Taylor Swift is coming to Canada. Whether you can actually get tickets is another matter - Action News
Home WebMail Friday, November 22, 2024, 08:26 AM | Calgary | -12.0°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
Entertainment

Taylor Swift is coming to Canada. Whether you can actually get tickets is another matter

Taylor Swift has added six Canadian dates to her Eras tour, but there's more than one catch. All the dates are at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, and it'll be a frenzy to get a ticket once they go on sale Tuesday.

Ticket frenzy (Taylor's version) expected as pop star has 6 shows in Toronto next year

A singer holds a microphone as she performs on stage.
U.S. singer-songwriter Taylor Swift performs onstage as part of her Eras tour at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on March 31. She has dates for shows next year in Toronto on Nov. 14, 15, 16, 21, 22 and 23, performances that appear to mark the end of the tour. (Suzanne Cordeiro/AFP/Getty Images)

Until now, Canadian fans have had to watch Taylor Switch's ever-expanding Eras tour through clips of sold-out shows elsewhere.A fortunate few even left the country just to attend a concert.

But the pop megastar is coming to Canada after all, with six dates over a 10-day period at the Rogers Centre in Toronto in November 2024.

As news dropped on Thursday that Canada was being added to the international tour that began last March, fans wasted no time in trying to securetickets.

"We already registered for tickets this morning to buy them next week," said one woman near the Rogers Centre, standingwith a pre-teen girl who added,"I'm really excitedto go. I love Taylor Swift."

Tickets go on sale Wednesday. "Swifties" had a Saturday deadline to register for a limited number of tickets through Ticketmaster'sverified fanprogramand were expected to receive an email on Tuesday either giving them an access code or telling them they're on a wait list.

The program helps filter out buyers looking to resell tickets, but Ticketmaster cautions that "registration does notguarantee tickets."

WATCH |Taylor Swift fans rejoice at Toronto tour dates:

Taylor Swift fans rejoice at Toronto tour dates

1 year ago
Duration 1:55
Taylor Swift added six Canadian dates to her Eras tour, but there's a catch: all the dates are at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

"We expect there will be more demand than there are tickets available," Ticketmaster said.

Swift has already been selling out stadiums in the U.S. and Europe on her current tour. It's been a difficult ticket to get.Before the Toronto dates were announced, some Canadians bought tickets to see Swiftoverseas.

Blake Gill from Guelph, Ont., boughttickets to a show inFrance next spring, after getting tired of waitingto see if there would be stops in Canada. He alsoreasoned that it was a "perfect excuse to go to Europe."

In Vancouver, CBC News asked fans whether they would try to travel to Toronto for one of the shows.

"It's so hard to go there. It's so far," said one woman who still wants to try to attend because she's been a big fan since she was 10.

WATCH | Vancouver Taylor Swift fans disappointed about Toronto-only shows:

Vancouver Taylor Swift fans disappointed about Toronto-only tour dates

1 year ago
Duration 0:56
A random sampling of people in Vancouver found some are disappointed that they won't be able to see Taylor Swift perform on her Eras tour, unless they travel to Toronto and can snag tickets.

In Toronto, fans were asked whether Swift should take the tour to other cities in Canada.

"Yeah, absolutely, she should be going to other places in Canada. It's a very big country," one woman said.

Why only Toronto?

"It comes down to money," as to why the U.S. singer-songwriter is limiting her Canadian dates to the Rogers Centre, said University of Toronto business professor Daniel Tsai.

"The big issue here is you need scale. You need to have enough people in the seats to justify a trip.

"This is across the border as well, so she'sgot a huge entourage. She's got a lot of logistics and freight. They have to assemble equipment to do a custom show everywhere they go."

Economic impact 'tremendous'

Andrew Weir, executive vice-president ofDestination Toronto, says the trickle-down effect these shows will have on other businesses in the city will be significant.

"It's more than just a concert ticket," he said.

"They consume not only the event they're here for, the concert, but also hotels,restaurants, probably godo some otherthings while they'rein town, do someshopping.

"So the economic impact is tremendous, and we know this is the kind of event that will draw visitors."

In June, online research company QuestionProreleased the results of a study of fan spending, which estimated the Eras tour will generate $5 billion US in economic activity in the United States. It said the average concertgoer was spending $1,300 per show.

LISTEN | Day 6 recalls thetour's pre-sale ticket chaos late last year:
Canadian fans are still waiting to learn whether Taylor Swift's Eras tour, her first since 2018, will include any dates in Canada and whether they'll have any chance of scoring tickets. In the meantime, Canadian superfans have been finding another outlet for their fervent love of Taylor Swift. Victoria Morton and Miri Makin are co-founders of TSwift Dance Parties, a Canada-wide series of events so big they've caught the attention of Swift herself.

Corrections

  • A previous version of this story incorrectly said tickets for Taylor Swift's Toronto concerts go on sale Tuesday. This story has been corrected to say they go on sale Wednesday.
    Aug 08, 2023 3:49 PM ET

With files from CBC's Greg Ross