European Tour Sales = Desaster

HK103094 said:

There are probably several reasons why the sale in Europe is so slow.

The delayed announcement of the tour impacts the sale. A lot of things are happening in Europe at the same time as the tour is happening. At the same time, Pearl Jam has toured several times in Europe when for example the European championship has been going on and with other major acts touring at the same time, without impacting their sale. But there is a huge difference in announcing the tour in February compared to December, when it comes to time for people to plan their traveling to the shows. However, I believe that other factors play a larger role in explaining the poor sale.

Firstly, the last European tours have been troubled by uncertainties. Ed´s voice trouble both in 2018 and 2022 left many (particularly traveling fans) worrying about the risk of cancellation happening again. I still remember waking up nervous in Milano in 2018, wondering if the concert would go through. Out of 10 concerts I have seen with Ed, he has had a troubled voice in 2 of them. Things like that happens, and no blame should be assigned for becoming sick, but it might be a factor that people take in when considering spending a lot of money to travel to see them. In addition, I think those places that were cancelled in 2022 should have been on this year´s tour to try to make up for the cancelled shows.

Secondly, I think they might have misunderstood their European market. On average, I believe Pearl Jam is more of a mainstream act in the US and they have a much more diverse fan base. In Europe, they are little more of an alternative band, with die hard fans willing to travel to see them. That might imply that on average, you will have more locals attending the shows in the US, compared to Europe. That might also imply that you have larger rich segment in US going to their concerts, compared to Europe. 

Thirdly, egalitarian values might stand stronger in Europe than in the US. That means perhaps that more fans at their concert might have agreed with the political messages in Europe compared to the US (again, on average). Thus, the backfire from the high prices and dynamic pricing might be stronger in Europe, as people are much more offended by it. I guess a lot of European fans that have been sticking with them their whole life, feels a little betrayed that these tickets now are more for the wealthy than your average fan. It will feel strange to hear songs like green disease, soon forget, do the evolution or dance of the claircoyants on this tour, if they have the courage to play them.

I still love the band and I look forward the concert in London. But to say that the strong love was not a little affected by the way they now are pricing their concerts would be a lie.     

  

drfox said:

pdalowsky said:

rangers72 said:

Better to have a Glasgow show than a second Machester show.A show at the hydro would sell out no problem and after 24 years mabye its time for Scottish show.

In terms of logistics it would just be easier for them not to move the production up north to come down south again, set it up and play two nights in the same venue....winner

The gap between the shows in the U.K. is odd.  Not going to happen but wouldn’t it be great if they could do a 10c only show on the Wednesday or Thursday night at a smaller venue somewhere 

ilockyer said:

Given the rumours were 99% accurate, I believe the plan was two nights at the o2 arena on 28 and 29 June, hence the gap, as it'd have been two clear days between cities which seems to be the minimum in the touring plans now. Either that information was off from the beginning, or something changed that made them decide to switch to the stadium. 

bnewman19 said:

I think that one big thing that has been missed is the difference in average salaries in the UK vs US. A quick Google search says The average salary in the US was around $58,260 in 2021. In the UK, the average salary was around $38,291 when converted to dollars. (10 Jun 2023) The £ is a lot weaker against the dollar these days but ticket prices don’t seem to factor this in.  People just don’t have much disposable income at the moment.  Obviously there a numerous problems with comparing average income between countries as costs and tax etc are massively different, but is does show why people are struggling to justify the price, perhaps people are waiting until closer to the gigs to see how their finances are.

Zen23 said:

pdalowsky said:

On checking London has sold pretty strongly so far. Yes the upper tier across from the stage isnt great but almost all lower level is gone, and the sides are heavily taken on tier 2. Id say thats pretty solid for a stadium show, at the prices in question and with Green day already sold out at Wembley. 

Don't be fooled by the Ticketmaster graphic. As if they had suddenly sold the entire left and right curves in the upper tier overnight. And then with a surgically precise cut along the remaining blue dots. They've taken the outer top corners completely off sale. In order to concentrate on getting the tickets to the people in other areas first. None of this was sold at all.

Zen23 said:

ilockyer said:

Given the rumours were 99% accurate, I believe the plan was two nights at the o2 arena on 28 and 29 June, hence the gap, as it'd have been two clear days between cities which seems to be the minimum in the touring plans now. Either that information was off from the beginning, or something changed that made them decide to switch to the stadium. 

I underline this. I also assume that the 28th and 29th were planned for the O2 Arena. Can't imagine they'd schedule three days off in advance between Manchester and London. I can only think of three reasons.

- They were arrogant enough to think they'd sell out tottenham stadium twice. And still had June 28th as an extra show in secret. We now know that's not going to happen.

- Instead of playing an extra show in London, they chose Manchester as the venue for a second show. Either for June 26th or 27th. But even that won't happen now after the generally poor presales. First of all, they have to do everything they can to fill London on June 29th. And to do that, they first have to push the upper and rear tiers to under 100 euros.

- Third option. They really wanted three days of rest and relaxation between Manchester and London. On the one hand because of the following double concert in Berlin. And secondly because they really believed that London would sell itself easily, even in such a gigantic soccer stadium. 

Spiritual_Chaos said:

Wish I picked London, with Kings of Leon playing the day after  

Was Kings of Leons tour known when PJ had the lottery? Didn't I do my due diligence and focused too much on Dua Lipas tour plans?