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| $6 would be $22.30 today |
I
noted earlier this month that Bob Seger’s ticket sales have been soft,
prompting broadcast spots in markets that should sell out quickly. At the time,
the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids was not selling. Now it’s the Palace of Auburn Hills, a huge venue in a Detroit suburb that should be a full house by now for tickets
that went on sale Feb. 16. Not only has he failed to sell out the April 11 show
in Auburn Hills, but Seger has inexplicably added a second show, April 13, for
which tickets go on sale Saturday.
“I
guess ‘sold out’ has a different meaning these days,” someone from the Seger
camp told me in response to the obvious ‘why such slow sales?’ question.
It’s
true. In the big package rock concert these days, half full halls are ok
because service charges, overpriced concessions, parking, merch, and other
extras have marginalized the idea of a sellout.
But
should Seger subject himself to this, or does anyone pay attention anymore to
who can fill what hall? The
suburban crowd can pay $260 a ticket, perhaps, but what about those empty
spaces in the deep rows?
Seger
may well be past playing the barns, and there has to be a point at which
someone tells him this.
“He
may be a senior citizen now, but he plans on delivering what his fans expect:
full-throated singing and hard-driving music,” is the PR written by the Detroit
News in an otherwise
stellar
package on the Seger legacy. I’d
kind of doubt it. Surely a tour in which he plucked from the back pages of the
catalog would be an artistic exercise rather than a tour that caters to the
wealthy and the die-hards. But
then, that wouldn’t sell out either, would it?
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