Well, I was thinking about writing this post for a long time but really didn’t have enough time for that before. We all know how much BJ ticket prices bother some of the people over here and how many threads we’ve had on that. I think it even turned out to be #1 disappointment of TC Tour for some. And the main conclusion was the prices are ridiculously high. And I am not saying they are not, because I’d love them to be cheaper, but I have never complained about them. And I have to say that I am quite surprised who actually complains they are expensive. I think that most people on this board are from US, Canada, Western Europe and Australia. From my perspective those are the countries that stand really well economically, yet most of the complains were from those parts of the world I think. Those who live there probably think they are in economic crisis at the moment but I can only tell you that what’s considered crisis for you, for us in Poland would be paradise.

Anyway I thought it might be interesting for someone to have a look at the prices from a different perspective. I will try to give simple facts to let you look at this a little bit differently. And I am not even talking about prices for BJ tickets or anything BJ related only, but for any goods also. But BJ related things are easier to compare between us – fans.

First of all, your currencies are stronger of course. Here are present exchange rates, that will also help calculate things later on (PLN stands for Polish Zloty, our currency): £1=4,60PLN ; $1=3PLN ; €1=4PLN ; $1 (AUD)=2,95PLN

Secondly, minimum wages/per hour before tax (guaranteed by governments of particular countries):
Poland – this is hard to tell as usually in Poland you get monthly payments. In Poland for 2011 minimum income/per month before tax is 1386 PLN, which is 1039 PLN after tax, health care and pension (in 2010 it was about 70PLN less). So considering a month 22 working days, 8 hours per day it is 176 hours per month, that gives us 7,87 PLN/h before tax, and 5,90 PLN/h after tax, health care and pension.
UK - £5,93/h (£1043/month) - in my country it is £1,71/h (3,47 times less)
USA - $7,25/h ($1276/month) - in my country it is $2,62/h (2,77 times less)
Ireland - €7,65/h (€1346/month) - in my country it is €1,97/h (3,88 times less, by the way until the end of 2010 it was €8,65/h so the difference would have been even bigger)
Australia - $15/h (AUD) ($2640/month) - in my country it is $2,67/h (5,62 times less)

So it seems it’s about 3-6 times difference. As I don’t know what are taxes, health care and pension fees in all other countries you can do the math for yourself, how much is left in your wallet. I can tell you that in Poland they take a lot from us. Of course those minimums are only an example. I’d say that in Poland people mostly get about 1200-2500PLN/month after tax, health care and pension. If they get more it means they are highly skilled professionals. But the average incomes in your countries would go up significantly too, even more than ours, I am sure of that (based on my personal experience of working abroad).

So that was theory part and now real life. Here’s an example how much the trip may cost a typical fan from Poland to see BJ show in London, based on my trip to O2 in London last year. It included: return flights by Ryanair (low-cost airlines) from my hometown of Gdansk to London Stansted, return coach from the airport to London city centre, tube tickets in London, 1 night in a 2-star hotel close to O2, meals and drinks in London (cheapest possible, fish&chips style), 2 x BJ tix for 25June (about £55/ticket), 2 x BJ tix for 26June (about £55/ticket).
It cost us about 2500PLN for everything above for 2 people. For any other citizen starting from my point, in his currency that would be (including how many hours he’d have to work for this in his country, based on minimum wages):
UK – £543 – 91,6h
US – $833 – 115h
Ireland – €625 – 81,7h
Australia - $847 (AUD) – 56,5h
Poland – 2500PLN – 317,6h

Again we pay and work about 3-6 times more. Nothing’s changed. So to compare the worst with the best. The ordinary Joe in Poland has to work almost 2 months to afford such a trip. An ordinary Joe in Australia has to work 7 days, so in fact he can easily do that and survive for the rest of the month (house rent, food, goods, savings etc.). And what about Polish guy? What about surviving for him/her, for 40 working days - without food, house and other basic needs and definitely no chances for savings? But also don’t forget that most of you do not have to leave your country to see BJ show. They come to your countries on each tour. That saves you lots of money too. Yet, still there are people from Poland who go to BJ shows abroad, because they don’t have any other choice to see them. And they save for those shows for months if not years. To see this probably ‘once in a lifetime show’.

And just to give you a look on ticket prices in Poland. For Polish artists it’s usually 50-100PLN/ticket. For world stars it’s about 200-600PLN/ticket. In November 2010 Lady Gaga performed for the first time in Poland in my home city in a brand new arena and the tickets were 209-650PLN. 650PLN were some kind of VIP tickets. To get close to the stage they had pit tickets-early entrance for 425PLN. And guess what, they sold 12 thousand tix and 15 is maximum in this arena. So I say the sales were great (and NO, I haven’t been to that show just in case you are curious, it’s not my type of music at all). And it’s like that for each world star. It’s always sold out (or very close) because we don’t get to see them often, even with this 'out of this world' prices (but it seems we got used to them). If someone thinks that Bon Jovi €100,€200 or €400 ticket is expensive, just multiple that 3-6 times and you’d get the amount of money we have to pay for the same ticket, compared to our wages. And if tickets prices are ridiculous for some of you, I wonder how many shows would you see if you lived here? Actually I wish I could pay for the tickets for any artist as much in my currency as you pay in yours.

If some of the numbers about the incomes in particular countries above are incorrect, please let me know. I just did some research on the web and that’s what I have found, but of course some of the info I found may be incorrect. But I think they are quite accurate and numbers look really unbelievable. Actually I was surprised the most with Australia results, that it is such a rich country, I have never realized that until now.

Any thoughts?