Morris Day and the Time vs "Blue Dot Fever"
- Fred
- May 6
- 3 min read
Updated: May 8
From 5/5/26 at Digital Noise Magazine: "The touring industry has a new name for its current struggle: Blue Dot Fever. The phrase, a reference to the sea of blue dots representing unsold seats on Ticketmaster seating maps, is being used to describe the wave of tour cancellations and postponements hitting major artists in 2026. This week, Post Malone, Meghan Trainor, and The Pussycat Dolls became the latest high-profile acts to pull back on North American dates, citing the "mysterious illness" of low ticket sales as the primary driver."
Listen, DNM's reporting is journalistically sound, it just gives half of the equation. What's the other half? Enter Morris Day and the Time:
You remember Prince's heyday in the mid-80's, he was on a winning streak with 1999, Purple Rain, and Around the World in a Day.
But riding on Prince's coattails after Purple Rain was Morris Day and the Time, a band that achieved mainstream success with their single Jungle Love.
Now I don't mean to disparage Morris Day at all, he's still touring today. But this is a question for you, the reader: How much would you pay for Morris Day tickets?
So if you go online, here is the seating chart for one of his shows later this year:
Tickets still available near the front for $324?
Plenty available at $220?
Cheapest seat in the house...$108?
FOR MORRIS DAY?
While I was digesting the ticket prices, this reminder came up.
I understand how capitalism works, I really do. Tickets are worth what the market bears.
But if you looked at every section above, over 80% of the arena still has seating available.
Isn't the basic premise to set the prices to fill venues?
I mean, what's the magic number? What number of high priced tickets compensates for half empty locales?
Your argument is: Wake up, everything is more expensive now.
Uh, restaurants jack up prices when costs go up, then less people eat there. Restaurant ups prices more, less people eat there. It's a doom cycle, then, sooner or later, the restaurant goes belly up.
In the old days, the most popular bands in America, like the Rolling Stones or the Eagles, could ask for top dollar and fill stadiums within a day of their tickets going on sale, while has-beens and never-weres clogged up the low-end, secondary market.
And there's nothing wrong with that. Go to a casino, spend $50 bucks or so on the band, then drop some money in the slot machines.
Now the most popular bands hate touring, (or their important members are dead), and the has-beens and never-weres are asking for top dollar and unable to sell out casino ballrooms.
Again, nothing against The Time specifically.
The system is broken and unable to nurture new artists while bleeding older artists dry....
Really an analogy for most systems in America.
5 minutes before publishing this article, I came across this gem (from ESPN):
"FIFA has been accused by fans of a "monumental betrayal" on ticket costs, but Infantino has previously stressed that the revenue from the flagship tournament supports the development of soccer globally."
The money quote? "World Cup tickets priced at U.S. market rate."
Uh....
That's not good.
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