I wasn't just making it up - read here in the Swiss press (from back in March)- Schweizer Stadien zu klein für U2: Good News kapituliert - News Kultur: Pop & Jazz - bazonline.ch translated by Google as...
Swiss stadiums too small for U2: Good News surrenders
By Mauro Guarise. Updated on 10.03.2009
The rock band U2 will not occur in Switzerland. Our stadiums are too small, can know their management. There is hope yet.
At the beginning of the week the tour schedule for the rock group U2 was known. The Irishman still count on the biggest acts in the music industry, which is reflected in the concert venues. U2 in Milan plays the Giuseppe Meazza stadium, which seats over 80,000 spectators. No more than 100,000 viewers to fit into the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona. And what else is still on the tour schedule? Swiss concerts are not scheduled.
No large concerts without major stages
André Béchir, longtime head of the Swiss concert organizer Good News, you'll know why. "The U2 management told us that our stadiums are too small. You want places with a capacity of 60 to 70,000 spectators. " According Béchir not unique. As a Swiss organizer in an internationally competitive market, he gets to hear one again and again: "If the situation does not change it, you'll get no concerts."
Béchir has for years out of negligence in the Swiss stadium debate. "Unlike other countries will not talk to each other in Switzerland. In the case Letzigrund politics wanted to push through the European Championship, but had no ear for other uses of the stadium. "According to Béchir the football operation alone is not the Letzigrund costs. With a bigger stadium we would have time to even get a great final game. "That is the Champions League, also in the field of culture, in the distance.
Or do you? Letzigrund negotiating with organizers
This is precisely the Zurich Letzigrund not that far below the demands of U2. 50,000 spectators fit into the stadium, that is just not enough. And in fact is the stadium manager Peter Landolt already in contact with several potential operators. "Because of the stage architecture, we are the only ones which could come U2. U2 would be for us "a great concert opener," says Landolt and alludes to the fact that so far no concerts took place in the Letzigrund. The Stadium Manager sounds optimistic and believes that one should get an award in March.
So there is hope for Swiss U2 fans. And who would organize the Zurich concert? Landolt keeps covered in this regard. Clearly, however, seems not that Good News is the winner. It's quite possible that there will be a foreign broadcasters. Be placed on the prospect, in Switzerland by foreign rivals sidelined says André Béchir: "We U2 have previously held a few times. Today the band plays only a role of money. "It should then feel the Swiss concert-goers. "We reach for the admission price a pain threshold. If they want to answer the other organizers, I must accept the "so Béchir. (bazonline.ch / News Network)
