Billy Joel demand far outweighs ticket supply for Madison Square Garden concert series

Following the announcement of Billy Joel's monthly concert series at Madison Square Garden, many understandably asked how long the star could keep an audience coming back for hits like "We Didn't Start The Fire." Priceconomics.com did the work for all those who were wondering, and indications seem to suggest that Joel will be able to keep the series going for a while.

The "piano man" already has the record for the most sold-out concerts at Madison Square Garden (a dozen), and the first five concerts-January through May 2014-have sold well enough to justify the addition of another four shows to carry the series through September. Priceconomics made its attempt to predict how long Joel could keep up by comparing the base price of a ticket to one of the shows to how much internet scalpers are now hawking them for. Overall, the average ticket price is highest during the high point of concert season, June. Tickets online are going for an average of $572, more than 500 percent higher than the base price of $112 as offered on Ticketmaster. Much of this is because those $572 are part of $1,144 pairs for couples that acted far too slowly in buying seats. Individual seats are still available on Ticketmaster, but pairs are out of luck. The lowest internet resale value thus far is for August show, which goes for an average of $369, a 328 percent mark-up from face value. However, ticket prices start to rise again for the September show.

So the final finding, for now, is that Joel could theoretically sell-out shows for the rest of his life at Madison Square Garden. Priceconmoics acknowledges that the resale prices its posting now are only relevant for the time being, and as a show gets closer the prices of available tickets will drop. If prices are still at $572 a week before the June show, scalpers know they won't resell, and will hence drop prices until they get bought. Regardless of the final prices however, the demand for Joel's first nine shows are surpassing the supply, which is a good sign for performer and the venue.

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Billy Joel