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Comment by scott_w | Hacker News Reader

Because, ironically, a show that only rich people can afford to attend will be pretty terrible. Rich people tend not to loudly enjoy the show, so the atmosphere isn't there. This is bad for the rest of the audience and for the performer. It's hard to put 100% in when all you can see is a bunch of people staring solemnly at you.

It happens in football (soccer for my American friends) for clubs like Man Utd (and probably Man City now) where ticket prices are out of reach of working class fans. The visiting fans make a point of trying to out-sing the local support then insulting them for only being there because the club is winning trophies. All football fans know the song "where were you when you were shit!"

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Related article: The reason why Billy Joel refuses to sell front row seats at his concerts

https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/reason-why-billy-joel-refuses-s...

More detail: he doesn’t sell them, he has his crew go pull excited fans from the regular admission area and bring them to the front, where they’ll be even more excited. He doesn’t leave the front row empty.

> Rich people tend not to loudly enjoy the show, so the atmosphere isn't there

These people were so eloquently described by Manchester United captain Roy Keane, as 'the prawn sandwich brigade'.

> Rich people tend not to loudly enjoy the show, so the atmosphere isn't there

Citation needed.

Rich people are the main audience at all organized events of all kinds. Do you think you can take you and your kids to an NFL game if you're poor? The main attendees of Taylor swift? Women in late 20s - mid 30s working corporate jobs.

Billy Joel: “I’d look down and see rich people sitting there, I call ’em ‘gold chainers.’ Sitting there puffing on a cigar, ‘entertain me, piano man.’ “They don’t stand up, make noise, [they just] sit there with their bouffant haired girlfriend lookin’ like a big shot. I kinda got sick of that, who the (heck) are these people, where are the real fans?”

Says Billy Joel most likely far richer than at least a typical front row seat buyer. Btw while I would consider myself a fan I'm not obsessed with Billy Joel and also he has certainly how do you say 'his issues' (ie addictions and so on).

Also who is to say because they don't act ridiculous or obsessed they aren't 'real' fans. What is a real fan anyway? I hadn't heard there was a universal accepted definition.

Says Billy Joel most likely far richer than at least a typical front row seat buyer.

I suspect, though, he doesn't sit quietly in the front row of his own concerts, so that's not really relevant to the point he makes.

Reminds me of John Lennon’s famous cheeky jibe at the Royal Variety Performance:

“For our last number I’d like to ask your help. Would the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you’ll just rattle your jewellery.”

Unclear how a rich person can even be defined at all. It's a pretty wide swath of differing income levels as well as assets.

Did you not hear the super bowl team chants played on the speakers? Atmosphere of a snooze fest. That show is way too far in the exclusivity direction to allow any fun at all.

Right here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37629176

I can’t speak to the USA sports, I’m specifically talking about English football which is generally quite affordable for most working class people. I’ve bought tickets to games myself.

Toronto Maple Leafs games too, if you're watching wearing a suit because you're actually using it as a client bribe, then you're not as into the game as you could be.

Why is it that rich people are solemnly staring in general? You'd think they'd be whooping it up on account of being made.

Probably a case of people knowing how to reach their mouth shut climbing hierarchies faster ;)

If you have to ask

Rich people involved in business or politics have reputation risk and can’t be seen “letting loose”. See the Dean Scream.

Meanwhile, Steve Ballmer:

"Developers, developers, developers, developers. Developers, developers, developers, developers!!! Yes!!!"

That's the difference between being almost, but not quite at the top, vs. actually being there. Dean would've fared differently if he won first, and then did his scream.

But either way, both Dean's and Ballmer's examples are marketing stunts, a calculated performance - that's entirely different to rich people honestly letting loose at a concert.

Over the years I've heard that Ballmer really is like that quite often.

Notice how he is at Clippers games.

Sure it is part stunt, part performance but it also personality.

Fair. But I'll still write this off as stuff you can get away with once you're on top, but not while on your way there.

I think tech just works by different rules.

Poorer people who would just stare do not buy tickets. Simple as that. When the price gets very high, you are filtering attendees by who has a lot of money - not by enthusiasm.

If the ticket is cheap for me, I can go even if I don't like the band too much. And with very expensive tickets, many enthusiasts won't pay while rich non-enthusiasts are bigger part of audience.

Meanwhile, if tickets are cheaper but you have to jump hoops to get them, you get enthusiasts.

You can do dynamic pricing. Have a reasonably strong identifier ticket app that is tied to a device, ip address, voice print id, and phone number. Have people put in bids for the ticket (with a minimum floor price), weigh each bid by some determination of "fan strength", like willingness to travel larger distance to see a show, then select winners based on a bell curve distribution of bids.

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