I find it stunning that there were that many unsold seats in Denver in 2015. I partly blame the fact that ticketmaster didn't sell the show. TM has a way of doing whatever is necessary to get seats filled. Whatever website that did Denver's sales probably just put the tickets on sale and that was that. But that's not the only reason. I think SOI's scandal really created a backlash.
I really think they're just charging too much. Ticket prices have continued to climb tour after tour, but now the demand is lower than it used to be. From Elevation-360, they were the hottest selling band on the planet. Now they're just a classic rock band with way overpriced tickets. If the prices cheaper, the venues would be full and they would be literally adding shows to meet demand, rather than adding shows to bleed the market dry. They aren't going to have anymore hits. SOE has performed as well as it possibly could, given the band's age and legacy. They are no longer bringing in many more fans. The JT Tour was a huge success, because it was a blatant nostalgia show.
I hate to encourage any Stones comparisons, but they're roughly at the point in their careers that the Stones were in the late 90's. Bridges to Babylon had a couple singles that got a little radio/video play, but served little purpose other than to launch another major tour. Unfortunately, U2 has come to this point, and one could argue they've been there since NLOTH/360. The Stones seemed to accept this, but they're not like U2. U2 need to create. I hope they don't stop making albums, because I really like SOI and SOE, and wish I could get 10 more albums.
