LeBaconator: I believe that “outdoor stadium” was at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, and basically became Coachella
KrasnyRed5: Sadly Pearl Jam’s attempts to cut ticket master out of the ticket sale business ended in disaster. They had to use alternate venues when touring and had problems finding reliable local crews to handle setup and security.
Jeepinitcool: Ticketmaster is cancer, they charge a convenience fee when you have no other options to buy tickets.
scott60561: Which, after a year of investigation and a Bill from Congress that went nowhere, the investigation was closed with no further action.
So yeah, this lead to absolutely nothing.
bloodshotnipples: I gave up concerts after paying 75$ a ticket for the Eagles, Hell Freezes Over tour. The extra charges put the tickets at over 100$. Fuck Ticketmaster and StubHub.
Crusty_Irishman: Yeah that was a big deal my senior year of high school.
RedEyeView: One of the few bands that remember being poor and how lucky they are that people like their music enough to make them rich.
On the MSG DVD they over run their curfew and Eddie says something like “we’ve over run… and it’s going to cost us $50,000 in fines. But you people made us rich motherfuckers so we’re going to continue” and then they played for another hour.
TriggerMeFam: Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder are some of the most down to earth people you could ever meet.
TooShiftyForYou: This prompted Pearl Jam to begin building their own setups in rural areas where they independently sold tickets to shows to keep prices low. Which is how the location for Coachella got discovered as Pearl Jam was the first band to play a show at the Empire polo ground.
25,000 people showed up for the first concert and Eddie Vedder proclaimed “You gotta run pretty far to get some space for yourself these days.”
[Source](http://articles.latimes.com/1993-11-08/entertainment/ca-54535_1_pearl-jam)
TheBackSpin: Does anyone else feel old as fuck when major stories they lived through show up in Today I Learned?
mattjh: A friend of mine took me to see them in the summer of 2000 in Camden, NJ. I didn’t really care about the show that much until I saw how cohesive they were on stage. I didn’t know that they were such a *live* band.
We ran into some friends in the parking lot afterwards and we talked so long that the parking lot was basically empty. Then there’s headlights coming at us, and the driver of this Lincoln Towncar rolls down the window and says “no photos.”
Then Eddie Vedder gets out, shakes each of our hands, thanks us for coming to see the band, gets back in, and they were off in a cloud of integrity and sincerity. That earned my respect forever. He didn’t have to do that.
choof3199: Eddie Veder was quoted as saying “Freeeee falllllll hena wen a come a fana bigol shade a concrete”
krokus_headhunter: Regardless of whether you like their music or not, those boys in Pearl Jam are cool as fuck. Always have been.
cerberaspeedtwelve: A few years ago, I [read an interview](https://www.theringer.com/2016/6/3/16045790/ticket-industry-problem-solution-e4b3b71fdff6#.a5o7fr21b) with the former CEO of Ticketmaster. Having been ripped off by them many times, I was sharpening my pitchfork and was ready to get in line to tear this guy apart.
I read the article all the way through, just to see what he had to say for himself. And the worst of all possible things happened. I learned something. (One might say “Today I learned” something.)
The problem lies not with Ticketmaster; it lies with the bands themselves. A top act like Beyonce or Taylor Swift know full well that people will be willing to pay $2,000 for a ticket. Maybe even $5,000 for front row. If the bands would honestly just price the tickets at what they know that market rate is, there would be no Ticketmaster and no problem.
But bands don’t want to be seen as greedy, or out of touch with their working class roots and working class fans. Street cred matters to them. So Ticketmaster become the nominated bad guys. Tickets officially go on sale for something like $80 (to see Beyonce? Get real) and, through various shady channels and rigged systems, end up on Ticketmaster with one hell of a backhander to the promoters and touts involved … and a huge size of the cut goes to the band.
A top act will not do a concert for less than a guaranteed $2 million. The venue has 10,000 seats. Tickets go out at an official price of $80 each. If each one sold at face value and even if the band retained 100% of the earnings and there were no overheads, they still would not make money. Backhanders and touting are literally built into the system. The books could not balance otherwise.
Be angry at Ticketmaster, be angry at the bands, be angry at the rich schmuck who can drop $2,000 on one ticket, but the problem at the end of the day is the magic of the free market. You are unlikely to be able to get a commodity for $80 that someone else is willing to pay $800 for.
miraoister: ” devising new revenue streams to bolster shrinking profits ”
funny how even in 1994 music industry people were talking about shrinking profits, back in 1994 few people downloaded stuff and CD sales were booming, little did they know how soon the shit would hit the fan…
grampsonandsamson: Everyone should watch Pearl Jam Twenty. I believe it’s on Netflix. It goes into this and provides a great look at their rise to fame. Amazing film. Nothing but respect and admiration for these guys and all that they have been through!
penhooligan: I remember this vividly. I was proud to be a fan.
Hijack32: Ticketmaster is the devil
whyamistillhere25: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 against 1. 5, 5 . . . 5 against 1
Funk5oulBrother: I actually wanted to use [this link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_Jam#Vs.,_Vitalogy_and_dealing_with_success_(1993–1995) but as it had been used in another TIL about the bands name before Pearl Jam i couldn’t use it.