Im hearing there are many many tickets left unsold, for the u2 residency in Vegas. A huge part of me wants the whole thing to be a massive flop. It will be a real poke in the eye for all the greedy people, behind this run of shows. I include the band in this, as they played their part in the money grab. (it saddens me to say that)
Do you think we might have another London Wembley, Zoo TV scenario here, where tickets might well end up being given away, coz there isnt enough interest, for whatever reason (most likely the extortionate prices)?
I never anticipated that U2 would play more than 10 shows in Las Vegas at a 20,000 capacity arena. The 360 tour did one show to 42,213 people in Las Vegas. So doing 10 shows for a total of 200,000 tickets sold would seem to be the edge of what they could do.
Instead, there has been enough demand for them to book 25 shows at the 20,000 capacity arena in Las Vegas. That is 500,000 tickets if every ticket is sold over the course of 25 shows.
Its one think to do lots of repeat business in a theater that only holds 2,000 people or 4,000 people. But 25 shows in the same city at 20,000 people per night is unheard of.
For Michael Jackson's FINAL shows, that did not happen because he passed away before the start, there were to be 50 arena sized shows, 20,000 per night, at the O2 in London United Kingdom. That is the closest comparison I can think of given the number of shows, in the same city, with a 20,000 capacity per show.
The Vegas runs that people think of are done in small theaters, NOT 20,000 capacity arenas.
So U2 has already exceeded expectations many times over. I expected 10 shows max. The band started with the assumption they might only be able to do 5 shows. Being able to do 25 shows far exceeds all expectations.
As for unsold tickets, I think in the weeks and days before shows, tickets will come way down in price in order to be sold. They may not end up selling every ticket but they will probably come close. They only book these shows if the demand is there for it, based on the level of sales from previous shows that went on sale for it. So in terms of sales, they are where they want to be and the only question is how much money they can still get for the tickets that have not sold yet.