U2 just wasn't as popular as they are now back in those days.
New York: Madison Square Garden holds 20,000. Continental Airlines Arena holds 20,000. Eight shows between the two venues. 160,000. Whereas they probably played to maybe 100,000-110,000 on Popmart in the same city. 50-60 thousand more tickets. That's like filling another stadium!
Los Angeles: 6 shows on Elevation, probably about 110,000. And that's with all the shows selling out! Who knows how many more they could've added. Compare that to 65,000 on Popmart.
The only place where the Elevation tour "slumped" was in the midwest, where they oversaturated big time. I mean, they went Cleveland, Lexington, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Indianapolis. Those 5 cities are all pretty much in the same area. They all drew from each other. All shows sold out, although I heard Lexington didn't sell out until showtime. Columbus and Indianapolis didn't sell behind the stage. I know cause I was there. They should've maybe put some of these cities on the second leg. St.Louis and Kansas City were the only 2 shows that didn't sell out. Both in Missouri, the day after the other. If they would've put St.Louis on the first leg, both shows would've sold out. It's all about marketing. Don't play 2 shows in a midwestern state the same week, or even month.
Columbus: Elevation show sold around 18,000 tickets. But the back of the arena wasn't sold, and there was a huge curtain hung there instead. On the contrary, Popmart in Columbus sold 45,000 tickets out of a possible 60,000. This would've filled Nationwide Arena twice! The reason? Columbus was the only Ohio show in the tour, and they didn't even play in Kentucky or Indiana (cancelled because of astroturf!!!) If they would've put Columbus on sale for the first leg of Elevation without Indy or Cleveland, they would've sold it out in a day or two, and maybe added a 2nd show. Then, they could play Cleveland and Indy int he fall leg.
U2 just doesn't have that big of an audience here in the midwest as it does elsewhere.