Some has said here that The Stones played for half empty arenas during their last leg of the Bigger Bang Tour, due to expencive tickets. Is that really true, or is it just moaning of the usual complainers on this site?

I've heard the Giants Stadium show sept. 27th 2006 was far from sold out. Rubbish, I was there. Could not see one empty spot on the entire stadium.

moaning...........untrue..

Oakland and LA were about 90% full by showtime. I did notice that in LA the seating for the floor had been adjusted from the original layout on Ticketmaster perhaps to make the floor look fuller.

the stadium show in Oakland was better attended than I expected - but it was far from sold out. In a pretty good location in the lower section I found myself as the only one in an entire row of seats, for instance. my guess is that it was about 70% sold.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-29 00:30 by StonesTod.

It's not true. Of the 4 fall leg shows I was at, the only one with noticeable empty seats was in Chicago at Soldier Field on a COLD Chicago night!

No.

Half empty arenas ? Rubbish. The ONLY arena show I'm aware of in which there were still some floor seats available right up to showtime was Atlantic City on 17th November 2006. These were $450 seats which were being sold for $150, and we're talking about maybe a couple of dozen of them right at the very back of the arena floor. Otherwise, there were isolated singles here and there in the tiered seats. I did notice that of those that were available, they went pretty quick. Come showtime however, if you looked around you once you were in there, there really didn't appear to be an empty seat in the house.

The other arena shows I attended were MSG and Albany in the fall of 2005, and those shows were packed, full house. Maybe you're thinking of half empty STADIUMS, but ARENAS ..... no way.

Vegas was filled..altho its a small venue, maybe it averages out, as ticket prices are higher???

Arenas were full (attended Milwaukee show).......only stadium show i went to this year was the infamous Chicago show when it was 33 degrees with a much colder wind chill....loved it. Many many no-shows......which made it easier to move closer to the stage. I really wasn't cold at all. Keith was.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2006-11-29 02:05 by sweet neo con.

triplelicks wrote :
"the only one with noticeable empty seats was in Chicago at Soldier Field on a
COLD Chicago night!"

Exact. The others, filled 85% - 100%.

very very empty arenas all around at every show....from the top of peoples' heads to the cieling you could've fit another 15,000 suspended in air at every show. anyone who says any different just wasn't there or paying attention. jeez.

LOL! winter...a high 5 to you .......^5

The Worst. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've heard the Giants Stadium show sept. 27th 2006
> was far from sold out. Rubbish, I was there. Could
> not see one empty spot on the entire stadium.

I was there and if you noticed up top there was a section or two that were roped off like they were supposed to be empty. However, those sections were full at the show in September 2005 so it wasn't sold out but they made it look like it was meant to be that way.

No- there was some papering as some would call it and a lot of shows that weren't complete sellouts but no "half empty" except maybe the Chicago debacle.

You have to understand that although this forum is filled with great people- there are many people here as well as on the Shidoobe site that like to play the role of "Drama Queen" and greatly exaggerate the number of empty seats.

There were 48,000 for Giants 2006 compared to over 59,000 in 2005. The Pollstar listing for Oakland:

ROLLING STONES/VAN MORRISON
OAKLAND,CA:MCAFEE COLISEUM
11/6/06
28,869 (31,399) 91%
$4,097,143 60.00-400.00

Some reports I read said 42,000 attended. If so, a third of the tickets were given away or not reported as sold.

Los Angeles - it was beautiful weather in the 60's and the longest lines I saw anywhere were at the ticket window so a lot were sold through walk-ups.

AC was def. sold out!

Arenas No- However Stadiums are another Story, Actual Paying Cusotmers for this leg was really bad. They promoter Gave over 10,000 tickets to each show eailsy, some shows they gave more tickets away. I have to hand it to the Promoters they managed to make the Stadiums look full by giving lots of tickets away. There is a differnce between a full stadium and the amount of people that bought tickets. Paying Customers was not good on this leg.

i was at giants stadium and atlantic city and both shows were full

No. That is doomday propeties. People who see rain coming on a sunny day. Most shows in USA were completely sold out and no worries at all.

Bjornulf

Chicago-January- neither show sold out. Upgraded seats the first day. Complained about cameras in my way and was given free upgrades on side of B Stage. I'd say 80-85% full.

Giants was not full, they set up the stage so different from the early shows of the 70's and 80's.

Back then, they sold ALL seats, behind the stage as well. Now, the cut the stadium in half, so a 75,000 seat stadium becomes a 40ish thousand extended arena.

The top of Giants started somewhere between the stage and B stage...gone are the days of the 81 tour of packing the stadiums.

yay! another chance to bash the "usual complainers" . . .

you can't catch me!

The arenas you're talking about WERE NOT helf empty...
They were half full.

Keep in mind - when the media starts bullhorning about poor selling shows or "tickets still available" it probably inspired a lot of people who just assumed they couldn't get tickets to make a last minute decision to go. San Diego 05 also had huge lines at the ticket window. Soldier Field 06 probably would have drawn a much bigger crowd if the weather was better. 26k in presales and 26k in attendance may have been 40-45k in attendance.

Hey Bingo...you are correct.

I was at Giants stadium too...and though people are saying there wasn't an empty seet...it was the way they set it up to look full...

The sold the seats in the back and then around the sides but there were full sections of seats that were in front of the stage with no people...

The first thing I noticed when I got in the stadium was how far up they set up the stage and how much room was behind the stage and the seats...

PECMAN

People told us all the time how "empty" Dodger Satdium would be. Regardless of how ticket sales were and how they filled it up it was totally packet, which is the whole point. If a stadium like Foxboro outside Boston takes 60,000 and they sell 30,000 then it is not a catastrophy because after all 30,000 got to see the Stones, while only 15,000 would have been able to see them if the same show happend at an arena in the city. I would assume 3 out of 4 venues were totally sold out while 1 our of 4 were less sold out which is not a problem really.

They did 21 shows during the Fall Tour in front of some 700,000 people. To avoid any non-sold out shows they could have made it into an arena tour like No Security tour with an average of 15,000 people per show which would give only 300,000 people being able to see them. Don't you guys care about those other 400,000 people who were happoy to see them now because they took the rsik of not selling out each and every venue?

Tell me the name on any other performing artist in the world who would have sold 700,000 tickets at these venues at the price level the Stones did. Then tell me why it is a problem that some venues were npot 100% sold out. And what you - as a much bigger expert on touring than Michael Cohl - would do it better, reaching out to more people with the same income level, which is needed with this tour.

Bjornulf

I don't undertand why people keep whining and whining about this. The majority of shows that had poor attendance were places they already visited recently- not virgin territory. Would U2 and Springsteen sell out every show if they kept visiting the same places over and over and over again.

If the Stones think they can draw 30,000 in an area it is easier for them to do one show at a stadium than to do two at an arena.

SF1, Denver, Las Vegas2 and Las Vegas 3 all seemed sold out to me.

No.