Here's a good article from the former Ticketmaster CEO with a good summary of why it's really tough to get tickets to high demand concerts and sporting events.
Picked out some key parts for those not wanting to read the whole thing.
Reality no. 1: Tickets never go on sale when you think they do.
"Presales are privately and inconsistently announced to smaller groups of people who usually paid for access (like American Express cardholders or radio stations, for example). Then fan clubs, venue email lists, promoter email lists, and others usually get a chance at decent seats before the “general on-sale” happens. The problem, of course, is that these lists and clubs have been infiltrated by ticket brokers, many of whom use fake names, fake addresses, and multiple credit cards to steal tickets out from under an even smaller subset of real fans."
Reality no. 2: You probably can’t even get a whiff of a good seat.
"Even before that sham of an on-sale happens, a big chunk of the best seats are held back from ever going directly on sale. On average, less than half of all tickets go on sale to the general public. For specifically cited Katy Perry and Justin Bieber shows, no more than 15 percent of the tickets were made available to people like you. Tickets are held by the artist or team and the rest of the band/athlete’s family and groupies. Some are held surreptitiously by other stakeholders in the event — the promoter, venue, band manager, team president, and record label all have a claim. And while some special tickets are used to reward employees, grease the palms of key partners, and (God forbid) admit fans who actually deserve to be at the show, a significant portion not-so-magically find their way into the hands of secondary market brokers."
Reality no. 3: You DEFINITELY can’t get a good seat.
"First, principals — including, yes, teams and the artist (not you, Pearl Jam!) — may take tickets and sell them directly to brokers"
"So the biggest artists sign contracts that guarantee them money every time they step on the stage, and that guaranteed amount is usually more than 100 percent of the revenue if every ticket is sold at face value. Which means that if every ticket in the venue “sells out” at the face value printed on the ticket, that wouldn’t be enough to pay the artist what they are contractually guaranteed by the promoter for the performance."
Reality no. 4: Bots are pwning you.
"Ticket bots — have years of experience beating you to the punch for premium seats. Brokers have written programs that blaze through the checkout experience of a ticketing site faster than any human being ever could. They grab the best seats and let the broker decide whether to buy them."
Reality no. 5: You can’t win.
"This shouldn’t be a zero-sum game, but it is. And you already lost."
https://theringer.com/ticket-industr...ff6#.r85o7inmh