Make your case for a "stadium" tour.

[Hewson]

One thing is for sure, we'll all miss Prop if they play stadiums.

As for the prospects...for a few years there were very few tours hitting stadiums, and last year and this year we have seen (in the U.S.) a marked increase in stadium tours, with the Stones, Metallica, Bruce and even Bon Jovi(in select markets) venturing into stadiums.
Also keep in mind that many of the new stadiums can be set up to hold smaller shows (such as seating for 40,000 rather than a full 60,000...this was one of the aspects of Gillette Stadium that was noted upon its opening to the press when discussing what events outside of football would take place there).

 

[tkramer]

They should definately do what the stones have done on their current tour: Play a Stadium, arena, and a club in a big market. Then play an arena and maybe a club in a small market. Heck, stop and play a club show in Ames, Iowa. Why not? It's a great idea, you get a nice varity of shows and with three touring personal groups and stages, you can have the stadium stage halfway to Chicago during your arena show in Denver. I'm convinced U2 can do anything the Stones can, (Well, mostly...) and they should borrow and improve on this idea.


(The preceeding comments were not meant to knock the wonderful citizens of Ames. I'm sure your all better people than the nuts in New York who swear they're at the middle of the universe. They just have more people.)

(The preceeding comments were not meant to knock the wonderful citizens of New York. I'm sure your all better people than well, someone anyway...)

 

[STING2]

Lets not forget that in the USA, Bruce is limited primarily to the North East when it comes to Stadium shows and that Metallica so far has only had 3 shows sell more than 40,000 tickets despite having multi-platinum support in the form of Limp Bizkit and Lincoln Park.

The Rolling Stones and U2 are the top stadium acts in the world. If th Rolling Stones were working with an average ticket price of 60 dollars rather than 90 dollars, they would be able to play more stadium shows. When you charge 90 Dollars for nose bleed seats in a Stadium, your not going to be able to sell out a Stadium in Kansas City or Clemson. So I can see why the Rolling Stones selected their Stadium/Arena/Club set up.

 

[tkramer]

Metallica's biggest issue if you ask me is the pricing for most of the shows. 75.00 for any ticket. That's so stupid. Tell me a teenage Limp Biskit fan is gonna pay 75 for a ticket 175 yards from the stage?

I think U2 would be fine with a round of stadium shows, just don't think they can get the average Joe to pony up 75 -100 for so-so seats...

 

[The_acrobat]

First of all, let me say that U2 will NEVER do club shows. Period. Their music doesn't fit in those places anymore. Even Bono said this after the few club shows they did on Elevation. So maybe they'll do a few clubs to warm up for the tour, like last time. Now an arena/stadium tour....this I could possibly see.

Anybody else feel like the tour won't be until 2005? I'm starting to get a bad feeling.

 

[tkramer]

You know, I remember reading a review that said that the Florida opening show felt more "intimate" than the club warm-up shows. Also, the club size could have a lot to do with it. Is a club show a 300 standing room only bar or a 2,500 - 3,500 theater? Still, I think we should get the opinion of someone around here who's been to a club show.

 

[The_acrobat]

Well, it depends on how you define club show. I think that people mean that U2 playing a 2500 seat theater would be the equivilent of setting up in some bar. In Columbus, where I'm from, we have a popular venue called the Promowest Pavilion. I saw Coldplay there recently. It's a 3,000 capacity place. But it's standing room only, and there is a bar in it too. It's kinda like a really big club. Maybe that's what people.

 

[STING2]

tkramer,

"Metallica's biggest issue if you ask me is the pricing for most of the shows. 75.00 for any ticket. That's so stupid. Tell me a teenage Limp Biskit fan is gonna pay 75 for a ticket 175 yards from the stage?"

Well here is the deal with Metallica. Despite charging 75 dollars a ticket, Metallica has brought with them Lincoln Park, Limp Bizkit and a couple of other acts. Lincoln Park and Limp Bizkit have the biggest selling hard rock albums of the past few years. They are much more than just "support" acts. Each of those bands charges 30 dollars each to see them individually.

Bottom line, without the support acts, attendence at the Metallica shows would drop by at least a 1/3, turning by far the most heavily attended show of the tour, the 52,000 attended show at GIANTS Stadium, into a 34,000 attended show. The rest of the shows would be bellow 25,000 in attendence.

"I think U2 would be fine with a round of stadium shows, just don't think they can get the average Joe to pony up 75 -100 for so-so seats..."

On POPMART in 1997, U2 got fans to pony up 53 dollars for nosebleed seats at the back of the stadium. Fastforward to 2003 or better yet, 2004, inflation brings those POPMART prices to around 62 dollars. At its worst, U2 could easily do another Stadium tour with 65 dollar tickets and do POPMART attendence. But with a level of popularity similar to Elevation or Achtung, the band could easily charge 75 dollars or 80 dollars for the nosebleeds at the back of the Stadium. All this without any support like Metallica has.

Of course, the 90 dollar to 100 dollar range is not really something anyone would consider except the Rolling Stones. But even the Stones were forced away from their big Stadium tours for the first time in 20 years. The Stones only did 13 Stadium shows in North America with the 90 dollar ticket price. Attendence figures have not been released, although the limited number of Stadiums shows seems to have sold well, if they did not all sellout. But there lies the point, the Stones would not be able to do a 50 date Stadium tour if the minimum price was 90 dollars.

 

[Hewson]

If I recall correctly, the Stones had a lower ticket price, I believe $50.00 for the real crap at the top level opposite end of the stadium. But lets also not for get that they were charging $300.00-$350.00 depending on the city for the really good field seats.

