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Is the GNR Stadium Tour Too Ambitious? - Article by the Wall Street Journal

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KeyserSoze FRONTMAN

KeyserSoze

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-guns-n-roses-summer-stadium-tour-too-ambitious-1467931049

an article talking about the closed sections of seats for the recent venues 

 "The concert run has been “hugely successful,” said Bob Roux, co-president of U.S. concerts for Live Nation, the promoter. Live Nation expects to make a profit—eventually selling 1 million tickets, or roughly 90% of tickets available, he added. Live Nation focuses on the tour’s overall profits, not individual shows, he said. Of the 25 shows, 12 have sold out or are close to it, and Live Nation says it expects to sell out five more. The average ticket price so far is $130. “The band wants to play certain cities,” including Kansas City, Mr. Roux said. “On virtually any tour we do, the larger cities generally outperform those with smaller populations.” In Kansas City, Guns N’ Roses grossed nearly $3.5 million. “No one would ever have believed in my business that you would go into Kansas City and sell out,” said Steve Herman, senior vice president of touring for Live Nation. As for the second day in Chicago, he said that since the first show was a sellout, 71,000 tickets were sold in all, grossing nearly $9 million."

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thunderram Senior

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1 hour ago, Tom-Ass said:

Stadium tour wasn't too ambitious.. The prices are just fucking ridiculous.. End of story.. 

 

Right. It's the ticket prices that are too ambitious. The fact that they expect to sell 90% of all tickets all but proves this. Had the prices been more reasonable and easier to get (w/ not so many good seat held back) during pre and general onsale dates, they would have sold out more than 12 of the 25 shows thus far. I'm willing to bet they would have sold out ALL of them already. I personally know of numerous non-hardcore fans that would have went but balked at the price.

IMO, they can get away with higher prices during presales because that's when a vast majority of the hardcore fans are going to get their tickets. The strategy seems rather simple. Sell the best seats during presales and the during the 1st days of the general sale, then offer the remaining tickets at much more reasonable prices. Most hard core fans are willing to pay a premium for the best seat available. Those that aren't can opt for the cheaper seats. But you'd sell more on the whole because the non-hardcore fans that are on the fence will be much more likely to go at prices between $50 and $100.

That all said, even for the hardcore fans, $1700 for a VIP ticket is downright ludicrous. $350 for GA PIT is just dumb.

I remember when the GA floor tickets were the cheapest you could get.

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Matt13 Senior

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47 minutes ago, thunderram said:

 

Right. It's the ticket prices that are too ambitious. The fact that they expect to sell 90% of all tickets all but proves this. Had the prices been more reasonable and easier to get (w/ not so many good seat held back) during pre and general onsale dates, they would have sold out more than 12 of the 25 shows thus far. I'm willing to bet they would have sold out ALL of them already. I personally know of numerous non-hardcore fans that would have went but balked at the price.

IMO, they can get away with higher prices during presales because that's when a vast majority of the hardcore fans are going to get their tickets. The strategy seems rather simple. Sell the best seats during presales and the during the 1st days of the general sale, then offer the remaining tickets at much more reasonable prices. Most hard core fans are willing to pay a premium for the best seat available. Those that aren't can opt for the cheaper seats. But you'd sell more on the whole because the non-hardcore fans that are on the fence will be much more likely to go at prices between $50 and $100.

That all said, even for the hardcore fans, $1700 for a VIP ticket is downright ludicrous. $350 for GA PIT is just dumb.

I remember when the GA floor tickets were the cheapest you could get.

Put me down as one of those fans.  I'm well-to-do.  A few hundred bucks for me and a guest wouldn't kill me by any means.  I can just think of better ways to spend that money.  Especially knowing that there will eventually be a smaller arena tour where, even if the seats are the same price, I won't be a half mile away from the action in nose-bleeds!  Along with the next tour, a new album would probably be in tow.  

So... no brainer.  Wait until the next tour and get more bang-for-your-buck. 

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sanity_lost DEMI-GOD

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That was a really interesting article. I wonder if the promoters aren't going to turn in Gun's boxscores to Billboard. We haven't seen Mexico City's numbers yet.

