fedeu2

WRONG. The only reason The Stones are able to charge top prices is because there still is a certain number of people who would pay anything to see them live. Mind you, that number is getting smaller by the year. That´s why The Stones played to many half empty stadiums in Europe last time around.
U2 could charge the same prices than the Stones or even more and they would still draw more people than them. Charging their tickets like The Stones do, U2 could easily gross in excess of 1 billion dollars for this tour, something that good old Mick and Keith could only dream of.

ramblin rose

Please, let's get this thread back on topic.

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phommel

I agree that the whole sellout thing is not a PR stunt. However, looking at these figures for Amsterdam ArenA. Like this it looks that it was nearly a sellout, while 50,000 people fir in Amsterdam ArenA. So to me it was very far from a sellout. Probably the promotor is conservative in releasing tickets for selling. In this way you can achieve sellouts or nearly sellouts always. Just release tickets step-by-step. I think it's still a bit misleading.

phommel

hmmm now I read previous 50 posts...why cannot we go back to the topic and stop comparing U2 with the Stones? It's impossible to decide who is bigger since there might be lots of differences in under/overplaying areas, differences in inflation, ticket pricing, etc., differences in attendance, difference in recession/economy...

and it's also very annoying if people start using only other colour fonts...

fedeu2

powerhour24

Particularly when they're blue fonts on interference, . ...oh wait, the whole site uses blue on blue )

ramblin rose

Please, let it go. This thread will be closed if it can't get back on topic.

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u2search

I was at that show and with some 20.000 odd good seats empty they couldn't have that one declared a sellout even with those 272 extra tickets sold...
and I mean clearly visible complete blocks of seats opposite the stage, not a few rows near the back.

u2search

Wembley II was genuinely sold out. I could buy the last 2 GPB 30 tickets but they were too far apart so we dissed them. We got back half a hour later to check and right before us (1 more person in the que) they announced tickets in all price cats were finished. We stayed outside and untill well after the show started people were askong for spare tickets.

CosmoKramer

Tomorrow or Thursday we should find out the following:

Poland
Croatia
Croatia
Wembley
Wembley


I think it is reasonable to think the 2nd Wembley sold out. A report I saw read that 88k for the 1st show sold and that they were expecting 170 for the two shows (the report came out prior to the 1st show). So, that would mean that 82k sold for the 2nd show at that point in time. All you would need is for 5k out of 88k to say "I gotta see this again" or 2.5k out of the 88k to say "I gotta see this again and bring a friend". Now I know that a lot of those 88k went to both shows (most likely) but even then there are your last moment ticket buyers in addition to the "new" repeats.

Maoilbheannacht

Once again, there could be 30,000 seats in the venue that are not released for sell, and as long as they are not, they have no bearing on whether the show is declared a sellout or not.

Tickets on sale: 36,529
Tickets sold: 36,257

When you sell all the tickets released for sell, the show can be declared a sellout. That is how it has worked in the industry for over 40 years now.

CosmoKramer

Maoil- Given the size of U2's stage and of course their concept of only playing certain style stadiums, are there a significant number of venues in Europe/ US that they could not play? Or is their stage concept geared towards the more common venue type? Im just trying to see cities that they would not be able to play regardless if they wanted to or not due to their stage.......

icecreamkiller

I'd just like to chip in with my two cents regarding the sellouts as reported by Billboard Boxscore.

It's not Billboard that comes up with the attendance/gross data for any show by any artist. They only publish it. It's the concert promoter (Live Nation in this case, obviously) that reports the attendance, capacity and gross of every show to Billboard, who then publishes that.

And as far as I'm aware, a sell-out as reported by Billboard doesn't mean every ticket was sold. A sell-out means that the number of tickets the concert promoter (again, Live Nation) expected to sell was sold. That's also the number that goes under "capacity", not the real number of tickets available. What happens in U2's case is that they're such a huge live draw that that number is usually quite close (and sometimes is the same as) the total number of tickets available. It doesn't mean necessarily that the tickets were released in blocks - a concert that has over 10,000 tickets up for sale 5 minutes after the first song has started can be reported as a sold-out event by Billboard if the number of tickets the concert promoter expected to sell was 10,000+ below the number of tickets that they could actually sell in order to completely fill the venue.

It may or may not be a PR stunt - but U2 didn't come up with it and Lord knows they're not the only ones who use it (in fact, they're probably the band that should get the least criticism for their Billboard Boxscore numbers, since they're usually very close to the real number of tickets available). Artists ranging anywhere from moderate-sized arena-playing acts like Coldplay or Beyoncé to huge stadium fillers like Madonna and Springsteen do it.

KUEFC09U2

There are a bunch of seats always left empty directly opposite the stage, check the wembley shows you can see the same there, they just werent put on sale,

Maoilbheannacht

Well, I don't think anyone here suggest otherwise. But the results are checked to insure they are accurate.

Again, the number of tickets that are released for sell is dependent on many different factors. If an artist is touring with a stage that is not open to the back, the promoter will not release tickets for sell that are behind the stage. They also may not release tickets on the side of the stage until they day of the show to be certain the seats are not obstructed view. Lighting, mixing desk, and other things apart of the concert set up can block some seats and it may not be known until the venue is set up for the show whether certain seats can be used. So those seats are not released for sell.

This of course allows the promoter to simply release a smaller block of tickets that they think the artist can sell by showtime. Sometimes the artist does sell the tickets, sometimes they don't. Nearly half of Bruce Springsteens shows this year have not soldout. At the May 2001 Elevation show in Pittsburgh PA, the 2nd level behind the stage area was empty. This was a $45 dollar ticket section. Just before the concert you could not buy tickets in this area, although you would have had a clear view of everything. In fact, no tickets were available.The promoter chose not to release these tickets for sell. The concert was recorded as a sellout.