Does anybody know about ticket sales Europe next year....

DK, Norway, Sweeden, Cologne sold out....

What about the other places - seems like lots of tickets still available....

A naughty question - are people bored by the Stones? Conflict with World Cup 2006??

Got a message from rs.com - ticketprices in germany reduced - bad sign??

I think the whole European part of the Bigger Bang World Tour will be sold out eventually, sooner or later. I'm sure. All the rare countries are allready sold out (Norway, Sweden, et cetera) and the rest will follow during the year. I'm pretty sure.

I think ticket sales are ok in general, when you consider that its a lot to ask of most people to get them to pay a few hundred Euros for a couple of tickets just before Christmas.

Ticket sales will mostly be slower than previous years because in most countries theyre a lot more expensive than before, but most venues will either sell out or come close to doing so - eventually. Even if Cohl and co. have to manufacture some ruse or manipulate some sales figures to do so.

The World Cup will also slow things up - it always does, especially in the country where its being staged, even if the band arent playing there during the tournament. Add to that that as theyre NOT attracting a new audience (because of their prices), the novelty factor does wear off after a while. Almost everyone who wants to see the Stones before they pack it in has by now had ample opportunity to do so. Think about it, theyve played Europe in 1995, 98, 99, 2003 and now 2006.

I didnt get this rs.com e-mail yet that youre referring to. Apparently, something similar happened last tour in Germany, so its no surprise as sales have been slower there than in many countries. Surprised theyre offering 'deals' so quickly, if thats the case. Not very good planning on the Stones' management's part.

Scandinavia's standard and cost of living is a lot higher than pretty much all of the rest of Europe. Although many fans from there consider the prices for those shows to have jumpred considerably, theyre still probably relatively cheap when compared to the average weekly wage than they are in most other countries.

Hi Gazza - this was the mail I got:

Liebe Kartenhaus Kundin, Lieber Kartenhaus Kunde,

die Rolling Stones haben beschlossen die Ticket Preise für das Konzert in Berlin zu reduzieren.

Kunden, die ihre Karten aus dem Platin Member Pre-Sale bezogen haben bekommen die Differenz erstattet.

Alte und neue Preise wie folgt:

EUR 165,- kosten jetzt 150,- EUR / Erstattung 15,- EUR

EUR 130,- kosten jetzt 110,- EUR / Erstattung 20,- EUR

EUR 110,- bleiben 110,- EUR / Erstattung Keine

EUR 95,- kosten jetzt 85,- EUR / Erstattung 10,- EUR

EUR 80,- kosten jetzt 75,- EUR / Erstattung 5,- EUR

EUR 60,- bleiben 60,- EUR / Erstattung Keine

Wenn Sie Karten aus dem Pre-Sale besitzen, werden wir Ihnen die Differenz des Betrages auf das für die Original-Buchung benutzte Konto zurückbuchen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Das Kartenhaus / Ticketmaster Team

Thanks

You live in Denmark, and rs.com sent you an e-mail in German? WTF?

I'm going to Berlin, but was planning to just get tickets when I got there....this makes things a bit easier (although I dont speak much German..!)

Up to 15% cheaper now - would be interesting to know the margin actually!
I think the sales in Germany are very slow - in Austria too... seems they charged too much this time. Can just think of one word - greedy.


Belgrade-Bucharest-Budapest-Brno

Hi - I live in DK, but didn't wan't to go to Horsens on a thursday night for a RS consert - seemed a bit too odd to me.

I bought tickets to the Berlin show - friday night, seems like a better option.... - section 26.2, row 17, seats 31-30.

Hopefully it will be a great show and a great Stones weekend with a lots of german beer.....

Maybe they should add popular warm-up bands:

Germany - Scorpions
Austria - ??? Von Trapps?

Ticket sales in Europe are bad ? Don't be ridiculous. They're fantastic. I should know, cos' I've bought every ticket for every show - the ones you all think you've got are actually fakes !! And I'm NOT selling any of them either - SO THERE !! But I might give one away to Mathijs; if ever there was a man need of attending a Rolling Stones concert; it is he ! O what the hell, BV's not a bad lad either, I'll let him have one as well !

