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MetLife Stadium begs Taylor Swift fans: If you don't have a ticket, stay away
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published May 25, 2023
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Photo by Rachel Wisniewski/For the Washington Post
By
Louis C. Hochman
Published May 25, 2023
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MetLife Stadium wants it absolutely clear: It does not have a blank space for your car, baby — not unless you’ve got tickets to see Taylor Swift’s sold-out Eras Tour this weekend.
Swift is at MetLife in East Rutherford, New Jersey this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. If you’re still trying to get tickets, be prepared to pay up. The cheapest tickets Vividseats.com had listed as of Thursday morning were priced at over $1,200. Most people who wanted more palatable prices had to try for them immediately, as fans crashed the Ticketmaster website when tickets went on sale in November. Another, very limited batch went on sale for “verified fans” earlier this month.
(Well, there’s apparently at least one way around all of that. NorthJersey.com reports Bergen County Clerk John Hogan managed to get tickets in March after receiving a ticket request form for MetLife Stadium that isn’t available to the general public by email, then faxing it in. He paid $265 for each of four tickets, and said he “had to wait like everyone else.” according to the report).
If you don’t have tickets, MetLife is asking you: Please stay away.
Taylor Swift performs onstage during the Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour at Lincoln Financial Field on May 12 in Philadelphia.
Photo by Lisa Lake/TAS23/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management
In a message posted to Facebook on Wednesday, MetLife told fans “we strongly encourage those without tickets” not to come to the stadium. Parking lots will be at maximum capacity, and only those with tickets will be let in, it said. “Additional unauthorized crowds create traffic and gridlock for everyone.”
Stadium workers may know you’re trouble when you drive in, but the post didn’t say more about how the stadium would enforce the request, or what might happen to fans who show up nonetheless. Calls Thursday morning to MetLife’s media relations department, to New Jersey State Police (who have jurisdiction over the stadium) and to East Rutherford police (who’d handle issues on surrounding roads) haven’t yet been returned.
Tens of thousands of ticketless fans swarmed South Philly’s Lincoln Financial Field and the surrounding area earlier this month, just trying to get in on the excitement. Many gathered in the parking lot and were singing along.
The tour is expected to bring about a quarter-million fans to MetLife over its three days in East Rutherford. NBC reported that local businesses are gearing up.
"Typically all over North Jersey is very slow. We’re gonna [be] mobbed Friday, Saturday, Sunday and we can’t wait," Doug Palsi, who runs the nearby Redd's Restaurant and Bar, told NBC. "It gets us through an entire quarter. Small business, this is tremendous, this gets us over the hump. It’s huge."
There are a few options for getting to the show. Stadium lots, including drop-off lots, open at 12:30 p.m. each day of the show. Parking is $40 per car, or $160 per bus, RV or oversized vehicle. Parents who are dropping off children with tickets, but not attending the show themselves, can pay to park and remain on the property; their ticket-holding children must be in the car when they arrive.
Tailgating is permitted, but no additional parking spots may be used.
Coach USA Bus Service will take fans from the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan, starting at 3:30 p.m. each day. Return service will run for an hour after the show ends. NJ Transit is offering rail service starting at 4:07 p.m. from Secaucus.
Fans should be prepared for security screenings. Only small purses and clear tote bags of limited size will be allowed.
The Eras Tour began March 17 and runs through Aug. 9. Swift heads to Chicago next.
Tagged
Music
new jersey
transportation
Louis C. Hochman
After about two decades in (mostly) New Jersey-focused commercial print, digital and digital-but-radio-adjacent news, Lou stumbled into member-supported news in early 2021, as the editor and CEO of Montclair Local. There, he (hopes he) expanded enterprise, brought more sophistication to digital storytelling and moved the nonprofit newsroom closer to long-term financial sustainability. He helped lead the Local to its fourth consecutive General Excellence award from the New Jersey Press Association — the NJPA's highest honor with judges noting the paper's work to strip away layers of government opacity, to hold power to account, to make news accessible for more members of the community, to share the stories and concerns of more facets of the community and to tell compelling stories across multiple media. He's excited to continue the same ethic — news as a public service — at NYPR as the New Jersey and suburbs editor, drawing on the extraordinary talents of reporters including Karen Yi and Nancy Solomon. Lou lives in Philly (that commute!) with his partner and their two cats, about whom and about which he speaks incessantly.
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