Hi! It’s Annie!
The last few days have been hectic and I highly doubt that we’ve seen the end of it. Congratulations to all of you who got tickets for the four days at the end of November and beginning of December to see BTS in LA. I am very happy to report that my sister and I will be there on the very last day of the concert! (AHHHHHH!!!!) But as happy as I am to get these tickets, this entire process was a mess. And as BTS fans, we all expect getting tickets for them to be a mess at this point. Due to their popularity growing exponentially over quarantine, we all knew it would be even more of a mess than usual. Especially because there’s only four days of the concert and it’s only in Los Angeles. But this took it to a completely new level. And we need to talk about why a lot of fans who didn’t get tickets for the concert should have and why Ticketmaster is completely to blame for this. Before I start this, I want to offer my sincere condolences to those ARMY who didn’t get tickets. Once they go on tour again, which will most likely be in 2022, everyone will have much better of a chance of seeing them!
MOT7 Presale:
The major thing to talk about here is the two days of presale that were offered to ARMY who had previously bought tickets for BTS’s ‘Map of the Soul 7’ concert. Every person who had bought a ticket for that tour was given a code to get into two days of presale for the LA concert that were especially for them. This announcement immediately resulted in some very understandable controversy. It was clear that this would be the only thing meant to try and fix things with the fans with previous tour tickets, and considering there’s only four concerts in LA, there will be many people who can’t attend the LA concert because of where they live. Travel still can be risky right now anyways. Many fans were hoping there would be a presale day for previous ticket holders for the next tour, which would more accurately cover all the fans who had tickets. And I wish this was what had happened as well. But instead they were only given codes for this specific concert. And then came the day of the presales, which were complete messes. The first day of presale felt incredibly difficult for everyone, but a few people were snagging good seats and many ARMY just wondered if this was how getting tickets for BTS would be now. This was quickly revealed to be not the case when the second presale day came around. Most fans didn’t get any tickets at all, and the ones who did were only able to get tickets at the top of the arena after hours of waiting and Ticketmaster crashing. Also there were no VIP tickets or soundcheck tickets available for the second presale day.
ARMY Membership Presale:
This was the presale that my sister and I were a part of. And anyone can tell you that it wasn’t nearly as difficult to get tickets this day as it was the previous two days. There were still fans who couldn’t get tickets on this day, but there were actually quite a lot who were able to. My sister and I both got into the presale on this day and so did one of our family members. In the end, only my sister’s got in at a decent time and we were able to get really good tickets after only fifteen minutes of the sale. But most of the people who received a code for the first two presale dates were not able to get into this presale. Most of them were put in the final presale that happened today. It was almost as if getting the code was more of a setback than a benefit. Most of the people with those previous ticket codes, especially the ones put in the second day of the presale, would have been much better off if they had gotten into the ARMY presale.
Verified Fan Presale:
This wasn’t much of a presale. Ticketmaster already stated that after the several days of presales, there probably wouldn’t be any tickets left for general sale due to the high volume of demand for this concert. But what Ticketmaster didn’t say is that this practically went for today’s presale too. There were barely any tickets left for anything. There were days today that were only selling singular tickets. No tickets in groups. Today definitely didn’t feel like a presale, in fact it was barely a sale to begin with. And people who are hoping for general sale tickets definitely aren’t going to get them off of Ticketmaster. Speaking of which…
Ticketmaster Past Controversy:
Ticketmaster has been sued by fans and artists alike for under the table ticket sales. Specifically to third party sellers, who sell the tickets for three times the price. Ticketmaster usually gets a cut of those sales as well. And this is a practice they still haven’t changed despite the fact that they’ve been called out on it multiple times before. If you are looking at getting tickets from a third party seller, which I will not blame you for, just be careful who you’re buying it from. Generally it’s a better idea to go after resales from ARMY on Ticketmaster. Not all ARMY’s on Twitter are legitimately selling tickets. So be extremely careful when it comes to buying tickets now. I’m not saying not to do it, because I know that it would be in consideration for me if I hadn’t gotten tickets, but please be careful. Try to buy them from an ARMY you can trust and, if not, just know that you are going to be paying insane amounts for this concert if you get anything.
ARMY Blame:
I predicted this beforehand when I covered the first time news came out that the BTS tour from 2020 was officially cancelled. A lot of fans who had MOTS7 tickets are very understandably upset, especially after this giant mess. Many of them are turning their anger towards newer ARMYs who got tickets. And even some who are already blaming Ticketmaster are saying that ARMYs who didn’t have MOTS7 tickets shouldn’t have gotten into this concert. I think both of these ideas are extremely misled. It is completely fine to be angry. And yes, Ticketmaster deserves every bit of your anger. But the ARMYs who have been waiting to get into this concert too, don’t. We aren’t going to go around telling ARMY that they didn’t deserve to get tickets. In fact, any ARMY who was able to score tickets is a win for us because it means one more ticket that scalpers didn’t get their hands on. I’m still up in the air on my opinions on ARMYs who bought tickets for multiple days. That does feel unfair considering the people who only wanted to attend one day. That is kind of like a double edged sword, because on one hand it’s another ticket that scalpers couldn’t get their hands on but it also might be a ticket preventing as many ARMYs as possible from going. Either way, now is not the time to turn on each other or tell people that they don’t deserve something. That’s just a low blow anyways. Every ARMY deserves to go to this concert. I have the deepest sympathy for you if you didn’t get in. To be honest, I never expected to see BTS live never mind get into this concert. But I will not support guilt-tripping people who got into this concert who really really wanted it. Let’s try and focus our energy on calling out Ticketmaster.
I am still baffled that I got into this concert at all. I thought with the new onslaught of ARMY, and especially with this concert only being four days, I would never see BTS. Especially not in LA, because California is already a more difficult place to get concert tickets in general. But that’s where I live so that’s where I would have had to get tickets anyways. It still hasn’t hit me yet that I’m going to see them, but I know once it does I’m probably going to be a sobbing mess. Congratulations to all of you who also got tickets! I can’t wait to be with you all! And to those of you who didn’t get tickets, I’m once again going to say that I’m sorry. I hope you get in next time and your anger is completely valid. Just please don’t direct it at undeserving ARMY.
See you across the pond!
Sincerely, Annie
Oreos & Peanut Butter 