Almost all standing tickets are sold out but the more expensive seats (like 200,-) are still available

I`m sure that Madrid tickets will be avaible until almost the same day of the concert. I would bet that they will not be sold out here.Too much money

The Stade de France in PARIS is sold out.
But there will surely be some tickets available in a fews days or the very day of the concert...

Tickets for the concert in Nice also seem unavailable although I can't believe it's sold out, as there were about 5000 tickets left (out of 50 000) yesterday morning...

[www.ticketnet.fr]

Both London dates are sold out, as are most of the other UK shows. For a country as cynical as ours, we sure do love The Stones.

I think, though not being dutch, that the Amsterdam # 2 is almost sold out. If somebody could confirm that would be great. For the fun, I must add to what JimPrice wrote above,that for Paris they at the end added a category : " places with limited visibility" at € 80 !!! That means it will overpacked with great audience.

Nikolai Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Both London dates are sold out, as are most of the
> other UK shows. For a country as cynical as ours,
> we sure do love The Stones.

So we should - we grew them!!

Gazza, agree with you except for a particular point of your post. You say: "theyre NOT attracting a new audience (because of their prices)".

Don't be so absolute. Even with these damned prices the Stones are able to attract some new audience. Not on the big scale of the 1990 or 1995, of course. But i think they can, especially in the East and South Europe, where the people have not the opportunity to see them often.

It depends on how strong the desire to see them is. And always there are people who want to see them. A friend of mine recently said "i have to cancell one or two summer concerts to save up money for the Stones". My friend, 31 years old, had seen the Stones here, in Athens, in 1998. Probably his decition isn't representative of the big majority of the audiences. But i think it is representative of a notable number of people. A number on which based mr Cohl knows that the stadiums will be filled once again. Even with these prices...

Beast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nikolai Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Both London dates are sold out, as are most
> of the
> > other UK shows. For a country as cynical as
> ours,
> > we sure do love The Stones.
>
> So we should - we grew them!!
>
>
>

Yeah, we "grew" Gary Glitter too. And all the bands and singers we love to hate ...

stickydion Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Gazza, agree with you except for a particular
> point of your post. You say: "theyre NOT
> attracting a new audience (because of their
> prices)".
>
> Don't be so absolute. Even with these damned
> prices the Stones are able to attract some new
> audience. Not on the big scale of the 1990 or
> 1995, of course. But i think they can, especially
> in the East and South Europe, where the people
> have not the opportunity to see them often.
>
well, with respect, thats splitting hairs. A 'few' new fans is not a 'new audience' thats worth a damn.

I'm referring more to 'new audiences' in their main markets, where they've toured to death over the last decade.

These days the Stones are more likely to lose fans due to death and old age than attract new ones



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2005-12-28 20:08 by Gazza.

First of all "How do you do" as it's my first post here. Let me tell you I'm 25y old guy from Poland and I hope to meet some nice people here. Right now I don't want to be a pain in the neck.

There are still some tickets for Warsaw gig. Unfortunately the places close to the stage were sold out in 1 hour but there are still some tickets in section 2, which is close to the stage B. Price is around 55 euro so it's not that expensive, is it?

Hi there and welcome to IORR

I guess its all relative, depending on where you live. I find €55 to be quite cheap, but maybe people in other countries might not. As I live in the UK, I find the ticket prices in continental Europe to be reasonable compared to what we're paying - but then I see that in those countries, the prices have generally increased dramatically since 2003 (I guess theyre having the problem we had in 2003 where the prices showed a BIG increase from 1999 whereas in the rest of Europe they were OK)

Some of the price differences are quite strange. I find it amazing to read in another thread that the top ticket price for Japan, one of the most expensive countries in the world, is US$163 - which is about 60% of what they are in the UK

from what I've read, it seems that Mexico has got the roughest deal of all, price-wise when you compare their economy to that of say, the US or japan.

Thanks Gazza :-)

You are right the UK seems to have expensive tickets, but there are seats like in the US or do you stand?

I used to live in Japan however it was very difficult for me to go for any show there. All the tickets were sold out too quickly!!!

To understand ticket prices you need to know each country and the economy in that country. Some are in the middle of a bad time. Some are behind it. And ticket prices are not related to the price of bread, hotels or other stuff, but due to the concert industry health in the local market. That is why Finland did not get a show now, that is why Oslo did not get a show in 2003, and that is why tickets are cheaper in Japan now.

