Last time the Stones played Werchter, in 2003, about 70,000 people attended the show and this week, though it was the opening night of the tour, there were only 33,000.
As far as I know, the promoters in all Western European countries are struggling to fill the stadiums.
I think their main mistake is the stadium show concept; I can't understand why they try to fill stadiums in all 4 scandinavian countries.

See the thread about ticket prices...

Simple answers

The show went on sale too late, the prices were high compared to other acts and more significantly they chose to stage it in a small village miles from anywhere on a Tuesday night

It´s a shame that they don´t sell good anymore.
And the problem is self-made. S

Whaaa it's really a Tour with good news...

The main reasons are the Ticketprices, that is sure. I will always buy tickets for the Stones, but I know lots of people who like the Stones but who are not as mad about them like me, and they simply will not pay so much money. Another aspect is that the Stones do not offer lots of changes to recent tours, so some people do not what wnat to see similar shows for the fourth time.

Hanns Rainsch Wrote:
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> Last time the Stones played Werchter, in 2003,
> about 70,000 people attended the show and this
> week, though it was the opening night of the tour,
> there were only 33,000.
> As far as I know, the promoters in all Western
> European countries are struggling to fill the
> stadiums.
> I think their main mistake is the stadium show
> concept; I can't understand why they try to fill
> stadiums in all 4 scandinavian countries.


the scandinavian shows are sold out
what are you talking about????

Hanns Rainsch wrote:

"As far as I know, the promoters in all Western European countries are struggling to fill the stadiums.I think their main mistake is the stadium show concept; I can't understand why they try to fill stadiums in all 4 scandinavian countries."

According to reports, here, the sales are good in Scandinavia. Also, as fans say here, sales are good for the gigs in Paris, Lyon, London, Slane. As for Spain, sales seem to become now OK for Barcelona and Madrid and they are very good for San Sebastian. Nijmegen, Rome, Lisbon are selling slow. Germany too, but don't forget that two german shows will take place in middle August. There is time enough until then. So, hard to accept your conclusion about "bad sales in all Western European countries".

As for Werchter, under the conditions Gazza talked about (in middleweek, in the middle of nowhere, without decent transport- in addition you can count the absence of real promotion), an audience of 35,000 people seems to be almost deed...

I'm a bit tired of this talk about "bad sales". Same discussion, again and again, whatever a new tour's leg starts. In the end we see that they have sold 90% of the tickets. That happened last summer in Europe...

Read about the traffic jam. Even if 70,000 bought tickets, would more than 33,000 have been able to attend?

TooTough wrote: "It´s a shame that they don´t sell good anymore."

If an act that sells 4,600,000 tickets worldwide, by these prices, isn't a "good seller", then words have lost their sense...

Are we serious? Think about the high frequency of tours in the last years. See the prices. What did you expect? Fast sales everywhere, as if the Stones did their first tour after 6 or 8 years? Or as if they did a restricted number of shows during every tour? Unless you think that drawing 800,000 people on a worldwide tour (many acts can do it) is more remarkable than attracting 4,600,000, if the 800,000 tickes for the act "X" have been sold faster than the 4.5 million for the act "Z"!!


The prices, yes. That's a shame. Totaly agree. But, on the other hand, this annoying factor makes the success of the Stones even more notable.

Dan Wrote:
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> Read about the traffic jam. Even if 70,000 bought
> tickets, would more than 33,000 have been able to
> attend?

the traffic jam made world news! i saw a clip of it on late night, national news last night!

Give me the name of another band in the world that has been selling nearly as many tickets within one and the same tour of 24 months or less please. Then I would agree on the subject. But fact is there are no names that sell anywhere near. So the sales are not bad. Wait until the tour is over then we will see if they are bankrupt and in need of social care. I am for sure doing my best to prevent that from happening this summer.

Bjornulf

"Give me the name of another band in the world that has been selling nearly as many tickets within one and the same tour of 24 months or less please."

If you are talking about quantity and not gross dollars:

George Michaels
Robbie Williams
The Police
U2

Dan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Give me the name of another band in the world
> that has been selling nearly as many tickets
> within one and the same tour of 24 months or less
> please."
>
> If you are talking about quantity and not gross
> dollars:
>
> George Michaels
> Robbie Williams
> The Police
> U2


george michael: sales are very slow in europe
some of the open air shows had to be relocated into arenas,
some have even been cancelled: prague for example
and btw just a european tour

Robbie Williams: just in Europe a star
no one knows him in the USA
does way smaller tours because there is no US leg
you can be sure in 10 years noone knows him anymore

The Police: most shows are indoor shows
a way smaller tour
btw they are crap

U2: great sales for vertigo
popmart has not sold many tix
let's see if bono can make it onstage when he is in micks age

I know Garth Brooks have played Fargodome 20 nights or so with ticket prices at 10 dollars or so. May be others do the same. But I haven't seen any numbers here. Give me total crowd figure in million people during the past 24 months, and the gross income in mullion us dollars. which is of course important, mind you anyone may fill up Fargodome or O2 London if gthey play for free and are famours. Then I will be ready to be impressed, if there are that many making big success.

But I am sure everybody knows the answer. The Stones are cashing in with a maximum of fans and the correct market price, so there is nobody that comes close. Let's do the success measure in 3 months time, and not 24 hours after the first show is over. By the way who else have been able to fill up 35,000 or so people on a week-day at Werchter, without any bus transport? Give me a name please, I mean with average ticket price 50-100 Euro in early June.

