Eric Church cancels concert to watch basketball - thoughts?

[TAC]

What he did was indefensible. End of story.

[KevShmev]

I am literally in awe of how bad Ben's takes are in this thread.  I thought about quoting one of them and replying directly, but I wouldn't know where to begin. 

[TAC]

I am literally in awe of how bad Ben's takes are in this thread.

THIS THREAD??

[KevShmev]

I am literally in awe of how bad Ben's takes are in this thread.

THIS THREAD??

 

[Ben_Jamin]

Think of it this way.  You know you have a big day at work, presenting a new proposal in front of your bosses but you call out to watch a sporting event.

Worst decision you could do.

If you could afford to do it, would you do it? I understand that there are people that would.

It is hilarious to me though. All I am doing is conveying how Sports has an impact on life in general.

I am literally in awe of how bad Ben's takes are in this thread.  I thought about quoting one of them and replying directly, but I wouldn't know where to begin. 

 

[XJDenton]

As soon as you charge and accept money in exchange for a service, you have a responsibility to provide that service. Not doing so is a dick move.

[King Postwhore]

As soon as you charge and accept money in exchange for a service, you have a responsibility to provide that service. Not doing so is a dick move.

Such a simple concept yet some don't get it because they thing their discussion is more important than a humans word. 

[cramx3]

As soon as you charge and accept money in exchange for a service, you have a responsibility to provide that service. Not doing so is a dick move.

And there are lots of good and acceptable examples when it is OK to back out, going to a sporting event (no matter how big IMO) is not a good or acceptable reason to me. 

[Ben_Jamin]

As soon as you charge and accept money in exchange for a service, you have a responsibility to provide that service. Not doing so is a dick move.

Which he is not taking the money and running. He is offering refunds for that cancelled event. No one is missing out on money they payed for that service. That service does not include travel expenses and lodging.

As soon as you charge and accept money in exchange for a service, you have a responsibility to provide that service. Not doing so is a dick move.

And there are lots of good and acceptable examples when it is OK to back out, going to a sporting event (no matter how big IMO) is not a good or acceptable reason to me. 

I may not see it as acceptable, but I am just saying I understand his reasons for doing so.

[King Postwhore]

And we disagree. We are saying it's a bad decision.  It's like shooting yourself in the foot.

[Ben_Jamin]

And we disagree. We are saying it's a bad decision.  It's like shooting yourself in the foot.

It may or may not be a bad decision. As I said, people will still go and see him regardless of this incident. But that we can only wait for time to reveal the outcome of his decision.

[wolfking]

And we disagree. We are saying it's a bad decision.  It's like shooting yourself in the foot.

It may or may not be a bad decision. As I said, people will still go and see him regardless of this incident. But that we can only wait for time to reveal the outcome of his decision.

Mate, it's a bad decision.

[Deadeye21]

And we disagree. We are saying it's a bad decision.  It's like shooting yourself in the foot.

It may or may not be a bad decision. As I said, people will still go and see him regardless of this incident. But that we can only wait for time to reveal the outcome of his decision.

Mate, it's a bad decision.

There’s no part of this that is not a bad decision. People going and seeing him regardless does not change this from being a bad decision. For the people way in the back who can’t hear me.


This is a BAD decision.

[wolfking]

[Ben_Jamin]

I'll agree to disagree....

I still find it hilarious...

[lonestar]

Think of it this way.  You know you have a big day at work, presenting a new proposal in front of your bosses but you call out to watch a sporting event.

Worst decision you could do.

If you could afford to do it, would you do it? I understand that there are people that would.

It is hilarious to me though. All I am doing is conveying how Sports has an impact on life in general.

Maybe he can afford to, but there are people who work in that arena, who are missing birthdays, anniversaries, etc to work cause they need to make rent, and he is fucking all of them out of that day's pay. What he is doing is completely selfish and self centered. Fuck him.

