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Gigs & Festivals Top Stories
U2 bigger than the Pope
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 30 September 2009
U2 have broken the attendance record at New Jersey’s Giants Stadium, previously set by Pope John Paul II in 1995, cramming 84,000 people into the venue.
As previously reported when the band broke the attendance record at Wembley Stadium in August, these record breaking achievements are all thanks to their 360 degree stage, which gives a view of the band from all angles, and allows promoters to sell tickets for all seats (rather than having to leave the seats behind the stage empty). With regards the latest broken record, it seems unlikely anyone will get a chance to beat it because the Giants Stadium is soon to be demolished.
After announcing that the band had broken every attendance record ever set in the stadium, Bono added: “I know they’re knocking this place down. We probably won’t be here again before the wrecking ball but it was a magic place for us as well as the Giants”.
In other U2 tour news, the band’s manager Paul McGuiness has revealed that the tour may not actually make a profit, and has not yet broken even. He told BBC 6music that, while they had generated €205m in ticket sales to date, it was costing more than €500,000 a day to keep it running (no word on how much of that was the band’s fee). And that, presumably, is before you factor in the high cost of building the 360 degree stage unit. However, all the band’s touring activity this year and next is expected to generate around €1 billion, and I can’t help feeling the project’s backers will do alright in the end.
