‘Anxious wait’ ends for some lucky Oasis fans in final Wembley ballot

Oasis fans who missed out in the original sale for the band’s reunion shows are celebrating after securing coveted tickets in Saturday’s invitation-only ballot.

The Britpop band, which reformed with Liam and Noel Gallagher for a series of dates next year, added two shows at London’s Wembley Stadium in September 2025 to their original 17-date line-up, with people unlucky in the first sale given a second opportunity to buy tickets.

Only “eligible fans” who were sent a ballot code were able to access the sale, with tickets sold on a first-come, first-served basis.

The original sale on August 31 was mired in controversy after people battled website issues, were mislabelled as bots or were forced to wait in an online queue for hours.

Many dropped out of the queues after prices more than doubled in Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing, which has since prompted the Government and the UK’s competition watchdog to pledge they will investigate.

Colin Broadbent, 43, a fleet operations co-ordinator from Wolverhampton, was “gutted” to have missed out on pre-sale tickets for the original ballot, and said he tried for “nine hours without success on August 31”.

However, he was successful in the latest ballot and on Saturday, after “anxiously waiting”, he managed to purchase two tickets for Wembley Stadium on September 27 2025 for him and his wife, Kate Broadbent, 46, for around £150.

“This time the process was much, much smoother,” he added.

“As an Oasis fan, I thought the day would never happen when they would get back together – now the stress will be hotel rooms when they are available to book in September 2025.”

Sam, 39, from Staffordshire, who works in marketing, told PA he spent around seven hours waiting in the queue for the original sale, and dropped out of buying tickets for Manchester’s Heaton Park due to the inflated prices.

He said: “I saw sense and decided against it. I had a feeling they’d add more dates, so I never got too disheartened.”

Sam felt “incredibly lucky to receive a code for these additional Wembley shows”, and bought two seated tickets for September 25 2025 for £115.00 each on Saturday morning.

He added: “I do feel that if we hadn’t (got tickets), I’d have begun to feel like I was missing out. The band are in a precarious position. There is clearly demand for a seemingly endless number of concerts, but realistically there’s only so much of this you can do in quick succession, which is true of any band.

“However, this is amplified and exacerbated for Oasis where there is potential for something explosive to happen at any moment. I know I don’t want to see a version of Oasis that isn’t giving 100%, so we really have to accept that supply is limited.”

Sam also said that “aside from the controversy regarding ticket prices and the way that side of it was handled, the reunion feels like it’s sparked a bit of excitement” as Oasis was “such a constant” when he was growing up.

Other fans were not quite so lucky, however.

Steve Barnes, who spent 10 hours trying to secure two tickets in the first sale, said he felt “betrayed” after not getting a ballot code for Saturday’s sale.

“I feel angry and disappointed,” the 36-year-old airport manager from Southampton told the PA news agency.

“(I) feel that my time has been wasted several times throughout this whole process.”

“We abided by all the rules set by Ticketmaster, we all attempted for the same show, and only wanted two tickets.

“I have been waiting for the reunion since the split in Paris – as the years went by and they found fame as single artists, I still kept the faith that the rift would heal and they would reform, every rumour and glimmer gave me further hope.

“It means the world to me, it’s the top of my bucket list to see them reunited on stage, but this whole thing has put me off, not just Oasis but going to see anything live. The hassle and headache just isn’t worth it any more.”

Earlier in the week, Oasis ruled out returning to Knebworth Park “in the future”, along with any plans for more dates in the UK.