If the additional North American cities added 600,000 or so tickets, did Fogul miscalculate or was that added demand from the postponement?
Well, they only added 6 shows and they are not going to be 100,000 people at any of those 6 shows:
Nashville 45,000
Winnipeg 45,000
Pittsburgh 55,000
Baltimore 70,000
St. Louis 45,000
Mocton 100,000
TOTAL: 360,000
These shows were not booked in 2010 because there was not room in the schedule. If there had been, they would have sold a minimum of 288,000 tickets at these shows, about 80% by my estimates. The delay because of Bono's injury helps to add about 72,000 tickets for these shows maximum.
For u2 first/last dates of a tour leg have always sold faster that other dates within a tour leg in similar sized markets. With all the date shuffling and added cities, EIGHT different cities have had that distinction within a single tour leg.
I would say that is still questionable in terms of revelance and its doubtful that any of it was by design. Again this is a massive production that moves across the country. There are too many things that would take priority or be a forced reality before one could consider such things.
Are you suggesting the Stones did theaters out of market necessity?
Well, why waste time playing Radio City Music Hall or the Beacon Theater if that time could be used playing another show or two at Madison Square Garden?
U2 did "select market" tour routing and had day 1 tickets that were heavily discounted.
Having been to multiple shows on the tour, I don't know anyone that got a ticket discount. I certainly did not get a discount, nor did anyone I know. The average ticket price for this tour is over
$102 dollars and that is the only thing you need to know as far as prices are concerned.
Did you just directly compare 360 stadiums to 270 arenas and theaters?
The following are the official tour statistics for the entire Rolling Stones A Bigger Bang Tour including every show played whether it was in a STADIUM, Arena, mid-sized concert hall, or theater!
ROLLING STONES A BIGGER BANG TOUR STATS
GROSS: $558,255,524
ATTENDANCE: 4,680,000
Average Gross: $3,797,657
Average Attendance: 31,837
Average Ticket Price: $119.29
Shows: 147
Sellouts: 81
The following is what U2 has done at 78 stadium shows so far on the current tour:
U2 360 TOUR: TOTAL STATS TO DATE
GROSS: $519,599,484
ATTENDANCE: 5,051,275
Average Gross: $6,661,532
Average Attendance: 64,760
Average Ticket Price: $102.87
Shows: 78
Sellouts: 78
Plus economics of the 360 means that however "innovative" it may genuinely be, no act/promoter(including LN) in the future would likely take on such a financial gamble.
Except if the artist doing the tour is U2! The tour is making massive amounts of money for the band and Live Nation is not going to walk away from a tour that is about to be the most successful in history.
Thing is for a tour of this scale, you have to gross $300 million to $400 million just to break even, which means only the Stones and U2 can make a profit from a tour of this scale.
Yes, The Stones had some markets slip after the 90's. IMO, they milked all the "once in a lifetime gig" markets like Moncton/Regina that are tough to repeat and padded recent tour totals.
Ah, but MOGGIO would say that the Stones have increased in popularity with each tour. After all look at the grosses:
Steel Wheels - $185 million
Voodoo Lounge - $320 million
Bridges To Babylon/No Security - $339 million
40 Licks - $311 million
A Bigger Bang Tour - $558 million
By the way, Bill Wyman is not in the Rolling Stones and hasn't been for 20 years!