Imagine sitting in Lincoln Financial Field Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on May 13, 2023 getting to experience Taylor Swift live on her Eras tour. For many fans this once in a lifetime opportunity was taken away. 

On Nov. 15, 2022, Taylor Swift forever changed Ticketmaster. 

The release of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour tickets completely shutdown the website. Breaking the website with 14 million users and bots trying to buy tickets all at once. 

Swift came out with a statement on Instagram saying that they talked to Ticketmaster multiple times to double check its site could handle the anticipated traffic. Many knew the demand for tickets was at an all time high because fans were declaring it would be the end of their life if they didn’t get tickets. All of the managers and fans were prepared for the craze, except Ticketmaster. 

“I’m not going to make excuses for anyone but we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand  and we were assured they could,” Swift said in her statement. “It’s truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them.”

The statement Swift released explained they were anticipating the high demand and were trying to assure that something like this would not happen.

Millions of fans are devastated at the fact they could not get tickets leaving them in mental breakdowns. As for the ones who got tickets, they still went through a war to be able to secure seats during presale. 

The first step was to get into the waiting room and wait to be released into the queue. Many fans waited for over six hours to be kicked to the end of the line. Or even they would be one spot away from selecting their tickets and have the site be completely refreshed losing their place. Even worse, many fans faced the struggle of completing their transaction and having the site totally crash, losing their tickets. 

For the Capital One presale fans were required to have a Capital One card to be able to get in and buy tickets. High amounts of fans even went to the extremes of signing up with the bank to gain a better chance of going to the concert.

“My mom got an entirely different card, yet the site kept crashing. Then we didn’t end up getting tickets. We would get to the part where you go to buy them and it would refresh and make us restart,” freshman Delia Polumbo said. 

Many fans lost their opportunity to see Taylor Swift live simply because the site could not handle the demand. 

Fans have taken to social media to complain and cry about their losses. Superfans have experienced mental breakdowns. 

All over social media fans have taken to share their traumatic experiences while crying explaining their loss of tickets. Social media has been used to share stories of fans’ struggles and process through that they were not the only ones to lose the opportunity to see Taylor Swift on tour.

On The Eagle TikTok feature, Lucy in the Halls, student reporter Lucy Shaffer went around and heard the traumatic stories of fans trying to get tickets. Fans shared how they went through “a war” to be able to have a chance at getting tickets.

A variety of fans were featured but many stories were not able to be included too. 

Ticketmaster failed many fans in the world of Taylor Swift. Due to this epic fault many fans lost their chance at ever seeing Taylor Swift live on her Eras tour.