 

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Pollstar’s Mr. Bongiovanni said that through June, the band has grossed over $30 million from various dates, including two successful shows at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The current North American stadium tour started June 23.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-guns-n-roses-summer-stadium-tour-too-ambitious-1467931049

Quote

Production costs run roughly $1.6 million -- plus talent costs and an average tax of five to seven percent. With those expenses, it could take a box-office gross of about $4.8 million just to break even, and with an acceptable promoter profit of $300,000-400,000, the gross would have to hit $5.1-5.2 million before the band would get into overage (meaning enough tickets have been sold for the band to receive a percentage of the gross).

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6843087/guns-n-roses-reunion-stadium-tour-per-show-payday (the way back in when it was all rumors article)

Math time! So they grossed probably close to 30 mil over 7 dates (Detroit, DC, KC, Mexico City1, Mexico City2, Las Vegas 1, Las Vegas2). So almost 4.3 mil per show. Which at first glance looks like they probably haven't even hit the breakeven point on the tour (the promoter needs them  to make somewhere around  4.6 per show to cover band fees & production costs). However, we would also have to consider that the Vegas shows were arena shows which costs much, much less for production, and a second night likely costs less again because everything is already set up. In this case the 2nd Mexico CIty show probably cost less than the first to put on.

The promoter is probably just at breakeven point (though I think the Las Vegas show were with a different promoter so maybe not quite yet?)

Most of the Guns best selling shows are still ahead of them so the promoter will probably make a happy little profit, but not as much as they were probably hoping to get.  The second shows are big question marks. Foxborough is probably the absolute worst selling second show..

 

 

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Stress Fracture DEMI-GOD

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The obvious answer is, yes, the number of tickets they hoped to shift at the prices they were asking with the amount of promotion they did was too ambitious, but all things considered I think the tour has been an overall success and hope they learn from their mistakes to make a European one even more so.

Because if they charge the same again, I'll be waiting for reductions or staying at home. I don't really have a choice.

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RussTCB LEGEND

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9 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

Stadium tour wasn't too ambitious.. The prices are just fucking ridiculous.. End of story.. 

This.

Tickets should have been $40 - $150 which would have sold every city and the second dates out in a heartbeat. I think the tour is a success overall, but it could have been HUGE if it was priced right.

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Padme FRONTMAN

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10 hours ago, Tom-Ass said:

Stadium tour wasn't too ambitious.. The prices are just fucking ridiculous.. End of story.. 

I give you an hypotetical. If tomorrow we have official news that Adler and Izzy will play the full show in Seattle. Would you still think the price is ridiculous?

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Tom-Ass FRONTMAN

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1 minute ago, Padme said:

So you would rather miss that show? Well I wouldn't. I mean I would figure out a way to have money avaible for that show.

I didn't say I would miss the show did I? I said that the ticket prices would still be ridiculous. It wasn't about the die hard fans dishing out the money. It is about filling seats.. Tickets to this tour are easy to come by. It isn't a tough ticket to get at all if you want them. That is because of the prices. 

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Padme FRONTMAN

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1 minute ago, Tom-Ass said:

I didn't say I would miss the show did I? I said that the ticket prices would still be ridiculous. It wasn't about the die hard fans dishing out the money. It is about filling seats.. Tickets to this tour are easy to come by. It isn't a tough ticket to get at all if you want them. That is because of the prices. 

I'm not saying the tickets are cheap. For reunion tours of any kind the tickets are expensive.  Sure some reunion tours are more expensive than others. But I was not expecting this reunion tour in particular to be among the cheapest ones. I'm only going to the L.A. shows. I'm not going to more U.S. shows mostly because of product-price relation, not just the price by itself

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milw00kiee Newbie

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I would have paid the ridiculous $$$ to be closer than I was last Friday.  For sure.  Problem comes in when I'm floating the idea to friends who aren't as into guns to come with me.  Which is why we settled on $80 nose bleeds.  Thankfully it was still really awesome up there.  Good sound, good view of the stage, video screens etc.  

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