Some now golden-oldies from the 70s who like Journey will have no use for this but I'd bet those losses will be off-set by people in their late 40's who were listening to the Def Leppard/Motley Crue/Poison trio in high school. These bands were at their height in my record store working days and I sold a boatload of records/cassettes/CDs of all of these artist. Def Leppard has two albums that sold over 10 million copies, Motley Crue has four different albums that sold over 4 million copies and Poison has three different albums that sold over 3 million copies. These were big bands.

I also wonder, with ticket prices as they are, if it's perfectly feasible to play stadiums at 70% capacity and still make a financial killing? If the managers do the market research and determine that they can sell 35,000 tickets, does it become more cost effective to play one show at a 50,000 capacity stadium and sell 70% of the tickets or play 2 shows at a 20,000 capacity and sell 87.5% of the tickets for those two shows? I don't have any information regarding this, but with ticket prices as they are these days I'd be willing to bet that stadium tours don't need to be anywhere near 100% capacity for the artists involved to make a big wad of cash. If anyone knows of any article online that would dispute or back-up this theory, please post a link as I'd be interested to read it.

In looking at the biggest grossing tours average attendance and revenue on wikipedia, I'd have to say that pure Stadium tours pull in more money in total, but the numbers are comparable at somewhere between $95 and $110 per attendee either way.

In looking at the costs of a concert, I found a really cool breakdown online showing the costs of a small band 30 day tour. But in looking at those costs, most of them would scale directly to an arena or stadium, and result in a profit margin of about 35% per band. You'd then have to add a venue charge of 12-15% of sales that isn't in the breakdown; I found the charge for Halifax's arena rate card - it did have a fixed rate floor as well)

https://metalinjection.net/its-just-bus ... le-a-night

So the top line revenue depends on how many shows you do, and the non-show related costs mainly depend on the total length of the tour - how many days are you paying the crew that you aren't playing. And that would likely be higher for stadium shows, since set up, tear down, and travel would take longer, leading to fewer shows per week

Ultimately, I think the decision would come down to a bunch of questions about the artists and their music, namely:
- Can your music / stage show scale to fill a stadium, and how much do acoustics matter?
- the loyalty of your fanbase and the ability / opportunity to sell both nights to concert goers (might be 10-15% repeats for some bands like Rush, or Tool)
- upper potential size of your fan base in every market for the tour, because you can't do both stadiums and areans on the same tour leg. Staging is different.
- the comparative fan / industry experience and perception of success of a completely sold out arena tour versus a 75% stadium tour. Empty seats look bad on Youtube
- when do you plan on touring, and what's the weather going to be like? A stadium tour in April is a real risk weatherwise

In the last 15 years, there has been 21 rock concerts at Toronto's Roger's Centre (50K) by 12 different bands.
U2, AC/DC, and Coldplay did multiple nights at the stadium on some of their tours. By one criteria, that makes them the biggest rock bands in the world.
Of the 12 bands to play the stadium, only AC/DC and The Foo Fighters haven't done multiple nights at the Arena; AC/DC only does (did?) stadiums
In the same period, roughly 25 bands have done multiple nights at Scotiabank Arena (20K)
There are 13 bands who have played multiple nights at the arena that haven't gone up to the stadium level.

So ultimately, I have to think that for any number of reasons, artists prefer to do multiple arena nights rather than to go up to the stadium level. Otherwise, more of the bands who are capable of doing multiple nights in arenas would be scaling up.

Video: MÖTLEY CRÜE's VINCE NEIL Falls Off Stage In Tennessee
October 15, 2021.



MÖTLEY CRÜE singer Vince Neil suffered a serious injury when he fell off the stage during his solo band's performance earlier tonight (Friday, October 15) at the Monsters On The Mountain festival at LeConte Center in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

According to Metal Sludge, the incident occurred early into the set — while the group was performing "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)", a CRÜE classic which has been a staple of the singer's solo shows. In fan-filmed video of the episode, which is available below, Vince can be seen encouraging the crowd to clap at the end of the song while taking a step or two forward toward the front left side of the stage before losing his footing and falling off.

According to TMZ, it "turns out there was a small gap between the speaker and the stage that Vince didn't see and he fell through the crevice onto the floor…. His roadie and a security guy helped him get to his feet, and Vince limped away."

