What’s up with Madonna’s concert ticket sales? Why there are still some to buy and what fans are waiting for

THE good news is that if you want to see Madonna on her first Australian tour in 23 years you can still get tickets. But there’s a downside.

FILE - In this May 4, 2015 file photo, Madonna arrives at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass," in New York. In your quest to find a wife or husband - or a hook-up - you might discover something else when using dating apps: new music. From Madonna to Mariah Carey, more and more acts are looking to platforms like Tinder and Match to promote their music and reach their fans on-the-go. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

THE good news is that if you want to see Madonna on her first Australian tour in 23 years you can still get tickets.

The bad news is that unless you’re willing to ride solo you’re going to have to pay top dollar for good seats. Or travel to Brisbane, the only place $100 tickets are left (you’ll also have to go alone though).

It seems local Madonna fans are in standby mode waiting to see if the superstar will add more shows to her Rebel Heart Australian tour next March before they snap up the remaining seats.

Promoter Live Nation have yet to announce whether Madonna will include more shows in her itinerary, although with gigs on Saturdays and Sundays only so far she does have free time in her schedule.

All the $2000 front row tickets for her Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane shows sold out instantly, as did all the cheap seats priced at around $100.

Take a Bow ... Madonna fans have dropped some big cash on tickets to her March tour.

In Melbourne and Sydney you’ll have to pay around $306 or $510 for the remaining tickets, but fans are complaining online that those remaining seats are the worst ones in the best sections of the venue.

There’s still VIP packages in Melbourne and Sydney priced at around $600 or $800 and in Brisbane there’s still the VIP Runway package for two which will set you back $3000 — the Rebel Heart tour features a runway down the centre of the venue.

Fans want to wait to spend that money on better seats at new shows, if they eventuate.

Since the four pre-sales and then the general public on sale happened last Monday fans have been boasting and venting on social media.

The comments swing between those more than happy to pay top dollar to see one of the world’s biggest musical acts to those angry they have to pay top dollar to see one of the world’s biggest musical acts.

So what’s causing the commotion?

Express Yourself

If you want the $100 tickets in Melbourne and Sydney too bad. But as long as you’re happy to see Madonna by yourself in Brisbane on Saturday March 26 you’re in luck. You’ll be surrounded by new friends who also love a bargain, don’t fret.

Keep It Together

People seem to be struggling to find tickets where they can sit together with their friends from the remaining selection. Or worse, some are struggling to find friends who’ll cough up five hundy to see Madge with them. It takes a special kind of friend to shout you a $500 Madonna ticket eight months away.

True Blue ... some Madonna fans are grumbling about quantities of tickets left.

You’ll See

There’s still some VIP rear view tickets left. If you’re going to view a 57 year old rear for several hundred dollars it may as well be Madonna’s. (Yes, we know she’s 56 but her birthday is in August and she won’t touch down down under until next year).

Justify My Love

Brisbane seems to be the place where you can still get the best tickets for Madonna. “Brisbane are cheap and don’t deserve her,” said one disappointed Brisbane-born fan who wisely asked to remain anonymous. That is just rude.

Love Don’t Live Here Anymore

Madonna not visiting West Australia and South Australia has not gone down well. Perhaps the extra sales in Melbourne and Sydney are due to fans travelling interstate for an audience with her Madgesty. If you’re Pissed Off in Perth or Angry in Adelaide spare a thought for Ticked Off in Tasmania — they miss nearly every international tour. And they’d probably buy more tickets than Adelaide. “She’s the queen,” Madonna fan Trent Titmarsh said. “Sometimes you have to travel to her.”

Gambler

The Rebel Heart tour doesn’t begin until September in Canada. So right now nobody knows what she’ll sing or, more importantly, what she won’t sing. Most superstar tours that come to Australia are underway somewhere else in the world and the setlist is a mere Google away. For the casual fan you’re investing — a lot — in an unknown quantity. Despite hitting No. 1, Rebel Heart has been her lowest selling album to date, with none of the singles so far, Living For Love, Ghost Town or Bitch I’m Madonna, denting the Australian chart. If Madge fills the Rebel Heart tour with songs from her latest album (something she’s done on, well, pretty much every tour) then if you have tickets you better get acquainted with her new songs between now and March. Good news, unlike the Hard Candy or MDNA tours, Rebel Heart is her best album in a decade. But then she’s been quoting old hits on Instagram so maybe Madge is feeling nostalgic. Or just a pop tease.

Bye Bye Baby ... Madonna keeps the Bitch I’m Madonna video in the family.

Miles Away

The last time Madonna was here, 1993, she played huge stadiums. And that was when $200 was the most expensive ticket, not the price of a spot near the nosebleeds. The Rebel Heart tour is an indoor affair, in arenas. So seeing Madonna in arenas comes with a pay off — you have to pay more. Some fans aren’t happy the `platinum’ seats extend further through venues than usual. Aaron Darc says ``They put the platinum too far back. So it’s pretty clear by the sales (all cheap seats sold out, good platinum still available) that you clearly over-estimated how far you could push the prices. Platinum should be the floor, and that’s it.”

Who’s that Girl?

There are still Madonna fans holding grudges about her last five tours bypassing Australia. There have been petitions to get her here, there have been attempts to boycott her album and DVD sales in protest. Twenty three years is a long wait.

Bad Girl ... Feel free to leave the guitar at home on this tour Madge. Picture: AFP

Human Nature

And naturally the cheap bronze tickets, which originally sold for $100, are selling for up to three times that on eBay.

Crazy For You

And then there’s Madonna fans who are just happy she’s coming and they’re going. Mandy Gelczak said ``$300 is cheap for Madonna wahoo! Seen her in sydney 23yrs ago wouldn’t have missed this, would have paid $500!” Cherylle Hampton mused ``I was surprised that her concerts didn’t sell out to the point of several more concert dates being rapidly added to keep up with demand. I think she waited too long to return to Oz and the price of tickets is over the top. Perhaps she is only aiming to satisfy die hard fans of which there seems much fewer left. Anyway, I’m one of them. Paid a fortune and wouldn’t miss it. Don’t let us down #unapolegeticbitch.”

Originally published as What’s up with Madonna’s concert ticket sales? Why there are still some to buy and what fans are waiting for