An article which is published on the IORR site says:

"Ticket sales have reached record highs, with fans already purchasing 97% of all tickets currently available for sale."

97% ? Already? Before the new album's realise? Is that correct or is a bit exaggerated hype? Biornulf, what's your opinion?

Read very carefully ....97% of all tickets CURRENTLY AVAILABLE...rumour and scuttle butt by those who claim to be in the know is that large amounts of tickets are being held back for corporate sponsers, season ticket holders, and any number of the favored and priveledged. Those same peopel in the know feel that more tickets will show up later, and that many of the venues are FAUX sell outs to hype the market.

I guess we shall see very shortly whether these doom and gloom sayers or the the Cohl hyperbole machine are actually telling the truth!

Hey, Bjornulf, what do you know about it?

It's called "selling the truth."

That is correct. Most shows are sold out. They are of course talking about shows on sale. You won't see many venues with black plastic to cover empty seats this time around. I can't understand why this is a big surprise. I get e-mail from people almost every day who can't get tickets to venues so they must be sold out. Some sold very fast. Some sold out in a few days. There are always socalled blocked view seats in circulation, but those are few and not really any volume. Often they are great seats as well...

The Stones and Michael Cohl are conservative when it comes to ticket sales. They would rather put up an arena for sale rather than another stadium, if they are not sure about selling out. They know their markets. These guys are professional. That is why they put different places on sale at selected dates. It is not random. First Giants. Then one MSG. First Soldier Field. Then United Center. And so on. If it is slow they just cancel the optional no. 2 and offer the show to another city. If it is fast they make another one. Duke University, NC. They go were people ant them. Simple as that.

Bjornulf

well stated Bjornulf, it's as simple as that!

Thank you so much BV. Reading that makes me feel so much better, LOL, over at Shidoobbe, Mr Lawyer,a doom and gloom gus if there ever was one, and someone named Glimmergirl are filling thread after thread with posts that say this tour is a shambles. They hit you with "inside information," patterns of TM sales, on and on, all to covince every one that this tour is a looser and the band is facing half empty stadiums. They have stated indeed that many venues turned the Stones down KNOWING that they would not sell enough to meet the price.

They can be very convincing, and even after your breat of fresh air, I am willing to believe that Comerica Park might well be a disaster in Detroit. But often, the twists and turns in the explanations they have as to why, say the Hollywood Bowl shows are not sale outs, depsite the inability to buy tickets, twist and meander like a Kennedy asassination conspiracy theory.

I lost my Stones Internet Virginity to IORR three years ago. The calm of a BV post and the info here is why when I hit the net every day, I start with IORR and come back to IORR to just before signing off for the day.

Ninety-seven percent sold does not mean ninety-seven percent of the seats are filled. Lots and lots of tickets available on ebay and ticket-broker sites. I've seen a lot of first-row tickets available for shows. These will move when the pricing gets a little more realistic. My point is: there's such a huge secondary market for Stones tickets, initial sales numbers don't really tell you a whole lot. I think a lot of people buy extras, hoping to earn enough profit on them to pay for their own seats. The market will tell the final story.

Karl

'Don’t forget, if you’re on your bike, wear white'

Thanks Bjornulf

You say "i can't understand why this is a big surprise." Is not "a big surprise" of course, but a few weeks ago there were here some pessimistic topics about MSG, Detroit, etc.

Anyway, the Stones as live is a huge phenomenon! After attracting 22 million people at their concerts since 1989 worldwide they can now add 3 or 4 million, EVEN the ticket prices are so high (atleast in the USA). EVEN that's the third tour in the last 8 years. EVEN that's the second contiguous tour that starts without the promotion of a new album YET.

Think about it: During the seventies every tour of the Stones was attracting less than 1,000,000 even than 500,000 people, because of the frequency of the tours. In the last years the Stones tour very often again, but they play to more than 3.5 million on every round. It's almost a miracle!

Thank God for IORR and Bjornulf - I have been checking this site for years, what would we do without you???? Rock on, Sarah

I can confirm that many tickets are being held back and efforts being made to sell these tickets via different avenues. American Express Platinum card has a package that provides 2 "VIP" tickets, early access to the venue and a buffet reception for $2000. There were 20 pairs available for Hollywood Bowl on the 6th, and they sold out quickly, but frankly, the seats were good but not great. Terrace boxes in the 1100 - 1300 range and garden boxes way off to the side in the 900's. Somewhere there are better boxes, probably reserved for an even more expensive corporate sale.

Detroit is the red-haired step child of the whole tour apparently. It's the Wednesday night just after people's kids return to school and just before the long Labor Day weekend so many folks are hard-pressed to find the time from either their home or work lives to attend. Traffic getting from the distant suburbs (Comerica Park is 15-20 miles from where Stones fans reside, bare minimum) will collide with traffic leaving downtown offices which adds to the hassle factor. Moreover people from outstate are finding it difficult to attend for the same reasons.

The Stones played Ford Field right next door to Comerica Park on a Saturday night last time and had no problem "selling out" - to say nothing of performing the best show I saw on the tour.

Finally, the cost of tickets may be keeping many an auto-industry laborer and big-shot alike at bay. I purchased four tix via the Comerica Park special presale and thought I did darned good. Come to find out there are STILL better tickets available than the ones I bought, almost three months later! I have another set coming from friends at the local promoter. I'm hoping some unsold $400 seats "morph" into $160 ones before they find their way to my mailbox. Hope springs eternal.

kahoosier Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thank you so much BV. Reading that makes me feel
> so much better, LOL, over at Shidoobbe, Mr
> Lawyer,a doom and gloom gus if there ever was one,
> and someone named Glimmergirl are filling thread
> after thread with posts that say this tour is a
> shambles.

Mr. Lawyer is laughing all the way, I believe. No one can be as negative as that guy. He loves jerking everyone's chain......I must admit....he's succeeded with me more than once.

I think that many of the seats from "sold out" shows are in the hands of people that never intended to go. Unless the tour buzz really accelerates, these seats may find their way into our hands. Chicago, MSG and Giants Stadium will be a good test. These are three great venues in great concert locations. But there are a TON of tickets on stubhub.com. You actually wonder whether anyone is going to the show. If these seats are still around, there are going to be some good deals!

hey drbryant,,your letting the cat out of the bag,,some1 may get your front row seat...