Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band announced Tuesday that they are adding a pair of concerts at the Kia Forum in Inglewood to their 2023 tour.
But Southern California fans will have to wait until Dec. 4 and Dec. 6 to see the Boss. The Forum concerts are a part of 22 new shows in 18 North American cities added to Springsteen’s international tour.
Ticket sales for the new dates will begin Feb. 19 through Ticketmaster’s Verified Fan program. The on-sale date for the Forum shows is Feb. 23.
The first leg of the tour kicked off earlier this month in Tampa, Fla., and will end the 33-show run in Springsteen’s home state of New Jersey. Springsteen and his band are famous for their marathon performances (including the longest show in U.S. history) that often last more than three hours. The group already hit that mark during a 27-song set in Dallas over the weekend, according to the Dallas Observer.
The second leg of the tour, announced on Springsteen’s website, will start at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Aug. 9 and also includes multiple nights in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Toronto.
For many of the added cities, the tour will continue to use Ticketmaster’s controversial Verified Fan program, which weeds out bots to cut off the multibillion-dollar resale business by using “dynamic pricing,” adjusting ticket prices to “fair value” based on demand.
However, many fans think tickets are unfairly inflated and unaffordable. Springsteen’s most recent announcement is already drawing ire, with some calling the program “bogus,” “ridiculous,” and “rubbish.”
“Do NOT fall for the Verified Fan BS that drives prices through the roof up and kicks algorithm in for dynamic pricing!” wrote one fan on Twitter.
“Sure, just let me remortgage my house to get a ticket, pfft…,” a fan sarcastically commented.
“I’ll list my kidney on Marketplace today and hope for the best!” wrote another.
Mega pop stars such as Springsteen, Taylor Swift and Harry Styles have used the Verified program for the last half decade. Sprinsgteen fans complained last summer when the 2023 tour tickets went on sale and some floor tickets jumped as high as $5,000.
Springsteen acknowledged the higher prices in November, telling Rolling Stone that they are still “totally affordable.”
He admitted things have gotten more confusing for fans, but defended the Verified Fan program and dynamic pricing. He said they ultimately help put money from ticket sales into the pockets of artists and not scalpers.
“I’m going, ‘Hey, why shouldn’t that money go to the guys that are going to be up there sweating three hours a night for it?’” Sprinsgteen said in the interview.
“And so at that point, we went for it. I know it was unpopular with some fans,” he further explained. “But if there’s any complaints on the way out, you can have your money back.”
The program famously collapsed last fall during ticket sales for Swift’s Eras tour, with Ticketmaster blaming it on “unprecedented” demand of 3.5 billion attempted sales simultaneously. The debacle has led to a class-action lawsuit and criticism from lawmakers. However, things did go a lot more smoothly with some alterations for sales of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour.