jedi Larry said:
For its size, Salt Lake City is a strong market for U2.
Headache in a Suitcase
You see, doing a stadium tour in the fall in america is tough... it would run right through the start of the NFL season. not gonna happen...
Yeah, I guess the NFL didn't play in '92.......when U2 played stadiums from August thru November........and I guess they suspended their season when U2 played their third leg POPmart smack dab in the middle of the season.
And I guess they didn't play any football in third leg '87 when U2 played stadiums.
You can easily book a stadium for one, two shows during football that plays once a week.
Actually, winter/spring in the states is alot trickier for bands touring arenas.
You have basketball,hockey,other events, etc.
Plus, many of the larger markets have multiple stadiums...New York met for example.
thank you for your analysis for the stadiums in new york... i wasn't aware.
thank you again for your analysis for sports arenas and stadiums and their best time of accesability... it's not like i spent 25,000 bucks a year on a degree in sports and recreational management or somethin... ohhh wait, i did.
yes... stadium tours in the early fall have been done... its' very rare, but they have been done. but a simple look at past tour itinerarys gives creedence to my original point.
u2 did some stadium dates in the fall on the joshua tree tour... yes... fact.
51 shows were done on the third leg of the joshua tree tour...
18 of them were done in stadiums... the other 33 were arenas. those 18 stadium dates were held at 16 different venues... 2 were in canada where there is no NFL, 2 were NFL domed stadiums, 5 more had astro-turf fields, two were college stadiums, one was a minor league stadium, and one was a baseball stadium. that leaves only 5 venues where NFL games are played... on grass... that had stadium shows. RFK in DC, Cleveland Municipal, the LA Coliseum, Tampa Stadium & Sun Devil... three of those are in warm weather climates, and cleveland municipal was such a dump that it was nicknamed "the mistake by the lake".... aka they didn't give a crap what happened to the field. So that left RFK Stadium in DC, which may or may not have had an astro-turf field at the time, i can not remember.
on the ZooTV outside broadcast tour, all the cold weather, outdoor NFL stadiums were played in august... before the start of the NFL season. when they played chicago, they played the world music ampitheater. from the start of the NFL season on, the stadiums played were either in warm weather climates, domed stadiums, baseball stadiums, non NFL stadiums or stadiums outside the US.
on the third leg of the popmart tour, the only stadiums they played north of georgia were sky dome (canadian domed), metrodome (domed turf), silverdome (domed turf), olympique (domed turf), sport paleis ahoy (ummm rotterdam), trans world dome (domed turf), & the kingdome (domed turf). in fact, the only outdoor stadiums they played the entire third leg were in florida or mexico.
someone mentioned the stones in 1997... again, look at the dates and the locations... of the 27 stadiums played, the only outdoor NFL stadium dates were pre mid-october, and there were only 6 of them to begin with. 6 out of 27. the other 20 were college stadiums, domes, baseball stadiums or out of country dates.
on to another one of your "points," yes... many markets have multiple stadiums. thus my point of playing baseball stadiums instead of football stadiums. easier access... thus they could play shea stadium... or as you refer it... new york met stadium... instead of playing giants stadium.
arenas and domed buildings... no matter what the season... are normaly built as multi-purpose buildings, easily broken down from one set up to another. that was the rage in the 60s, 70s and early 90s... build stadiums that could be used for a variety of different events with minimal breakdown. from the mid 90s on, from the advent of camden yards in baltimore, both baseball and football teams have taken to building sport specific stadiums, less easily adapted for multiple events. so no, you are wrong... playing a concert at madison square garden durring basketball/hockey season (if there ever is a hockey season again) is harder than playing giants stadium, a stadium that hosts two NFL football teams, durring football season... because of the logistical nature of the arenas, it is easier to set up and break down events in smaller arenas than it is in larger stadiums. yes, it can be done, but it's not as easy as you would think.
also, you forget about the factor of climate. the third leg of the vertigo tour would not begin in the united states until september. that leaves a very small window of opportunity to play non-domed stadiums in the northeast, midwest and pacific coast. not too many people want to be standing outside in new england in november to watch anyone, and i'd be willing to guess not too many bands want to, either.
on the subject of climate... baseball season is over by late september for most teams. they don't care if you trample their grass, they re-sod every off season anyways. it's harder to re-grow grass in winter in cold weather climates, so they don't want 10,000 people trampeling over it durring the season. it's the same reason why there are so few stadium shows at baseball stadiums in the summer. baseball teams have road dates, too... and the ampitheatre setup is more conducive to large stages... but any team that owns it's own stadium doesn't want it's field turned to mush in the middle of the season.
so the logistics of a full blown stadium tour in the united states in the fall just don't work. could they play a few areans and a few stadiums? sure... they did that on the joshua tree tour in 87. they could make it work. but with such a large number of dates to schedule for this third leg, due to the canceling of dates on the first leg because of family illness, as much as i would LOVE to see it, a stadium tour in the fall just doesn't work... unless it's baseball stadiums... which is the only thing i said in the first place.
thanks, though. i hadn't brushed up on my large facilities work in a few years.