Barclays Center's unimpressive ranking of 25th in Pollstar's 2023 ticket sales list may help explain the return to Ticketmaster.

Following up on my coverage yesterday (link) about a consultant's dubious report on the concert market, I took a look at Pollstar's 2023 ranking of ticket sales for the world's busiest arenas.

Notably, the Barclays Center showed a significant drop, to 25th worldwide, with 726,548 tickets sold, even trailing the Prudential Center in Newark. Madison Square Garden sold 1,985,832 tickets.

Barclays from 2013-18 had maintained a top-ten position in Pollstar's rankings (based on ticket sales) slipped to 11th in 2019, rose to 5th in the truncated 2020 calendar, and fell to 26th in the Covid-shortened 2021 calendar.

Note that in 2019, when Pollstar reported on both ticket sales and gross revenue in the same chart, Barclays ranked 11th in volume but, by my count, third in revenue. In 2020, it was fifth in tickets and third in revenue. In 2021, it was 26th in tickets and 24th in revenue.

Revenue is different

That said, higher ticket prices meant both Prudential and Barclays ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, in terms of 2023 gross revenue, as indicated below. 

Looking more closely

I don't have the full results for 2022, when the concert and event schedule rebounded, but Barclays was 35th in revenue (not ticket count) in the first quarter. (If anyone has the 2022 chart, please share it.)

While 2023 was supposed to be a banger year for venues, according to Pollstar, that wasn't the case for Barclays. Part of that may have the presence of the new UBS Arena on Long Island, which in its debut 2022 year apparently got tours that might have gone to Barclays.

Then again, UBS' ticket sales in 2023, its second full year, did not significantly exceed the previous volume of the Nassau Coliseum, as I wrote.

Ticketmaster effect?

More likely, I'd bet, the slowdown related to the Brooklyn arena's decision to switch from Ticketmaster to SeatGeek for ticketing, which, depending on which source you trust, hampered sales in some cases and/or provoked Ticketmaster affiliate Live Nation to punish Barclays by denying it shows.

Barclays Center in early 2023 abruptly canceled its contract with SeatGeek to return to Ticketmaster, but it's not unreasonable that the full effect of a revived schedule wold not be seen until this year's totals. 

Meanwhile, Ticketmaster and Live Nation have been sued by the Justice Department for monopoly practices.