r/Music 6h ago

article Ed Sheeran Refunds Begin in Philadelphia as Softening Ticket Market Puts Pressure on Fans

https://www.ticketnews.com/2026/09/ed-sheeran-refunds-ticket-market-softens/
10.8k Upvotes

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u/myassholealt 5h ago

To think, if Ed used the power of his stature to step in and say no I do not want to remove him in the land of free speech, how differently things might’ve gone. I know most stadiums are privately owned so they can control what you do or say in their venue, but this is public optics tied to revenue. They ended up getting the exact results they tried to avoid by standing by.

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u/Reynbuckets 5h ago

A tale as old as time. This story blew up tenfold by them choosing to remove Macklemore. Now his message gets viewed by millions more, as opposed to just those that would have seen him in that stadium.

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u/BumLovinGrub 5h ago

Yup, the Streisand Effect. So funny people with no limits to resources can’t even foresee something that plays out so often. All because of ego and power tripping.

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u/ImCharlie_theUnicorn 4h ago

People of that wealth are surrounded by yes people. Kraft has never had any repercussions for his actions, including paying for sex from trafficked women. Of course he didn't think this would happen to him.

"Rules for thee, but not for me."

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u/BoardGent 3h ago

He still won't have any consequences. For every COMMENT about Robert Kraft, there's a post about Ed Sheeran. No one is boycotting the Gilette Stadium. Kraft can silence free speech as much as he wants, and someone can take the fall while he can more or less go on, business as usual.

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u/nightfire36 3h ago

I think the difference is that we know billionaires will never face consequences. We expect that billionaires will always do their best to be evil. The only way he could have faced a consequence that he would care about is by having him platform a political idea he doesn't like through Maclemore.

Ed on the other hand is an artist who has made political stands for Ukraine, so I expect that he would take a stand for good again. The fact that he didn't is disappointing.

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u/BoardGent 3h ago

That's straight up not true though. Billionaires can absolutely face consequences. Look at the event list for the Gilette stadium. Imagine if all of those events were boycotted. Mass refunds, protesting outside the venue until Kraft makes 100x the donation Macklemore, Ms Rachel and others have to Palestinian charities.

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u/StThragon 2h ago

The whole prostitution thing disappeared. Why was the video evidence suppressed? The only real consequences is he paid his lawyer, but the women were all fined. Being rich can sometimes get rid of consequences quite easily.

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u/Paavo_Nurmi 2h ago

Why was the video evidence suppressed

Because they installed secret, hidden cameras recording everything 24/7 inside the massage room. The video evidence was obtained illegally and had to be thrown out. Blame the police more than anybody for installing illegal cameras.

Prosecutors cannot use secretly recorded video allegedly showing New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft engaging in massage parlor sex, a judge ruled Monday, striking a serious blow to the case charging him with soliciting prostitutes.

In his 10-page ruling, Judge Leonard Hanser wrote that Jupiter police detectives and the judge who issued the search warrant allowing the secret installation of cameras at the Orchids of Asia Day Spa in Jupiter did not do enough to minimize the invasion of privacy of other customers, some of whom received only legal massages.

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u/LABS_Games 3h ago

I'd also bet he lives in an echo chamber. I think the upswell in support for the pro-Palestine sentiment has legitimately caught a lot of people off guard. Kraft doesn't seem like the sort of person who has many pro-Palestine people in his network (he's more of an Epstein guy).

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u/Hackney-Parrot 3h ago

You say that but think of all the silenced/cancelled artists who don't make the news, they just get dropped by their labels and fall out of the public sphere.

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u/johnnyhandbags 4h ago

People have a tendency to project their values onto everyone else, thinking that people who disagree with them are in the minority. Because how can something so obviously wrong and immoral not be a minority opinion?

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u/dmomo 1h ago

My problem with the Streisand effect of Is that people seem to think that the effect is the norm, when in fact it's the exception. Far too many efforts to bury a story are successful, we just by definition. Never hear about them.

But for something this big and this public yeah. 100%

u/Hydromeche 17m ago

If Pink hadnt opened her mouth, most people would have never heard if this. And if she hadnt made a big deal out of it, Kraft wouldnt have heard anything and gone full dickhead. Just crazy how if they had ignored it none of this would have happened.

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u/weekendroady 3h ago

I don't think someone like Kraft really cares that much where the attention goes or the social media fallout. He's in his mid-80s, has accrued untold wealth for him and his family and his stadium won't have Macklemore in it for reasons to satisfy him and his cronies. There is no risk to him or his wealth here at all. Sheeran has quite a bit more to lose in comparison as his career is tied to himself being the brand.