[KevShmev]

Y'all are wasting your breath, as Ben has made it clear that sports matter, this is all funny, and it is okay to be a jerk so long as it doesn't affect your bottom line.

When someone shows you who they are, believe them.

[Cool Chris]

El Barto touched on it earlier, but wonder what the contractual terms are with his team and the promoter/venue.

Too bad tickets aren't fully refundable. Attendees should be able to change their plans too without recourse. #pipedream

[El Barto]

El Barto touched on it earlier, but wonder what the contractual terms are with his team and the promoter/venue.

Too bad tickets aren't fully refundable. Attendees should be able to change their plans too without recourse. #pipedream

Tickets are fully refundable to the attendee (which is honestly quite surprising). From what I understand the promoter is responsible for reimbursing the fees to the ticketing agent, which can obviously be huge. If this is TM you can assume nearly a third of what would have been the box office net gets paid back to TM. At this stage I suspect the venue, staff, security, etc. are probably nonrefundable, as well. I suspect that the effect is that they spent most of the money for a concert that they won't get any return on, and will have to pay more to get out of.

The people who really get rooked, aside from the tour promoters and this dickhead's crew/band/staff, are the people who made big plans to see the show. I've been on the dreary side of this a couple of times before. Thankfully, when Covid caused the cancellation of Haken's tour the tickets were refunded and AA gave me a credit for what I paid (which I only used two days ago, two years later). I hadn't booked a car or a room yet, so I got off free. Then there was that whole Ozfest thing, and suffice it to say, Filthy Cunt Sharron Osbourne still owes me $800.

[El Barto]

Yeah, so this guy's a bonehead. I said a while back that the right way to do this is to schedule a free gig for the people you shafted somewhere on down the road. Today he did just that. He's playing a small amphitheater up in New Braunfels. The problem is that it's a small GA venue with a max cap of 5,600 which is replacing a 19k seat arena. I don't know what he has in mind, but it seems like he's going to make it up to a little under one third of the people he screwed over. To be fair, it looks like an interesting place, and it could be a pretty cool show. Just not sure how this is supposed to be a makeup gig.

[Cool Chris]

Does this guy have a concert on Monday night he needs to cancel now too?

[hefdaddy42]

BTW, Eric Church announced a free concert being scheduled in September for people who were supposed to be at this show.  He said it would be a one of a kind show.

I always suspected something like this would happen.

BTW, the game lived up to the hype, and I am sure he's glad he went.

[senecadawg2]

BTW, Eric Church announced a free concert being scheduled in September for people who were supposed to be at this show.  He said it would be a one of a kind show.

I always suspected something like this would happen.

BTW, the game lived up to the hype, and I am sure he's glad he went.

I hope he's at the championship game! His presence is clearly a boon

[Stadler]

It is super common for people to build their weekend around an event like this. We have booked many hotel weekends around a concert. If an artist has to cancel it is what it is, but so short in advance for watching a sports game is a dick move towards your fans in my opinion. And a dick move towards all the employees involved in big events that likely miss a payday.

And people here in the States do the same thing around sports.  I know OTHER people that have done what Church did (a woman who works for a consulting firm I use went down to watch Villanova play). 

[Stadler]

Think of it this way.  You know you have a big day at work, presenting a new proposal in front of your bosses but you call out to watch a sporting event.

Worst decision you could do.

Look, I still agree that it's a selfish thing to do what he did, but this is oversimplifying it a bit.   I think we all have stories (hopefully) about our commitment to the collective over the individual (I had fourth row tickets to see Deep Purple - RITCHIE FUCKING BLACKMORE - on the Perfect Strangers tour, their reunion that no one saw coming, and my high school hockey team made the State tournament; our two starting defensemen got busted for weed and I had to start and play most of the game (arguably the best game I played in my life).  It wasn't even a choice.  Tickets sold.   Now, 37 years later, I kind of wish I saw the show, but that's me, since I don't live in my past athletic accomplishments) but it's still a he said/she said sort of thing when it comes to the value of this decision.