A short time later, bassist Dana Strum addressed the crowd about the extent of Neil's injuries, saying: "The truth is Vince fell and broke ribs when he fell. He can't breathe and he's gonna get dealt with medically. Now, that sucks for us, and him. He was so excited to be here. He lives in Tennessee. But he was willing to stick it out and tough it out when the people back here were telling him 'Don't do it.' Let's have one good round of applause, please, for this guy."

According to sources cited by Metal Sludge, Neil was taken away in an ambulance. Monsters On The Mountain event co-host Eddie Trunk later tweeted that Neil is "at hospital now getting care & X Rays."

Vince's band reportedly finished its Monsters On The Mountain set, with guitarist Jeff Blando taking over lead vocal duties.

Last month, Vince revealed that he was trying out a new toning machine in an apparent effort to get in shape for MÖTLEY CRÜE's upcoming "The Stadium Tour". The singer said he was using Emsculpt Neo, a revolutionary new treatment which supposedly builds muscle and reduces fat using both radio frequency and high-intensity electromagnetic energies.

Four months ago, Neil made headlines when he struggled to complete his solo concert at the Boone Iowa River Valley Festival in Boone. Based on fan-filmed video footage of the May 29 gig posted on YouTube, the 60-year-old rocker, who hadn't performed in more than a year and a half due to the COVID-19 pandemic, began losing his voice several songs into his set, which consisted exclusively of CRÜE classics and cover songs previously recorded by the band.

MÖTLEY CRÜE's "The Stadium Tour" with DEF LEPPARD, POISON and JOAN JETT & THE BLACKHEARTS was originally scheduled to take place last summer but ended up being pushed back to 2021, and then to 2022, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Would it be snarky to say his gut probably blocked his view? (Not that I'm immune to that issue.)

After much speculation, the news has been announced that Mick Mars will no longer tour with Mötley Crüe. The guitarist will, however, remain a member of the band. A rep for the Crüe confirmed the news to Variety.

The full statement reads: “Mick Mars, co-founder and lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Mötley Crüe for the past 41 years, has announced today that due to his ongoing painful struggle with Ankylosing Spondylitis (A.S.), he will no longer be able to tour with the band. Mick will continue as a member of the band, but can no longer handle the rigors of the road. A.S. is an extremely painful and crippling degenerative disease, which affects the spine.

While no official word has been given on Mars’ replacement, there has been much speculation, first reported by Metal Sludge, that former Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 will take his place in the band onstage.

Despite a stellar showing on this summer’s The Stadium Tour, Mars, now 71, has long struggled with chronic health conditions, most prominently ankylosing spondylitis. But John 5 appeared to personally squash the rumor when, as reported by MetalSucks, a fan, commenting on an old photo of Mars and John 5, asked the guitarist on social media if was indeed joining Mötley Crüe and he wrote back, “No, just a rumor.”

I have no insider info, but I will point out that John 5 was asked if he was "joining" Motley Crue. The wording could leave the door open for him to tour with them but not actually be a member.

But here's to Mick Mars, an under appreciated guitarist.

John already debunked that, saying it's a rumor.

The Crue should've stayed retired after their 2015 'farewell' tour. This summer, they consistently got the worst press and fan reviews out of all the bands on that stadium tour.

Yep - that's in the part I quoted. I'm just pointing out that he was asked if he was "joining" - it's semantics, but he could fill in w/o joining. But there's also been no official word that he's left Zombie.

Of course, Demi Levato's tour should be over by then, so Nita Strauss may be free...

And I agree - they should have stayed retired (although I didn't buy the announcement then). I kind of had non-buyer's remorse about not going to that "final" tour until I saw the video from it.

“While change is never easy, we accept Mick’s decision to retire from the band due to the challenges with his health. We have watched Mick manage his Ankylosing Spondylitis for decades and he has always managed it with utmost courage and grace. To say ‘enough is enough’ is the ultimate act of courage. Mick’s sound helped define Mötley Crüe from the minute he plugged in his guitar at our very first rehearsal together. The rest, as they say, is history. We’ll continue to honor his musical legacy. We will carry out Mick’s wish and continue to tour the world as planned in 2023. No doubt will it take an absolutely outstanding musician to fill Mick’s shoes so we are grateful that our good friend John 5 has agreed to come on board and join us moving forward. We’ll see you Crüeheads out on the road! Vince, Tommy, & Nikki.”

That’s a bit grandiose sounding - let’s face it, Mars has never been an absolute shredding beast (and to his credit he’s always acknowledged that), so it doesn’t take someone of John 5’s caliber to pull it off. Still, if you’re going to bring someone in might as well go for the best that’s available.