Careful with your P & Qs:
Italy 97 was the largest CONFIRMED paying audience for a single act. Multiple media reports have a stadium in Brazil as having bigger paying crowds for international acts. Mostly in the 1980's and predating accurate Billboard reporting.
I think its about time you learned that RECORDS are based on CONFIRMED FACTS, NOT speculation. Just as a man claiming to be 140 in Armenia does not get to a hold a record unless he can prove when he was born with an actual birth certificate, neither does a rumor or media report of a stadium crowd in Brazil in the 1970s or 1980s get the record unless they have confirmed boxoffice numbers for the show.
Al Jolson played to 100,000 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago in August 1949. Best info source is vintage newspapers. It was paying and there were one or two other acts that I cannot find listed anywhere. Please note that I have informed Chicago's Greg Kot of this information so maybe he'll rip Live Nation for their "naive" press release(saying they had a chicago attendance record at 65,000), like he ripped Popmart in 2005 that pissed off Bono.
WOW, you can continue to fantasize about Al Jolson and the alleged 100,000 crowd at Soldier Field, but unless you have actual boxoffice figures, you have NOTHING. If it was a ticketed event, what was the TICKET PRICE?
Why would you inform Chicago's Greg Kot? LOL
Are you on some type of crusade to stop U2 from getting a record?
Are you a U2 fan? I would assume you are, because most casual fans never even bother to visit a fan based website let alone a non-fan. Most fans would like to see U2 set a record, but you seem desperate to stop them or prove them wrong.LOL
By the way, POPMART was in 1997, NOT 2005. In addition, POPMART has the attendance record for Soldier Field at 116,000 attendance from 3 shows. Thats confirmed from Billboard Boxscore which counts multiple shows in certifying gross and attendance records.
Al Jolson will never be able to contest U2 for a single day attendance record at soldier field because I do not think any boxoffice data exist for Al Jolson. No, a report in the paper does not count. Several Chicago papers reported the Police had 33,000 in attendance at Comisky Park in 1983, when in fact the number was 45,000 as recorded in Billboard Boxscore. In addition, they claimed there were 50,000 or 60,000 at each of the Soldier Field performances on POPMART when in fact it was only 40,000 to 45,000. Media estimate attendance which is why they get it wrong nearly all the time. Billboard Boxscore reports the REAL actual boxoffice results!
But there is a concert that does have a chance to contest a record for a single day result for Soldier Field and thats Bruce Springsteen's Born In The USA tour stop from 1985. The reason it gets to contest any U2 figure is because we have REAL boxoffice data for that show as reported in Billboard Boxscore. Bruce Springsteen played to about 73,000 people at Soldier Field in 1985. So he may still have the single day attendance record, but we won't know that until Boxscore figures are released for the U2 360 show at Soldier Field.
A variation on what Rod, Celine, Foo Fighters and WWF had each done in previous 360 stadium setups. All were one-offs except Rod and Celine did Euro only tours of this format in the mid/late 90's.
A few shows in Europe does NOT constitute a tour.