With all these arenas, where are the stars?
Don’t be greedy? Or, damn right we’re greedy.
If you read to the end of last week’s column (don’t worry, it’s not a test), I threw out this question: Why are we opening a fancy new arena in April, our fifth, and yet Las Vegas still seems to be missing out on some of the biggest names hitting the road for spring and summer concert tours?
Adele, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Coldplay and a co-billed Sting and Peter Gabriel are all (so far, at least) giving us a miss.
Beyond the five arenas, there’s the Axis at Planet Hollywood, The Pearl at the Palms, Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan, Sam Boyd Stadium, two outdoor festival sites, three concert clubs and the almost-new Craig Ranch Regional Park Amphitheater, which the big promoters were “taking a look at,” Cass Palmer, the parks director for North Las Vegas, said last fall.
“Nobody can say they can’t find a place to play in Las Vegas,” agrees Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar, the touring industry’s trade publication. “You’re facility-rich in that regard.”
And maybe we shouldn’t be real proud of this, but you might remember Las Vegas helped set the trend of paying the acts top dollar and passing down triple-digit ticket prices to fans. Ticket prices around the country caught up and evened this out a bit over the years. But it shouldn’t be forgotten that when we want something, we’re willing to pay for it.
So greed is good, right? With 15 venues representing all seating capacities and configurations, we should be hosting every big tour that hits the road.
Or not.
Bongiovanni points out that each situation is different, especially when you get to the upper tier of stars. Adele is “a worldwide attraction with a tremendous pent-up demand at this point.”
And “Bruce tends to march to his own drummer,” playing some older venues for purely sentimental reasons.
There’s always a chance that some of these stars will loop us into a second tour leg. With Adele, it’s logical to assume she might be saving Las Vegas for a special commitment. And consider this: Some of these shows may be skipping us because they’re worried about the routing of other tours, or resident shows, competing for attention here in town.
We’re our own worst enemy. Sigh.
What’s that? Did someone in Arizona just say “Boo hoo”?
Locals should know that, as Bongiovani puts it, “it’s hard to feel sorry for Las Vegas.”
“Look at how many shows Vegas does have. More than any other city. You are bound to miss a few,” says Danny Zelisko, the Phoenix-based promoter who books concerts into The Pearl.
Tours can logistically slot only so many dates, and AC/DC, for instance, chose it’s Feb. 5 Las Vegas date over Phoenix.
And if Las Vegas locals have to “pop for a trip like the rest of the world,” it will even out traffic on the road to Phoenix, Zelisco adds. The promoter says almost all of the stars with Las Vegas residencies — including Britney Spears, Rod Stewart and Elton John — can’t play Phoenix because their Las Vegas contracts include a geographical range of exclusivity.
One genre we don’t worry about is country. Las Vegas will host two three-day country festivals this year, plus repeat engagements by Garth Brooks and George Strait at the new T-Mobile Arena.
But that could bring another problem: Is there enough to go around?
“How many country superstars are left?” asks Bob Romeo, the chief executive of the Academy of Country Music, which is co-promoting the three-day Party for a Cause at the MGM Resorts Festival Grounds April 1-3.
The Academy has to divvy up acts with the promoters of Route 91 Harvest, which returns for a third year at the south end of the Strip Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Party for a Cause benefits veterans and military families, but the acts are paid.
“If it was just a private festival, then you’d have to weigh what we’re paying them against a casino play or their own promoted building play (in one of the arenas),” Romeo says of headliners Dierks Bentley, Carrie Underwood and Kenny Chesney.
Even so, between the two festivals, “at some point within the next two-year cycle we’ve gone through every headliner,” he says. “And then we’re going to start repeating, because I don’t think the industry will develop enough new headliners.”
It’s up to fans and Nashville labels to see last year’s down-bill acts, such as Thomas Rhett or A Thousand Horses, can grow into 2018’s superstars. Or, as detractors of modern country often suggest, is Nashville becoming a singles-driven, flavor-of-the-month industry?
“At the end of the day, that’s my concern. Do we have enough headliners to service two festivals, plus the building demands in the city of Las Vegas? That’s the million-dollar question,” Romeo says.
In other genres, though, the million-dollar question goes more like this: “We built it. Now are you coming or not?”
— Read more from Mike Weatherford at reviewjournal.com. Contact him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com and follow @Mikeweatherford on Twitter.
