Social media complaints flew in on all platforms as over 650,000 people waited in the TicketMaster queue to land tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings in Dublin, Ireland.
While TicketMaster’s initial message said the wait would be over an hour, some fans waited up to five hours, and some were turned away.
While waiting, TicketMaster sent out a message to fans that there would still be tickets waiting after the long queue.
“This is a popular sale and wait times are expected to be long. Your place in the queue is secure and there are still tickets available. Thank you for your patience,” the statement read.
Many fans finally got their turn to land tickets, but once in the cart and ready to buy them, they were told the seats were unavailable. Many tickets have already appeared on other sites after scalpers bought them.
Often, these scalpers send in online bots to buy up blocks of tickets, hurting fans in real time who get into these long queues.
The game, which will be held at Croke Park on September 28 at 2:30 p.m. local time (9:30 a.m. ET), will also sell tickets for seats and standing-room-only spots. The stadium can hold up to 82,300 people, but it is expected to hold just 76,000 for this game.
The demand for the Steelers-Vikings game appears massive. Tickets initially cost anywhere from €85 in the upper stands to €295 in the stadium’s lower bowl. Scalpers that acquire the tickets are jacking those prices up far higher for fans, leading to rampant complaints.
More tickets in the Hill 16 and Nelly Terrace areas of Croke Park will have seating areas, which did not go on sale today but will be at a later date.