UK Dates next Summer?

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No its not, for the simple reason there so no way the english premier league would allow a switch a fixture due to a concert.


THe premier league argument has always been a weak one -- teams generally have a two week gap between home matches
 
Well if you look at the U2 tour scheme for 2010, it is remarkable that almost all shows are held in stadiums not used for soccer matches around that time.

The dates in Helsinki, Vienna, Athens, Istanbul, Sevilla, Munich, Paris, Brussels are all in olympic stadiums or in stadiums used for national teams. The dates in Hannover, Frankfurt (and Horsens?) are just before the competition starts. The still to be announced Zurich date will happen at a military field.

The only exceptions are Coimbra, Moscow and San Sebastian. I have no idea how these dates fitted in the soccer schedule?
 
THe premier league argument has always been a weak one -- teams generally have a two week gap between home matches

yes, there is a two week gap, but it is at this time not known in which weekends clubs play out or at home. There are no soccer schedules for the 2010-2011 competition, so it is not known where the gaps will be.

So the soccer leagues argument is a strong one
 
THe premier league argument has always been a weak one -- teams generally have a two week gap between home matches

The stadium fields require about 4 weeks of recovery time after the concert flooring has been removed. The flooring blocks sunlight for almost a week which kills most of the grass. After the US shows, venues either re-sodded the fields, which takes a few weeks to provide a stable playing surface, or they were left with brown grass for a few weeks.
 
The schedule is open-ended; they go where they want to go. If they want to play at a show, they'll find a venue and suitable date - it's the same story everywhere.

No its not, for the simple reason there so no way the english premier league would allow a switch a fixture due to a concert.

You are both correct. If U2 really wanted to play shows in the UK then they could do as they are in Montreal and supposedly Zurich. There are plenty of places they could play Roundhay, M.Keynes, Loch Lomond (I guess), Heaton Park, racecourses. The football grounds are a complete no-no from probably the start of August

THe premier league argument has always been a weak one -- teams generally have a two week gap between home matches

Thats if you know the fixtures and is not neccesarily true anyhow. Also U2 would be up against Sky, Premier League - its sponsors -, the FA. Its actually a very strong argument

There would be possibly nothing stopping U2 using Wembley, Cardiff or Glasgow again - If they really wanted too. Other markets in the UK would require taking a hit on the gross by using the 'Montreal configuration', something they are obviously not prepared to do

I do wonder though if they tried hard enough to find venues in unplayed UK markets. Im thinking the likes of Alexandra Stadium in Birmingham - which is small but no smaller than the Don Valley. Im sure there are a few other places similar scattered around, Gateshead perhaps? Which has hosted concerts before
 
If U2 wanted to play the UK, they could/would:

• There are other, non-EPL venues. See what other Euro countries are doing
• The soccer conflict also exists in other Euro countries and has been worked around
• The Tour schedule was open, they opted to go to other countries pre-soccer season


It's not that they can't go to the UK because of the EPL, it's because they don't want to. And it's not that they "don't want to" because they're mean, it's that they've already done a number of shows there and they're spreading the love. I guess they also figure that fans can travel if they really want to see another show... worst case, there's a show at Glastonbury.
 
Who knows, perhaps they did originally have plans to arrange something in the UK to fit in with the European dates but it fell into the too difficult category which hmm just maybe could be an excuse as to why they took ages to announce they wouldn’t be playing in the UK, other than Glasto.

If you rule out all the football (and rugby) stadiums from early/mid August then actually there aren’t that many viable options left. Yes you’ve got the national stadiums but the Cardiff Millennium stadium is scheduled to have new stands built later next year so presumably that’s ruled out and Wembley already has a number of events booked for August/September 2010 so there may well not have been a clear week free which U2 would have needed to set up and dismantle the claw. Don’t know though what the situation is for the Scottish stadiums.

As for the open parks such as Roundhay, Hyde Park etc they’d have needed licences from the local authorities which can take weeks/months to sort out assuming they’re willing to grant them in the first place. I imagine there would be safety/security/access issues etc regarding having a massive central stage in a park which after all has never been tried before. Milton Keynes bowl is basically only half an amphitheatre so it would have only been a 180 not a 360 degree concert. Racecourses do hold concerts but as far as I know none have ever been for more than a few thousand.

I’m still vaguely optimistic though that they may have something in the works for 2011.
 
I know they are not used that much. M.Jackson played to over 100k at Aintree. So it is feasible

I'd forgotten all about that concert but wasn't that also the one where loads of fans got crushed? I was living not that far from Liverpool at the time and vaguely remember a load of fuss in the papers about it. It was around the time of the Hillsborough tragedy as well. I don't think Aintree has hosted any large concerts since then though, (perhaps as a result of the problems they had) :shrug:
 
I see u2 are now returning to Italy for a further two dates next summer. Good for the italians fans.....but yet more of a slap in the face to UK fans!:down:
and....wat a fckin mess Live Nation are making of releasing dates....how many italian fans would have already made arrangements to go to alternative destinations, thinking there was not gonna be any italian dates in 2010
 
I dont see how Italy getting 2 dates is an even bigger slap in the face?
Am pretty sure, if one of your fave acts (whom you have followed for near 30 yrs of your life) played (lets say) London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow on a tour....then decided to come back at a later date and play more dates at London, Birmingham and Glasgow....you would feel short changed!

Maybe, u2 means a hell of a lot less to you than me, which is fine!
 
I dont see how Italy getting 2 dates is an even bigger slap in the face?

well they#re making the effort to revisit some countries they played this year- and in some cases exactly the same venue- ditto the US as well.

yet glaringly absent is any effort on their part to visit either Ireland or the UK in 2010- playing Glastonbury doesn't really count as a show. Sure ticket sales may not have been at Vertigo speeds but they sold 98% of them by the shows
if they weren't so obsessed with endlessly touring the US they could do it, not to mention the other parts of the world that they don't appear to be going to at all

so I guess it will be 2013 before the next UK shows
 
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