BIZARRE assortment of objects has been built at the Sam Boyd sports stadium in Las Vegas for the latest U2 world tour. The collection includes the world's biggest video screen and a giant lemon shaped disco mirrorball.
Over the next year or so, these objects will be hauled around the world, together with 22 miles of cable and 100 strobe lights, on PopMart, the latest tour by U2 which started in Las Vegas on Friday.
Staging an elaborate show is, essential if U2 is to match the $100 million plus ticket sales of ZooTV, its last global tour five years ago.
Unlike the Rolling Stones, one of the few other bands capable of generating as much tour revenue, U2 refuses to accept sponsorship and has had to find other ways of reducing its touring costs.
Over the years, U2 has had plenty approaches from prospective sponsors, but has declined "on principle", according to Paul McGuinness, the band's manager.
In the long term, U2 would perhaps lose out financially by accepting sponsorship, which might damage its image and alienate young record buyers. But in the short term, the band is depriving itself of an opportunity to reduce the $60 million cost of taking PopMart around the world.
U2 could expect to raise $10 million from a single deal with a mainstream advertiser such as Volkswagen, sponsor of the Rolling Stones, or PepsiCo, which has backed Tina Turner's tours.
The spiralling cost of world tours deters most rock acts. Another deterrent is that the popularity of huge stadium events seems to be dwindling.
The North American tour market peaked in 1994 when $1.02 billion of tickets were sold, but fell to $743 million in 1995 and $744 million in 1996, according to Pollstar, the trade magazine.
That decline was partly attributable to younger bands charging less than older acts, notably the Eagles, the 1970s Californian rock group whose 1994 comeback tickets cost up to $100 each.
Another factor was that fewer high profile acts have toured recently. The highest grossing North American tour of 1996 was that of Kiss, another 1970s superstar act attempting a comeback. It sold $44 million worth of tickets, against $121 million for the Rolling Stones in 1994.
The market has also suffered from the demise of the Grateful Dead, the 1960s hippy band that relentlessly toured the US until the 1995 death of Jerry Garcia, its lead singer.
Many young acts now prefer to stage "packaged tours" with other artists, rather than risk touring on their own.
The Chemical Brothers, Prodigy and Underworld will headline a 20 date US tour of British dance bands this summer; while Neil Young will lead the HORDE tour of alternative US rock groups.
Yet a world tour is an essential marketing tool for a superstar act like U2, which intends to sustain its success.
"There's a pact between a band and its fans," according to Mr McGuinness. "The band has to deliver great records, and the chance to see them play live.
U2 was also aware that sales of recent albums by R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, two of the few acts of its stature, have fallen below expectations. Neither band toured to promote their albums as they did for previous releases.
Hence U2 decided to mount a 40 country PopMart tour to promote its Pop album, which came out last month.
Given its reluctance to accept sponsorship, the group needed to explore other avenues to offset its overheads.
ZooTV barely broke even on its $100 million plus ticket sales, and U2 only made a profit by selling $30 million worth of T shirts and other merchandise.
Yet merchandising is an unreliable source of revenue, particularly as piracy is rife in southern Europe and Latin America. Paul McGuinness says that, for PopMart, U2 was determined to make a profit from both merchandise and tickets.
The band began by raising ticket prices from about $33 for ZooTV to $50 for PopMart, which is double this year's average US ticket price of $22.50, but well below the Eagles $100.
U2 then extended the reciprocity agreements with various media organisations it had negotiated for previous tours.
Although the sums involved in tour sponsorship often sound substantial, most of the money goes on advertising, featuring the band and sponsor, rather than on cash contributions.
U2 has found partners in other media, such as The Irish Times and Network 2 in Ireland, and M6 TV and the NRJ radio station in France.
It also plans to move into a new medium by launching a U2 Web site, which will be funded and run by an on line service provider during the tour in return for advertising credits.
Paul McGuinness sees these media deals as a way for U2 to reduce touring costs without compromising its credibility.
So far the response to PopMart has been fairly encouraging. Nearly 1.5 million tickets were sold in North America before PopMart began, against 1.8 million for the entire ZooTV tour.
