The Cost of Seeing Beyoncé and Jay Z in Concert

by Leah Prinzivalli

I watched the trailer for Bey and Jay’s “On the Run” Tour the night it came out, but, like every stadium concert, I figured it would be too expensive and didn’t even think about buying tickets. I tend to save my money for trips (or for nothing, really) and have big issues with seeing a bunch of cash disappear on one night. Enter a mysterious friend of a friend who worked there and could get us tickets. “There?” you ask. At MetLife Stadium, for Beyoncé, or maybe for a vendor? Good question! I didn’t ask because I was too excited.

For “big nights,” I’ll take out cash so I can feel appropriately guilty when I need to swipe my card or go back to the ATM. I didn’t need to do that here! This was an opportunity to see Beyoncé do this move in person. I would do it again.

On the night of the concert I spent:

• $2.50, mozzarella and tomato sandwich from the bar at Penn Station, eaten while our group of girls waited for the train to the Meadowlands near other groups of girls. This sandwich might be my #1 NYC food recommendation.

• $10.50, round-trip train ticket. Concertgoers assembled into the Beyhive over 90 minutes of shepherding via subway, train, and light rail.

• $80, concert ticket. Our “ticket hookup” got us seats in the last row of the whole damn stadium. Plus, my friend and I were originally told $65. I know, I need to become the type of person that speaks up in this situation, but we were about to have to do the Single Ladies dance next to her. To add insult to injury, I found out later that tickets were still available online. We probably could have sat at a lower tier for the same price.

• $30, three glasses of wine. More than normal due to annoying ticket/seating situation.
$12, Nathan’s chicken fingers and fries basket. I love stadium food, sandwich be damned.

• ($40, tour t-shirt). I set a price limit of less than $35, the cost of an NSYNC No Strings Attached shirt. $40??!! I stuck to my rule.

• $28/Priceless, Cab home to Brooklyn.

Total: $163

Total if I had gotten shirt: $203 (ugh)

Total if I had gotten shirt and tickets were $65 like I was promised: $188 (reasonable!)

Leah Prinzivalli is a writer living in Brooklyn.

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