In June 1984, people in Kansas City were stealing newspapers off their neighbors’ lawns.
Inside each paper was an order form, the only way to get a seat for The Jacksons’ Victory Tour. That was Michael and his brothers, back on the road together right after Thriller had made Michael the biggest star on the planet.
A ticket cost $30. That sounds cheap now, but in 1984 it was more than fans paid to see Bruce Springsteen or Prince.
And you couldn’t buy just one. The rules said you had to mail a $120 postal money order for a block of four, then wait.
Your order went into a lottery, and the promoters expected only about one fan in ten to come away with tickets. Everyone else would get a refund weeks later, while the money sat in the bank earning interest for the tour.
People went for it anyway. Newsweek reported that post offices in Kansas City sold 15,000 money orders in a single day, and newspapers in Omaha and Dallas printed the order forms too.
Michael hated the plan. He’d warned it would be a disaster, and he was right, because fans felt cheated and the papers piled on.
So on July 5, the day before the opening show at Arrowhead Stadium, he walked up to a microphone in Kansas City wearing sunglasses and a glittering jacket. He kept it short and didn’t take any questions.
Michael Jackson Shuts Down the 1984 Victory Tour Promoters (Uncut Archive)
He’d asked the promoter to end the mail-order system as soon as possible. Then he said he’d give every dollar he made from the shows to charity, and he kept his word, handing about $5 million to three charities.
Four years later, on his own Bad tour, demand got even wilder. In Japan, nine shows sold out within hours, so five more were added.
In London, he played seven sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium for 504,000 people, a Guinness world record. Princess Diana and Prince Charles were in the crowd one night.
Michael hadn’t toured in more than a decade when he stepped onto a stage at London’s O2 arena on March 5, 2009. He smiled at a wall of cameras and announced 10 concerts, which he called his “final curtain call.”
Michael Jackson: This Is It Press Conference Announcement (2009)
Nearly a million people signed up for presale tickets within 24 hours, so 10 shows were never going to be enough.
The presale website crashed over and over. The run grew to 50 nights, and fans camped outside the arena for two days before general sales opened.
Tickets cost between £50 and £75, about $70 to $105, with a limit of four per household. Roughly 750,000 of them were gone in a little over four hours, and before long one seller had VIP tickets for opening night listed at $35,000.
Picture that kind of announcement now. In 2022, Ticketmaster said 3.5 million fans had registered for Taylor Swift’s tour, and its system got hit 3.5 billion times. The company ended up canceling the public sale.
Michael never got to play those 50 nights. He died on June 25, 2009, less than three weeks before the first show.
Every fan was offered a full refund, but some asked to keep their tickets as keepsakes instead. The promoter said Michael had designed them himself.