 

[STING2]

Hewson,

Thats true about the 50 dollar tickets in some cities, but this represented at most 5,000 tickets at the very end of the stadium. There would be some guy sitting at the corner end of the stadium paying 90 dollar a ticket for a nosebleed seat right next to a guy across the stairs in the next section who only payed 50 dollars.

U2 had a small section at the back on POPMART that only payed 37.50 per ticket, but again, the number tickets sold at that price was less than 10% of the tickets sold. Average price is really what were looking at here, and for the Stones, that was typically over 90 dollars even for crap seats.

 

[martha]

Here's some published outside confirmation. This was on the @U2 mailing list from the Irish Independent, in an article about the band playing a huge venue called Phoenix Park:

The source added: "The last tour was mainly indoor arenas, this time they are going to go back to the open air stadium concerts.

"The source" is "a source close to the band." Unnamed of course.

 

[alexvilagosh]

I really hope they have a stadium tour and rock the Melbourne Cricket Ground! It would be huge! I want the show to be larger than life like POPMart...

Please U2, play stadium shows, and come to Australia!

 

[STING2]

I'm sure U2 would love to do a Stadium tour of Australia. But if only 23,000 people are going to show up for the show like what happened in Melbourne last time, I think U2 would skip playing Stadiums there. How come Australia did not support POPMART like they did ZOO TV? Australia was the weakest country for the POPMART tour on average. Here are the Stats:


86. Perth February 17, 1998 Burswood Dome GROSS: $1,273,178 ATTENDANCE: 13,775

87. Melbourne February 21, 1998 Waverly Park GROSS: $1,366,510 ATTENDANCE: 23,810

88. Brisbane February 25, 1998 ANZ Stadium GROSS: $1,019,744 ATTENDANCE: 17,567

89. Sydney February 28, 1998 Football Ground GROSS: $2,236,123 ATTENDANCE: 37,976

The Burswood Dome is a small place from what I hear and was actually a sellout. I don't know how they were able to fit the POPMART stage in a place that size.

I'm sure the Kiwi's would love to see U2 since U2 have not been there since 1993.

 

[alexvilagosh]

They played at bloody Waverly Park, bad bad move, but now that's gone they will have to play at the MCG, which will get a much bigger crowd.

And I would pay up to AU$250 for decent tickets, DECENT tickets, not great tickets. As long as I can see the stage. I was up in the nose bleeds for Coldplay and that was awsome.

 

[Blue Room]

LOL, hmm, an unnamed source with the band. Gee, sounds familiar. Is this not what I was saying??? So now its on internet publication quoting this and "some" of you suddenly believe it?? OK, if thats what it takes. But look back at the posts I have done on this thread. Sound familiar? Stadiums are still tentative though for N. America from what I have heard. Its looking like stadiums in 2005 in N. America at the moment. Europe will almost exclusively see stadium shows, which if you look back is what I have been saying. Believe what you will though.

 

[Swan269]

having seen the band in both kinds of venues I would hope they could stick to arenas. You just can't beat the intimacy of the arena.

 

[alexvilagosh]

I just don't want to miss tickets...

 

[what a bomb!]

I am still on a high from seeing them for 3 nights in one week at Earls Court in London on the Elevation tour, more of the same please! Not stadiums! Have seen U2 in stadiums and I found arenas were much more intimate, something just seems to get lost in a big stadium...

 

[The_acrobat]

86. Perth February 17, 1998 Burswood Dome GROSS: $1,273,178 ATTENDANCE: 13,775

87. Melbourne February 21, 1998 Waverly Park GROSS: $1,366,510 ATTENDANCE: 23,810

88. Brisbane February 25, 1998 ANZ Stadium GROSS: $1,019,744 ATTENDANCE: 17,567

89. Sydney February 28, 1998 Football Ground GROSS: $2,236,123 ATTENDANCE: 37,976

I'm sure the Kiwi's would love to see U2 since U2 have not been there since 1993.

Where did you get this information? Does this have attendance figures for the whole tour? Must see them!

 

[STING2]

The information comes from Amusement Business that tracks the concert industry worldwide. If you go to the Peeling of Your Dollar Bills forum, and look at the thread U2 Chart/Statistics, you will find the rest of the tour info.

Also, this info is available at U2page.com in the forum For Love or Money. Go to the thread for concert statistics.

If you have any specific questions, I can look them up for you.

Amusement Business publishes a chart of the top 50 concert Grosses for every week year round. They are published in Billboard magazine. The top 10 concerts for every week can be seen at Billboards Website, Billboard.com.

 

[hiphop]

NO to stadiums! YES to arenas! YES to festivals!

Its that simple. I want my heart back.

 

[martha]

LOL, hmm, an unnamed source with the band. Gee, sounds familiar. Is this not what I was saying??? So now its on internet publication quoting this and "some" of you suddenly believe it?? OK, if thats what it takes. But look back at the posts I have done on this thread. Sound familiar? Stadiums are still tentative though for N. America from what I have heard. Its looking like stadiums in 2005 in N. America at the moment. Europe will almost exclusively see stadium shows, which if you look back is what I have been saying. Believe what you will though.

I posted it like I said I would. And I never used the word "believed."


You need to stop taking all this so personally. And so seriously.

 

[Popmartijn]

I don't care where they play, as long as I have tickets to that gig. If that means stadiums, then that's cool!

C ya!

Marty
(initially missed out on U2's Dutch Elevation date. If it wasn't for Propaganda and the fact that it was moved to a small stadium he would not have had tickets)

 

[alexvilagosh]

And for that reason we need stadiums... if I missed out on seeing every show in Melbourne I would go nuts!