When Metallica announced an Eden Park show at the end of last week, it was a rare reason for live music fans to celebrate.
Finally, after months of snubs, a major act had chosen to come here, to grace us with their presence, not just bypass us in favour of multiple Australian shows then expect us to cover the cost of flights and accommodation to see them play live.
It has been confirmed that Metallica, the mega-popular metal act who last visited Aotearoa in 2010, will play a one-off show at Eden Park on November 19, 2025, with Evanescence and Suicidal Tendencies in support.
Fans are, quite rightly, stoked about this.
But, at the very bottom of this Reddit thread, one Metallica fan had something to ask.
Good question.
As we all now know, concert ticket prices have gone through the roof lately. For that, we can blame many things: inflation, increased shipping costs, an explosion in demand for live entertainment, and the domination of Live Nation, the effects of which were exposed in a searing ABC documentary in Australia earlier this month.
Earlier this year, tickets to SZA cost $250, or $550 if you were unlucky enough to get stuck with dynamic pricing surcharges. Tickets to see Oasis in Australia cost $350, and that’s without additional flights and accommodation. Chris Stapleton tickets for his Spark Arena shows were up to $499.
So you’d expect tickets to see Metallica, a legacy act with a big boomer following, to be right up there.
There are some things we don’t yet know.
The cost of a basic GA ticket to see Metallica perform at Eden Park hasn’t been released.
Whether or not dynamic pricing will be in play isn’t yet known either.
We’ll find all that out at 11am today, when fan club pre-sales begin.
But there are some things we do know.
The cost of some ticket packages, or “experiences”, have been revealed.
A $495 “Frantic” package gets you a GA ticket, early entry, and a drink.
A $798 “One” package gets you a premium seat, entry into a VIP party, three drinks, and a download of the audio from the show.
A $998 “Moth Into Flame” package gets you all of that, but you’ll be standing right in front of the stage.
You may get to take a photo just like this one…
But that’s not all.
Today, at 11am, Metallica’s Aotearoa fans have the opportunity to spend nearly $4000 on something called the “Nothing Else Matters Snake Pit Experience”.
It’s true. For $3998, the amount you might spend on a second-hand car, you can purchase a Metallica ticket that gets you front of stage, a meet-and-greet with two Metallica band members, a backstage tour, a poster, and other bits and pieces.
I’ve seen crazy prices being charged for ticket and VIP concert experiences before.
Rapper 50 Cent was charging $424.90 for a GA ticket to his Spark Arena show last year.
Seinfeld was about twice that for a front row ticket to his performance in June.
Meet-and-greet packages for the Incubus and Live double-header earlier this year were around $800.
Tickets to see Adele perform while standing directly under her claw stage out at Go Media Stadium in 2017 (a show that broke me) were, from memory, about $1000.
I have never – never – seen a $4000 concert ticket for sale in Aotearoa before.
Is this fan extortion?
Is this price gouging?
Has Metallica completely and utterly sold out?
Or is this just market forces at play?
I couldn’t make my mind up, so I asked some Metallica fans what they thought about it.
Here’s Chris:
“Metallica is an example of a rock band that has entirely sold out and gone corporate. They're a legacy act that is its own little ecosystem … The more I think about this, the more angry I'm getting about it.”
And here’s Troy:
“Seems to me Metallica have read their market based on what cashed-up, middle-aged Americans are willing to spend and have applied that globally. They're another multi-million-dollar Bay Area brand operating in a global market. They're not four sweaty guys in a garage trying to take over the world. That's a tough irony to sit with, because they have taken over the world. All that's left to relate to are the garage days.”
It’s hard to argue with them.
Go browse the absolutely bonkers array of merch available on Metallica’s website and see for yourself.
James Hetfield, Lars Ulrich and co have taken corporate cash-ins to an entirely new level.
There are T-shirts for sale, and vinyl. There are posters and art on sale too. There’s whisky and beanies, stickers and mugs, socks and turntables, and a $10,000 pinball machine.
Then there’s this holiday sweater.
Merry Christmas, everyone, I guess.
UPDATE: Basic GA tickets are around the $300 mark for the front half of the field (GA1), and around $260 for the back half (GA2), but you won’t get a water bottle or laminate.
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Everything you need to know.
Are ticket prices too high? In a new column for The Guardian, The Cure fan Stewart Lee argues that Robert Smith should be considered a hero for waging war against Ticketmaster and dynamic pricing tactics. He argues that for too long governments have treated concert enthusiasts as “pigs to be farmed by big business for the monetary value of their pathetic enthusiasms”. Read more here.
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Bonus beat.
And as Eden Park "Hood" members we've just been advised of 4x A Reserve seats each to Travis Scott to the first 60 members at the EdenPark office tomorrow morning...