It should come as little surprise that the people who work with Stones ticket sales do know each market, what it is worth, what price they can ask for, what sort of venue they should play, and all of such. And they know it much better than you and me. Surprise. it is their profession. They do it all day all year. We just sit on our computers and see bits of it. In fact it is an art to secure ticket sales and make sure the Stones never play half empty venues. As they never cancel due to poor ticket sales, like many other artists do, it is important for them to be skilled at what they do.

Bjornulf

That's true, hats off the head. However how would you explain Stones will play in Amsterdam Arena where the accoustic is terrible? Dutch fans hate this place...

phd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think, though not being dutch, that the
> Amsterdam # 2 is almost sold out. If somebody
> could confirm that would be great. For the fun, I
> must add to what JimPrice wrote above,that for
> Paris they at the end added a category : " places
> with limited visibility" at € 80 !!! That means it
> will overpacked with great audience.


Just look at [www.ticketmaster.nl] and you can easily buy field tickets for the Amsterdam #2 show. Ticketsales are historically low these days in Holland. Marketing in Holland went really bad, with a lot of complaints about the acoustics in the Stadium they chose and quite high ticketprices. From 89 euros to 124 excl. administration costs.

Gazza wrote:

(a) "A 'few' new fans is not a 'new audience' thats worth a damn."

Of course, but i'm not talking about a few new fans, even we are not in 1989. As i said on another post, in Milan, Barcelona, Paris and Prague i saw a lot of enthousiastic young people (of course they were new fans) in 2003. I know, you forsee that between 2003 and 2006 the difference will be huge (more expensive tickets). But for the time being this is a forcast, not a fact. Maybe you're right, maybe not. We will see.


(b) "These days the Stones are more likely to lose fans due to death and old age than attract new ones"

Come on Gazza, you speak as if the avarage age of a typical Stones stadium's audience is 55-60 years old. Don't exaggerate.

I've personally known of quite a few more Stones fans who have died in the last 3-4 years or who have become too infirm to go to concerts anymore than I've known younger fans who are getting into the band for the first time, so in all honesty I'm NOT exaggerating

I think the age factor depends on where you see the band. You live in Greece, if my memory is correct, so as they've only played there once since 1967 there would still be a novelty factor for younger fans in seeing them, which is great. In the 4 cities youve mentioned, the tickets were a LOT cheaper (which benefits younger audiences) on the last tour than they were in the US and UK, which is where I saw them - from my experience in those countries (especially the US), trust me, the audience is getting a LOT older from one tour to the next. When the band are selling tickets for shows on an 'all seated' basis, that tells you all you need to know.

The Stones are playing A.dam Arena two shows because somebody put the dollars on the table to pay for these shows up front. Everybody is saying they sold slowly but so far NOBODY is coming up with any official sales figures saying the 2nd A.dam show is not 75% or more sold out. I am pretty sure they are both more or less well sold. And within 6 months time I am sure they will sell the rest. The fact that anybody can pick up a few stray tickets does not mean it is not sold at all.

The Amsterdam ArenA is a well working venue business wise, where they are selling tons of Grolsh beer hot dogs and other catering. The big business people don't care what people say about acoustics as long as people are willing to buy the tickets. And next summer I am pretty sure there will be two full houses for the Stones. If it takes a local band to sell the remaining 10,000 tickets well what so they can pay the band a lot and it will be a full house. And I am sure it's a big difference for the A.dam city if there are 100,000 people going through A.dam, or if the party is in Rotterdam only.

Bjornulf

iFox Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks Gazza :-)
>
> You are right the UK seems to have expensive
> tickets, but there are seats like in the US or do
> you stand?

The UK shows are all-seated, unlike everywhere else in Europe. Only excuse for this seems to be to ensure they can charge higher prices, because there is no law in the UK or at any of the stadiums theyre playing that forbid general admission
>
> I used to live in Japan however it was very
> difficult for me to go for any show there. All the
> tickets were sold out too quickly!!!

I guess the fact that they seem to be playing 8 (?) shows there with quite reasonable ticket prices is a way of ensuring that the concerts sell very fast again.