Bjornulf

ticket sales are bad because people now realise that the stones are shyte and Keith is an old alcolohic who has contempt for his fans. No matter what they say about "its all for the music man" - it ain't, its quite clearly for the money.

glimmer twin 81 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dan Wrote:

>
> george michael: sales are very slow in europe
> some of the open air shows had to
> be relocated into arenas,
> some have even been cancelled:
> prague for example
> and btw just a european tour
>

I wasn't aware he is still on tour, I am going by the Pollstar figures from a few months ago.



> Robbie Williams: just in Europe a star
> no one knows him in the USA
> does way smaller tours because
> there is no US leg
> you can be sure in 10 years noone
> knows him anymore
>

Can't be sure of anything in 10 years but he has sold more tickets in Europe last year than most acts have sold worldwide.


> The Police: most shows are indoor shows
> a way smaller tour
> btw they are crap
>


90,000 tickets in the LA area alone, most places with indoor shows get multiple nights, most shows are already sold out. All arena shows appear to use the full 360 configuration. It may be a shorter tour because apparently they are still physically capable of playing more than 2-3 shows a week.


> U2: great sales for vertigo
> popmart has not sold many tix
> let's see if bono can make it onstage when he
> is in micks age

Popmart wasn't in the last 24 months. Again, irrelevant about what Bono may or may not be doing when he's Mick's age but plenty of acts are still on the road at 60+ I would say it's more likely than not.

Ticket price is much expensive, this is the simple reason.
If the prices to stay like last year there are not problem to fill the stadiums, I suppose, almost double.

It's sad.

But I'm sure that THIS IS NOT THE LAST TOUR!

u2 will still be doing it at micks age, unless something tragic happens, you can just tell they will be around forever, and btw it will be the four original members too, not an easy task, and btw that does not go for the police since they took a 20 year break



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-06-08 04:04 by melillo.

Well in europe Robbie Williams and Depeche Mode both played for over 2 million. Robbie could have been over 3 million even. So stones sure are not alone here with massive figures. But with the ticketprices it´s still impressive how much Stones sell these days.

Last year I saw the Stones in Sydney and Melbourne with tickets (the good seats) selling for $395 & $400!!! That was the standard tickets prices, not hot seats or packages. Euro tickets are cheap compared to that. Germany 190euros for the good seats... I'll pay that over $400 any day!

Look whi's touring this summer.

The Police : haven't toured for over 20 years, the least they could expect is to sell pretty well

The Who : relocating some of the ARENA shows in smaller arenas.

Aerosmith : 10 years without touring Europe properly

Genesis : Most of the concerts are NOT sold out

My opinion is that if the Stones could have had the stadium in Brussels, with seats available, it would have been a reel success. Werchter is a nice place surrounded by a forest, but it sux big time in terms of accessibility.
The belgian were unable to put any shuttle service, so what can you expect ?
The staium at least is well deserved, and easier to find and reach.

Apart from concerts people have more choises these days for their spare time.
Travelling is cheap, you have 50000000 tv channels to choose from etc.
Many people (I don´t mean hard core fans) have already "seen" the Stones...
This all is true, but BV is right. How many artists sell 30.000 tickets?
In Helsinki George Michael´s concert has been moved from stadium (40.000) to an arena (13.000). In my opinion filling even that arena tells that the artis is successfull.

Man, I'd much rather be in a smaller crowd to see the Stones than 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 or 70,000 people. Do't know why people complain about small crowds...big crowds are too crowded. Traffic jams, parking problems, long beer lines, long loo lines, etc.
Be happy for smaller crowds!

I would love to see a critical post from bv, that would be grand

NumberOneStonesFan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Man, I'd much rather be in a smaller crowd to see
> the Stones than 40,000, 50,000, 60,000 or 70,000
> people. Do't know why people complain about small
> crowds...big crowds are too crowded. Traffic
> jams, parking problems, long beer lines, long loo
> lines, etc.
> Be happy for smaller crowds!
>


I totally agree. At the venue they played in Melbourne, Australia - Rod LAver Arena - you can have the worst ticket in the house but the view is still great. There's no need to rely on those giant tv screens to see who's actually playing... I've never been able to say that about a stadium show.
As for the amount of tickets sold - if I said I was gonna put on a show at a 60,000 seat venue and sell tickets for 150+ and only 5,000 people turned up (not that they would) I'd be thrilled!

Sales are of course very good. ABB Tour will be in Guinnes Records for a long time.

George Michael did not even sell 10.000 tickets for his concert in Werchter... They had to move to 'Antwerps sportpaleis' with a max. crowd of 14.000 & still some 4.000 tickets available!

I trully hope to see The Stones once in 'Het Sportpaleis'!

Concerning setlist: some people I know who are not true Stones fans and attended the Werchter concert, thought the performance would have been better if they played more 'well known songs'... A completely different point of view!

About Keith: Of course he was drunk or stoned... Of course, technically he could have played better... But he is still Keith. If you want everything perfectly played and a smooth sugar-sound, I suggest the George Michael thing.

"Posted by: john lomax (IP Logged)
Date: June 8, 2007 01:55
ticket sales are bad because people now realise that the stones are shyte and Keith is an old alcolohic who has contempt for his fans. No matter what they say about "its all for the music man" - it ain't, its quite clearly for the money."


So why on earth are you here posting on this board??????

windmelody Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The main reasons are the Ticketprices, that is
> sure. I will always buy tickets for the Stones,
> but I know lots of people who like the Stones but
> who are not as mad about them like me, and they
> simply will not pay so much money. Another aspect
> is that the Stones do not offer lots of changes to
> recent tours, so some people do not what wnat to
> see similar shows for the fourth time.


You nailed it exactly!