New anti-scalping technology blamed for U2 concert delays

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – BC Place is blaming new technology for hours-long queues at a U2 concert at the venue last night.

There were long lines for the sold-out show as organizers checked ID, causing some fans to miss parts of the opening act, Mumford and Sons. Concert-goers took to social media to vent their frustration, some saying they waited in line for more than two hours, while others called for a refund.

Laura Ballance with BC Place says this was the largest deployment of anti-scalping, credit card-check technology to date, at any venue or on any tour.

“This was well-intentioned, very well-thought out. There was a lot of planning… (But) we had a large convergence of guests arrive around the same time and that is when the bottleneck became quite significant.”

“Obviously it’s not ideal, it’s not what we wanted but when you’re deploying new technology… the processing times were not what we had hoped.”

Ballance says U2 held off the start of their show until all ticket-holders were inside.

“We will continue to look at what we can do to combat.. the scalping issue.”

“We are extremely sorry that we weren’t able to process them quicker, but at the end of the day, we are searching for ways to ensure the right fans who want to see artists are able to do so in a cost-effective manner.”

Local ticketing broker Kingsley Bailey says asking ticketholders for ID and the credit card used to buy the ticket is common practice to prevent resales, but organizers of the U2 gig went about it the wrong way.

“If that’s something that they want to impose, they better start opening up the gates at 4 o’clock. It’s just an inconvenience for the fan to do that. They don’t understand that the fans are paying good money to see a show.”

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