Ticketmaster and the Moody Center have reopened the request window for Ariana Grande’s Austin dates after a technical error prompted the premature release of tickets, forcing all early purchases to be canceled and refunded.
The venue said the error occurred Monday, Feb. 9, when tickets for Grande’s Eternal Sunshine Tour appeared for sale ahead of a scheduled request-only window, triggering purchases that were later invalidated; the Moody Center then issued a notice Tuesday, Feb. 10, on X outlining the cancellation-and-refund plan and directing fans back to Ticketmaster’s request system for the three Austin shows at Moody Center, 2001 Robert Dedman Drive. "Due to a technical error, there was an inadvertent early release of Ariana Grande tickets yesterday ahead of the scheduled request window opening," wrote Moody Center in a February 10 announcement on X.
Under the revised timeline, the new request period is open now through Thursday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m., according to the venue and Ticketmaster posts, covering shows scheduled for June 24, June 26, and June 27, with the June 27 date added after the initial two Austin performances. The Moody Center said all tickets purchased during the early-release period will be voided and returned to buyers. "All tickets purchased during this period are being cancelled and fully refunded. These tickets are only available through Ticketmaster Request. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience."
The reset adds another step to a rollout that had already been adjusted after Ticketmaster and Grande’s team moved to repossess tickets that were obtained through resale listings found to violate platform terms, then reissued access through the request process. Ticketmaster’s “Request” program functions as a controlled sign-up window in which fans submit a request for specific shows and price levels; after the window closes, Ticketmaster processes requests and notifies selected buyers, meaning a request itself does not guarantee a ticket. In its earlier Instagram message about the resale repossessions, Ticketmaster said certain affected buyers would be placed ahead of others as Ticketmaster reallocated inventory. "Fans whose resale tickets were due to a seller’s violation of our terms will be prioritized."
The disruptions have left some Austin-area buyers uncertain about what communications to trust and when legitimate inventory will actually be assigned, while comments on social media also raised concerns that highly visible public announcements could invite impersonators and resale scams. The episode arrives as Ticketmaster continues to face heightened scrutiny over repeated high-demand failures, including the widely criticized Taylor Swift Eras Tour onsale, and broader regulatory and consumer-protection pressure on the Live Nation-Ticketmaster business model, including allegations in separate actions that ticketing practices can contribute to higher secondary-market prices. Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has publicly characterized major system breakdowns as technical and operational failures rather than intentional conduct. “We thought demand overloaded the system,” said Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation. “It turned out not to be true.”
Grande has previously acknowledged fan frustration with resale-related problems around tour inventory and said she was pressing for solutions aimed at getting more tickets into the hands of face-value buyers rather than resellers, remarks that resurfaced online as the Austin request window restarted. "Of course, I am incredibly bothered by it," said Ariana Grande, singer. "i've been on the phone every second of my free time fighting for a solution. i hear you and hopefully, we will be able to get more of these tickets into your hands instead of theirs," said Ariana Grande, singer.
More broadly, Ticketmaster and Live Nation remain the subject of ongoing criticism over fees, access, and market power, including consumer-protection claims that ticketing rules and pricing practices can steer demand into higher-priced resale channels; one U.S. trade body has alleged the companies used tactics such as deceptive pricing and misleading ticket limits that inflate secondary-market prices. With Austin’s summer concert calendar drawing major tours alongside neighborhood-scale live music, the next immediate step for fans seeking Grande tickets is submitting a new Ticketmaster Request before the Feb. 12 deadline and waiting for Ticketmaster’s post-window notifications on whether any requests were fulfilled, while the venue and ticketing platform continue to warn that only Ticketmaster-issued tickets will be honored at entry.
