These Are the Most (and Least) Expensive Cities for Concerts

Anyone who's tried to snag tickets to a hot concert is well aware of how cutthroat the competition can be to secure seats the second they go on sale. Otherwise, you have to hit the resale market, where prices can quickly skyrocket well beyond face...

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Shutterstock

Anyone who's tried to snag tickets to a hot concert is well aware of how cutthroat the competition can be to secure seats the second they go on sale. Otherwise, you have to hit the resale market, where prices can quickly skyrocket well beyond face value and into "refinance my house" territory. Though when it comes to second-hand tickets, it can be much cheaper to score them in certain cities, according to a glut of helpful new data from SeatGeek

To help sort out which US cities are the most and least affordable for concertgoers, SeatGeek culled a bunch of its ticket sales stats and arranged them all in an easily digestible new interactive map. To figure things out, they crunched the numbers on the average resale price for tickets in the country's 50 largest metro areas, and ranked them from most to least expensive. 

According to SeatGeek, the most expensive place to see a concert in 2019 is Las Vegas, where the average ticket price stands at an eye-popping $206. You can expect to pay $167 in San Jose and $166 in Miami, which came in second and third place, respectively. Meanwhile, the most affordable tickets are available to fans in Norfolk, Virginia, where the average price is $85. You can also get relatively good deals in Richmond, Virginia ($90) and Indianapolis ($99), which earned the distinction as second and third-cheapest concert ticket cities, respectively. Here's how the full ranking of all 50 metro areas panned out.

50. Norfolk - $85
49. Richmond - $90
48. Indianapolis - $99
47. St. Louis - $104
46. Providence - $104
45. Riverside - $104
44. Raleigh - $104
43. Portland - $105
42. Cleveland - $107
41. Birmingham - $109
40. Cincinnati - $110
39. Austin - $111
38. Charlotte - $112
37. Milwaukee - $112
36. Detroit - $114
35. Pittsburgh - $115
34. Denver - $115
33. Buffalo - $119
32. Jacksonville - $120
31. Kansas City - $121
30. Baltimore - $121
29. Sacramento - $122
28. Salt Lake City - $122
27. Memphis - $122
26. San Diego - $123
25. Columbus - $123
24. Philadelphia - $124
23. San Francisco - $125
22. Seattle - $126
21. Washington, DC - $126
20. Boston - $126
19. Phoenix - $128
18. Minneapolis - $129
17. Nashville - $130
16. Louisville - $131
15. Tampa - $131
14. Oklahoma City - $132
13. Atlanta - $133
12. Orlando - $134
11. Hartford - $135
10. Chicago - $140
9. Los Angeles - $140
8. Houston - $142
7. New Orleans - $145
6. New York - $154
5. Dallas - $158
4. San Antonio - $159
3. Miami - $166
2. San Jose - $167
1. Las Vegas - $206

In addition to figuring out where you're most likely to get the best deal on tickets, the SeatGeek team also looked at what the most expensive concert has been in each city in recent memory. Specifically, they looked at which band or artist fetched the highest average ticket price in each of the top 50 cities since 2010.

Atlanta: Adele $581 (10/29/16)
Austin: Adele $527 (11/4/16)
Baltimore: Bruce Springsteen $264 (4/20/16)
Birmingham: Elton John $269 (12/4/18)
Boston: Harry Styles $657 (9/30/17)
Buffalo: Paul McCartney $519 (10/22/15)
Charlotte: Taylor Swift $320 (6/8/15)
Chicago: Grateful Dead $650 (7/5/15)
Cincinnati: Elton John $319 (2/27/19)
Cleveland: Taylor Swift $362 (6/3/15)
Columbus: Elton John $373 (11/2/18)
Dallas: BTS $743 (9/15/18)
Denver: Imagine Dragons $579 (7/16/18)
Detroit: One Direction $420 (7/12/13)
Hartford: Bruce Springsteen $639 (5/17/14)
Houston: Adele $539 (11/8/16)
Indianapolis: Pink $315 (3/17/18)
Jacksonville: Paul McCartney $511 (10/25/14)
Kansas City: Elton John $399 (2/13/19)
Las Vegas: Lady Gaga $944 (1/19/19)
Los Angeles: BTS $576 (9/8/18)
Louisville: John Mellencamp $296 (3/9/19)
Memphis: Bruno Mars $288 (9/17/17)
Miami: Adele $513 (10/25/16)
Milwaukee: Justin Timberlake $279 (9/21/18)
Minneapolis: One Direction $392 (7/18/13)
Nashville: Adele $651 (10/15/16)
New Orleans: Elton John $396 (12/6/18)
New York: Rolling Stones $885 (12/13/12)
Norfolk: Bruce Springsteen $310 (4/12/14)
Oklahoma City: George Strait $330 (1/19/13)
Orlando: Justin Bieber $432 (1/25/13)
Philadelphia: Bruce Springsteen $551 (2/12/16)
Phoenix: Adele $721 (11/21/16)
Pittsburgh: Justin Bieber $322 (11/20/12)
Portland: Elton John $345 (1/12/19)
Providence: James Taylor $224 (3/2/19)
Raleigh: One Direction $460 (6/22/13)
Richmond: Foo Fighters $271 (10/14/17)
Riverside: Pink $290 (5/23/18)
Sacramento: Elton John $395 (1/16/19)
Salt Lake City: Taylor Swift $509 (9/4/15)
San Antonio: George Strait $804 (9/12/17)
San Diego: Elton John $461 (1/29/19)
San Francisco: Metallica $570 (12/17/16)
San Jose: Adele $494 (7/30/16)
Seattle: Temple of the Dog $571 (11/21/16)
St. Louis: Paul McCartney $481 (11/11/12)
Tampa: Christina Aguilera $400 (11/13/18)
Washington, DC: Adele $518 (10/11/16)


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Joe McGauley is a senior writer for Thrillist. Follow him @jwmcgauley.