By Sumayya
The Backstreet Boys shared that they will be doing a special residency in Toronto in 2027. The band will perform 12 shows, and it is expected to be one of the biggest concert events in the city.
However, some fans who bought tickets for the very first concert date feel they paid a high, extra price for seats that now appear on lists as having “obstructed views” (blocked vision).
Lisa Parent, who is from Thunder Bay, told CTV News that as soon as she heard the group was doing their “Into the Millennium – Homecoming” residency in Toronto, she knew she had to go.
“I have been a fan since I was 11 years old, since 1996, when their single ‘Get Down’ was released,” Parent said.
This concert series comes after the group’s successful residency in Las Vegas. Parent and a group of her friends bought eight seats for the February 20 concert. With all the added fees, the concert tickets cost a total of $5,530. Later, when more future concert dates were added, Parent told CTV News she looked at Ticketmaster to check the pricing info. She discovered that the exact same seats were now labeled as partially obstructed view seats. The total cost for those same tickets would now be $2,906. “We bought the whole row three. They were being sold at half price with now a warning for the obstruction sign,” Parent said.
She told CTV News that she reached out to Ticketmaster to learn why the description of the seats had changed and why the prices had dropped, but she said nobody could give her an answer.
“I would like an answer. How come they didn’t confirm the sightlines prior to the ticket sales? Why would they change the classification midweek,” Parent asked.
She and her friends are asking for a money refund of just over $2,600, or they want to be moved to seats with clear, unobstructed views, she stated.
CTV News reached out to Ticketmaster and Live Nation about Parent’s situation. In a statement sent by Live Nation, a spokesperson explained, “Following the initial onsales for the Backstreet Boys Toronto Residency, additional production details identified potential sightline concerns. Out of an abundance of caution, additional seats were subsequently flagged as possibly having obstructed views.”
“Once this was identified, Live Nation Canada began reviewing affected seating locations and implementing a plan to address them. Fans whose seats are impacted will be proactively relocated to comparable full-view locations in advance of their show. We expect to begin reaching out to affected fans in the coming days with additional information,” the statement added.
Parent said she does not want to miss the concert. She is hoping that she and her friends will get better seats for this “larger than life” event. “Essentially, I still want to go to the show, so if they can relocate me to an unobstructed view, great,” Parent said.
She added that if they are forced to stay in their original assigned seats, they will accept a refund instead.
As for Live Nation, they state that fans will be told about their new seating arrangements in the days ahead.
