Official September 24, 2010 - Foro Sol, Mexico City thread

I don't trust these figures They even report lots of US shows sold out when tkts
will still available on the day of the shows

To clarify though, attendance is NOT a percentage, it is an exact figure that is determined at the end of the show by the venue and tour accountants. It's an audited figure. Tickets sold is also not a percentage. The only percentage is the "sell out" figure which will change from band to band and promoter to promoter.

I got that, attendance is not a percentage, tickets sold is not a percentage, but it's the same to me. I only care that they had let's say...60.000 seat capacity, they put 40.000 tickets for sale (because of the stage set up), and they sold them all.

Then there is no need for percentages, for what this promoter considers or that promoter considers, not what it's reported, not what people want to believe. I understand it is how this part of the industry works, so I have no use for it.

Yes, the percentage used to determine sell out is industry wide and has been used consistently in touring for nearly 40 years.

this is the problem ... they report all tickets sold while they were empty for example for a large part on some of the O2 shows .. and they said the same number of tickets were sold for all the dates .... all this is major BS not sure how we can proove it though


you take a picture of the venue WHEN JOVI WAS ON and see the empty seats BUT AS LON AS BILLBOARD THE ALMIGHTY ANNOUNCE ALL TICKETS SOLD were are forced to shut up ... even the south american stadium had empty areas on the side at the top it's was obvious on some photos from rio or maybe it was sao paulo or buenos aires
this tour for me the band management along with the promoters showed that they publish numbers that are fake (meaning NOT fitting with the reality) .. period
all this is about how to PLAY and make MONEY MOVES with sales
.....maybe the band and promoter BUY THEMSELVES THE REMAINING TICKETS for a very tiny money to announce the sold out thing .. maybe to do that cost them way less than not selling them at all .. at the last minutes the managment buy the not sold tickets very cheap and they announce sold out it would then explain why they said the same sold out for the 12 dates at the O2

(at the o2 one date was very poorly sold but minutes before the band hit the satge we couldnt buy tickets at all it showed them all sold at the box office this is definitely not normal and I think it's because the tickets were sold back to the band for cheap not for having a butt on the seats but to announce sold out )

I don't remember that attendance for each O2 show was listed as the same but I never save that info. The one thing you have to consider is the secondary market. Once scalpers buy tickets they are considered sold. So, if there are a ton of tickets unsold on the secondary market then that would explain a lot of empty seats but those tickets do go down as sold, as they should.

Tickets that the scalpers bought and didn't sell, show up as empty seats at the stadiums of course, but they are sold. When claiming the venue had many empty seats, a percentage could be those unsold broker tickets, so this should be considered as minute as it could be.

To me is worse, and I don't care for how many years is the "procedure", or how many artists do it, it's deceiving in all accounts, to sale tickets at discounted prices, the 2 for 1, the freebies to general public, etc... so those tickets/seats can be counted in the (I guess very important just to get accolades) reports.

But, reporting "gross" revenue as measure of success is not just done in the touring industry but for ALL businesses. All companies have a profit and loss statement that indicates gross sales, discounts and net sales. Rarely, if ever, is the discounts line so large that it taints the gross sales figure.

Duh! I should have noticed your board name earlier, LOL

Still, with no disrespect to you or your profession, I find this type of info useless