TICKETS FOR U2’s third and final concert in Dublin this summer failed to sell out yesterday, in marked contrast to the rapid sale of all tickets for their opening two nights here in July.
Some 164,000 tickets for the band’s first Irish concerts in their U2 360 tour, on July 24th and 25th at Croke Park, went on sale a fortnight ago and sold out in about two hours.
Last week the band announced a third date, Monday July 27th, and tickets went on sale at 8am yesterday amid anticipation tickets would be snapped up by 10am.
Though the cheapest tickets – priced at €33.60 and €59.80 – for the pitch were sold out by 10.30am, tickets for premium-level seats in the Hogan and Cusack stands remained unsold last night. Six seats together for the Hogan Stand, priced at €91.50 each, could still be had at 10pm.
A spokesman for MCD, who are producing the gigs in conjunction with Live Nation, last night said the tickets were “selling very well”.
DJ and long-time U2 devotee Dave Fanning said yesterday he did not think U2 would be “losing any sleep” over the slower sales.
“I imagine they will be all sold by the weekend and when you think about it, to have sold 250,000 tickets – that’s a quarter of a million – for up to €131 each, to stand in a field in Ireland and see a band of over-40 year-olds, I think that is phenomenal.”
He said the band, if they continued touring into 2010, could be the first to have concert ticket sales for a tour totalling half a billion dollars.
“Will they or MCD be losing sleep over this one gig not selling out in two hours? I don’t think so. If they sell out this third concert here in a week it’s remarkable.”
The band’s latest album No Line On The Horizon is number one in the European top 100 albums this week. It sold 484,000 copies in its first week in the United States.
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