The Dave Matthews Band and Creed joined Cher, the Rolling Stones and other veteran pop stars last year in driving up North American concert ticket sales to a record $2.1 billion, thanks to fans who shelled out up to $350 each for prime seats.
Ticket prices for the top 100 acts averaged $46.56 in 2002, a 6 percent increase over 2001’s $43.86 average, reported concert trade publication Pollstar, which noted that the biggest acts charged sky-high prices for their shows.
Paul McCartney, the top grosser with $103.3 million, charged an average of $129.92 per ticket to shows on his first tour in nine years.
The Dave Matthews Band was fifth with $60.1 million. The band’s average ticket was a relative bargain at just $39.84. The group was also the most popular in terms of number of tickets sold, with more than 1.5 million fans paying to see their 77 shows.
So why the big increase?
Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said greedy rock stars are crippling the industry by demanding hefty guarantees from promoters, which results in high ticket prices and many empty seats.
“It would be difficult to find an industry insider who could pronounce overall business as healthy,” he said.
The gross figures do not include merchandising sales, where rock stars earn a mint from such costly souvenirs as $35 T-shirts and $10 flashing buttons.
In contrast to the Chicago area’s United Center, Allstate Arena or the Tweeter Center, where ticket prices often reach triple digits for the best seats, smaller venues in the area are reluctant to charge more than $20 or $25 for top shows.
From 1996 to 2001, concert ticket prices shot up 61 percent nationally, compared with only 24 percent for movie, sports and theater tickets, according to a study by Princeton University economics professor Alan Krueger. The Consumer Price Index measure of inflation, in contrast, rose just 13 percent in that time period.
Krueger suggests the higher prices may have something to do with the popularity of downloading music for free from the Internet. Artists seek to make up the lost record sales by charging higher ticket prices, he says.
Steve Jones, a communications professor and pop music expert from the University of Illinois at Chicago, disagrees. Artists are simply tapping the deep pockets of middle-age fans who want to see such acts as McCartney and the Stones, he says.
Better call Brinks
The Top 10 grossing tours of 2002:
ARTIST AVG.* GRS
Paul McCartney $129.92 $103.3**
Rolling Stones 119.20 87.9
Cher 71.89 73.6
Billy Joel and Elton John 107.88 65.5
Dave Matthews 39.84 60.1
Bruce Springsteen 71.84 42.6
Aerosmith 49.95 41.4
Creed 41.12 39.2
Neil Diamond 55.31 36.5
Eagles 89.89 34.5
*AVERAGE TICKET PRICE
** IN MILLIONS
SOURCE: POLLSTAR
