Posted on: July 26, 2022, 08:17h. 

Last updated on: July 26, 2022, 12:33h.

Adele Las Vegas is back on, and so are the exorbitant ticket prices on third-party exchanges where scalpers seek to make a quick buck — or tens of thousands of bucks — by reselling the coveted tickets.

Adele Las Vegas residency Caesars Colosseum
Adele performs at London’s Hyde Park on Friday, July 1, 2022. Adele’s Las Vegas residency is to finally begin this November, but tickets are scant. (Image: Getty)

Beginning November 18, Adele will take the Colosseum stage at Caesars Palace on the Las Vegas Strip each weekend through March, with off dates planned for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. “Weekends with Adele” will occupy the 4,300-seat Colosseum, a rather intimate setting compared with the arenas and stadiums Adele typically sells out.

As a result of the limited number of tickets available, scalpers are seizing the opportunity to flip the sought-after entries online. Tickets on exchanges like StubHub are listed for north of $40,000 each.

For Adele’s “Weekends with Adele” opening on November 18, two front-row tickets are listed for $41,280 each. With StubHub’s $6,191.93 per ticket service fee and a $2.98 per ticket fulfillment fee, the total cost comes to a mind-blowing $94,949.82.

StubHub does not have a set fee percentage that it applies to ticket sales. Instead, the ticket broker says its service fee is based on the ticket price, supply, and demand.

Fans Losses Others’ Gain

Adele abruptly canned her original Caesars Palace residency, which was to run January through April this year. The cancellation was allegedly based on concerns that the production wasn’t ready or up to her standards.

Despite the massive financial losses associated with the postponement incurred by Caesars Entertainment, the casino operator agreed to swap out the former residency stage show designed by Esmeralda Devlin — who Adele reportedly feuded with in the days leading up to the original January start — in favor of an entirely new show designed by Kim Gavin and Stufish. Stufish is an entertainment design firm that previously worked with Adele on her 2016 world tour.

Caesars wasn’t the only financial loser caused by Adele’s last-minute change of heart in January. The thousands of fans who had traveled to Las Vegas to see the shows were on the hook for their associated expenses.

Demand Great, Availability Limited

Adele does not tour nearly as frequently as many other global music superstars. Since her debut album “19” released in 2008 and Adele forever became a force, she has embarked on only three headlining tours.

Her last world tour ended in 2017, meaning it’s been almost a half-decade since Adele has routinely performed in front of her fans. That, paired with the intimate venue of the Colosseum that limits each audience to less than 5,000 people, is responsible for the hysteria.

Adele is one of the most popular artists in the world and does not put on many live performances. This is the fundamental reason why there’s so much demand for these shows,” Matthew Rados, an executive with ticket exchange Gametime, told Bloomberg.

Adele’s planned 32-show Las Vegas residency features a total capacity of roughly 138,000 seats. The last two nights of her most recent world tour — “Adele Live 2016” — sold 195,000 tickets at London’s Wembley Stadium.