Blue Room,
Which Arena shows did not sellout on Elevation? Sure there were a few that did not attempt to sell seats behind the stage, but every show, by showtime had sold out all tickets that had been put on sale.
Struggling with 18,000 seats in Lexington is one thing, but how about the Rolling Stones who only sold 27,000 seats in Madison Wisconsin for a 60,000 seat stadium on the Bridges To Babylon tour! Tickest were only 60 dollars and 39 dollars for that Stones show. Not exactly the performance of a living legend!
Also, take the Rolling Stones own turf, the United Kingdom. The Stones failed to sellout Edinburgh, Leeds and just barely sold out the dates in London on the Bridges To Babylon tour! Also U2s POPMART shows in the United Kingdom had higher attendance and higher Grosses.
Although the Stadium prices for the Stones are between 50 dollars and 350 dollars, the average Stones price for the Stadium shows is 85 dollars. The average price for a U2 arena show is 80 dollars. U2 would have to charge a lower average price in the USA if they wanted to sellout most stadium shows. Its anyones guess what the prices would be, but for a U2 Stadium tour, I would guess the average price would be 60 dollars. The STones are charging 85 dollars, but then again, only 10 stadium shows have been listed so far. While the price range is the same for the smaller Arena's, I predict the average price will be higher, with more of the 300 dollar tickets rather than the 50 dollar ones. The only gift to the fans are the theater shows.
www.ticketmaster.com has the price ranges for all shows.
So to sum up Paul was right. Not that any of these artist should feel guilty about what they charge. Its economics people. If your not going to make what your worth then someone else is going to. For the past 20 years U2 has charged what their market value is for each tour like every other artist in the industry, and I have yet to see any evidence to prove otherwise.