Josh Groban: The Kimmel Center Tried To Price Gouge, So We Left
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Josh Groban is not a fan of price gouging and is willing to do something about it.
The singer/songwriter told Talk Radio 1210 WPHT morning host Chris Stigall that The Kimmel Center wanted to charge "$20 something" extra for tickets over the rest of the venues that he is performing in. He even expressed his displeasure with the pricing to the venue, to no avail.
"We said, 'If you do that, we're going to move venues,' and they said, 'Well, we're going to do it.' So, we said, 'Okay, here we go'…They tried to gouge the fans in a way that other venues weren't doing, so we left."
Groban will now be performing at The Tower Theater on September 16th.
"So we love the Tower Theater, they renovated it and I'm excited to go back there. That was my first concert in Philly, [at] the Tower, so it's going to be full circle."
On Tuesday, the Kimmel Center released a statement on Groban's comments:
We were surprised by the comments made by Mr. Josh Groban this morning during a radio interview in Philadelphia. The Kimmel Center worked very closely with our co-presenting partner LiveNation on this concert, and they decided to go to the Tower Theater before our negotiations were complete. Unfortunately, Mr. Groban was ill-informed. The Kimmel Center's ticketing system is on par with other performing arts centers both locally and nationally, providing a valuable patron experience among its campus-wide venues. The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts is a world-class performing arts venue that serves broad and diverse audiences from throughout Greater Philadelphia. A part of our mission is to bring quality programming and talented artists to the wonderful people living in our great city.