To the fan, it might be a once in a lifetime experience, but for him (according to Setlist.fm, which is notoriously unreliable for country artists, he's played something like 670 concerts in his career) it may not be.   I think some of the vitriol here is a little much.  He made a decision and he owned it.  If he's willing to accept whatever fallout there is, it's nothing on us.

[Stadler]

As soon as you charge and accept money in exchange for a service, you have a responsibility to provide that service. Not doing so is a dick move.

Such a simple concept yet some don't get it because they thing their discussion is more important than a humans word.

Ah, the old standby "breaching a contract is bad".   But there is a whole line of economic reasoning - revolving around economic utility - that we WANT parties to breach when it makes economic sense to do so.   Since the fundamental remedy for a breach of contract is "putting the parties in the same position they would have been had the contract been performed", we WANT parties to breach if the effort - the "utility" of performing the contract - far exceeds the utility of putting the party in the position they would have been.  We have a value for the tickets; it's the purchase price.  If certain members of the audience have extraordinary values placed on the concert, that's not something that, from a utilitarian perspective - we want the Eric Church's of the world worrying about.  It's economically wasteful.

So, XJ is wrong; if you charge and accept money for a service, you have to provide something in kind that is of equal value for that service. The intangible "worth" of the experience is meaningless in this discussion. He refunded the ticket prices; he has fulfilled his end of the bargain.  The people attending that concert were put in the position they would have been in had the concert been performed.

Now, we can debate the moral side of this, but morals are a subjective thing, and while I disagree with Ben, some of the responses I feel are being overly harsh.   He's entitled to his view on this (a view that I empathize with, even if I don't hold it myself).

[hefdaddy42]

It is super common for people to build their weekend around an event like this. We have booked many hotel weekends around a concert. If an artist has to cancel it is what it is, but so short in advance for watching a sports game is a dick move towards your fans in my opinion. And a dick move towards all the employees involved in big events that likely miss a payday.

And people here in the States do the same thing around sports.  I know OTHER people that have done what Church did (a woman who works for a consulting firm I use went down to watch Villanova play).

And frankly, there is a large overlap of those two passions (music and sports) amongst Church's fanbase.  I have no doubt that he will get a lot more understanding and forgiveness from his fanbase than he will from anyone here.

[Stadler]

It is super common for people to build their weekend around an event like this. We have booked many hotel weekends around a concert. If an artist has to cancel it is what it is, but so short in advance for watching a sports game is a dick move towards your fans in my opinion. And a dick move towards all the employees involved in big events that likely miss a payday.

And people here in the States do the same thing around sports.  I know OTHER people that have done what Church did (a woman who works for a consulting firm I use went down to watch Villanova play).

And frankly, there is a large overlap of those two passions (music and sports) amongst Church's fanbase.  I have no doubt that he will get a lot more understanding and forgiveness from his fanbase than he will from anyone here.

Well, as I noted above, obliquely, I think we're being a little extreme here, frankly.

[vtgrad]

The game did live up to the hype for certain!  Been a great sports year for me personally so far... and for the majority of UNC fans.

Personally, I see a professional that could have upheld his previously scheduled obligation (no sickness, death, act of God, etc keeping him from the obligation), but decided to eschew that obligation for a sporting event.   It's simply unprofessional.  I don't think anyone here thinks that he should be staked with holly and weighted down in running water... I don't see hatred for him at all.  What he's done is simply unprofessional and some people are calling him out for it. 

[KevShmev]

Does this guy have a concert on Monday night he needs to cancel now too?

With any luck, he was able to watch last night's game and enjoy the ending as much as many of us did.

Note: As someone who grew up rooting for Mizzou, I have little to no love for Kansas, but rooting for UNC in college basketball is like rooting for the Yankees in baseball. It just feels wrong. 

[Stadler]

F*** Eric Church, haha!