With Paul McCartney’s highly anticipated tour kickoff this Friday at the Santa Barbara Bowl fast approaching, venue officials warn that tickets purchased through third-party resale sites are considered fake and will not be honored for the sold-out show.
S.B. Bowl Chief Executive Officer Rick Boller explained that all tickets for the September 26 show were distributed through a verified registration system, managed in partnership with the Bowl’s ticketing provider, AXS.
The lottery system was enacted to ensure that tickets went directly into the hands of genuine fans. Each buyer was limited to two tickets, tied to their name and ID, and ticket transfers were disabled to make sure tickets stayed with the original purchaser.
Despite the official announcements from both McCartney’s team on Instagram and the Bowl’s website, reseller sites like StubHub have listed resale seats for up to $10,000. Boller stressed that these sites are misleading and there is nothing the Bowl can do to honor fake tickets purchased outside the official system.
“We didn’t sell any tickets that would allow for transfer, those aren’t valid, and they won’t be honored.” Boller said. “Unfortunately, if somebody buys them, they’ll be put in a position where they’re having to recover from StubHub rather than the venue.”
A StubHub representative, who declined to be identified, acknowledged that the company is aware of the Bowl’s policy and confirmed that buyers will be denied entry if they use resale tickets. “Once there’s an issue with a ticket,” the rep said, ”[the buyer is] covered with our funds-guarantee program, which is where they can receive a replacement ticket or a refund.”
Still, with no clear warning on StubHub’s listings — and tickets selling for thousands of dollars — fans may not realize their purchases won’t be honored at the gate. As of Wednesday morning, the website was still advertising more than two dozen tickets to the sold-out show.
While not every show will follow the same system, the lottery-style registration was designed to “even the bar” for such a high-demand show at the Bowl, which holds just 4,500 seats compared to the massive arenas McCartney will play on tour.
The benefit of this process was requiring fans to register through Fair AXS, which allowed ticket staff to flag scalpers, bots, or duplicate entries and keep tickets in the hands of real fans.
Boller said the goal is: “to make sure the people who get tickets are the ones who truly want to be there.”
Official announcements from both McCartney’s team on Instagram and the Bowl’s website note that tickets from third-party vendors won’t be honored at Friday’s show. | Credit: Courtesy 
Official announcements from both McCartney’s team on Instagram and the Bowl’s website note that tickets from third-party vendors won’t be honored at Friday’s show. | Credit: Courtesy
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