Someone-else Wrote:
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>
> Not sure that’s completely true - albeit not
> logical.

Arenas mean more crew (which equals more travel expenses for the ones that are touring crew), more staff, More security (cost of extra staff and security will often be passed on to the promoter), stages, sound equiptment and lighting rigs have to be brought in in many cases. The cost far outweight that of a theatre where much of that is often already in place.

> Alice Cooper, fir instance, could sell
> out the Manchester Apollo easily and did for years
> - then got the last decade or so he’s played the
> arena, which when I saw him, was all seater (do
> the floor will have maybe a third of standing
> capacity) and top tier curtained off and loads of
> empty seats on the open blocks, do much less than
> half full - yet he booked there again the
> following year so there must be some equations
> based on varying the costs of front rows etc that
> make more money in an ‘empty’ arena than a
> sold out theatre.

Even a curtained off arena (or short hall configurations) will hold 6-10k usually, which is decent enough business. When Sammy is playing the smaller configuration and then selling less than 50% of that, then arenas are not making financial sense to anyone. You also have to take into account the Artist Fee etc.

Alice is also likely to be part of a much larger tour of Uk and European shows, which means that it's easier to make up a small loss or break even on the odd show on other shows that are fuller. When Sammy was coming all the way over from the US to the UK for 3 shows, half full short hall arenas are just not viable.

> Arenas also look at total
> tickets sold over a year - a half empty venue is
> still better than one that isn’t used and the
> total over the season affects sponsorship on the
> hoardings, how much the bar/food franchises can be
> sold for that a theatre doesn’t always have.

It's the promoter that will decide if the gig will go ahead or not. The venue get no say in that. If the promoter isn't making money the gig will get pulled. If the promoter doesn't think they can sell enough tickets to make a profit in an arena, they will book a smaller venue. They don't consider the venues sponsorship when booking gigs. Why would they? It's all about their own bottom line.

Thinny



Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 04/22/2026 08:12AM by thinny.