milwaukee currently has the third highest average ticket price for arena concerts in the Midwest, below Chicago and Cleveland, and above 11 other cities, based on an analysis of ticket prices for 13 arena tours in 2017 and 2018.

Paul Jansen, vice president of sales, marketing and business development at the Bradley Center, declined to comment specifically on the study.

"Generally a promoter is setting the prices for what they think works in the market," Jansen said.

Bongiovanni suspects one possible explanation is above-normal pay for acts because of Milwaukee's proximity to Chicago, where artists might decide between an additional Windy City show or a Brew City stop.

"At the end of the day, promoters are economists," Goldstone said. "If you see higher prices in Milwaukee versus other Midwest markets, promoters see higher demand and a willingness to pay. It speaks to the strength of the music scene in Milwaukee more than anything else."

MORE ON MUSIC

Find out about the week's must-see shows, concert tickets and more in the newsletter "Piet Levy's Music Picks." Subscribe at jsonline.com/newsletters.

Piet talks about concerts, local music and more on "TAP'd In" with Jordan Lee, 8 a.m. Thursdays on WYMS-FM (88.9).