Billboard mid-year tour report: Three Aus promoters, five venues, make Top 10

In Billboard magazine’s mid-year global touring report, Australian promoters and venues continued to make their presence felt. The period ranked was between November 12, 2014 and June 2, 2015.

Frontier Touring, which also lead in the recent Pollstar mid-year, is ranked at #3 after grossing US$99.4 million from selling 895,529 tickets for 99 shows in the first half of 2015.

Dainty Group was at #7, with a gross of $45.5 million, after 34 dates shifted 381,321 tickets.

At #10 was Nine Lives, whose ticket sales of 240,516 for 11 shows gave it a gross of $26 million.

As with the Pollstar list, it’s hard to know how Live Nation Australasia did. Its figures were included in its parent company’s report, which topped the list with $444 million gross, 5.6 million tickets and 781 shows.

Five Australian venues also made the list.

In the world’s Top 10 venues with over 15,000 capacity, there were two local rankings. Melbourne’s 16,820-capacity Rod Laver Arena was #5 after grossing $36.3 million from 366,450 tickets to 35 shows in the period. It was beaten in the list by London’s O2 Arena, Manchester Arena, New York’s Madison Square Gardens and LA’s The Forum.

Sydney’s 21,000-capacity Allphones Arena ranked #7. It grossed $30.6 million after 28 shows drew 272,4013 patrons.

Three venues made it into the 10,001 to 15,000 capacity list. The 13,500-capacity Brisbane Entertainment Centre was at #2, grossing $25 million from 2145,805 attending 33 shows.

At #5 was the Qantas Credit Union Arena whose 187,885 attendance for 33 shows gave it a $15.7 million.

Right behind, at #6 with a $14.5 million take was Perth Arena, which drew 144, 471 people to 16 events there.

Of the top grossing tours, One Direction won by a clear mile, with a $81.2 million gross and selling 777,828 to 29 dates. Their opening act was Sydney’s 5 Seconds of Summer.

They were almost double of Foo Fighters who grossed $44.5 million. The rest on the list were Katy Perry ($41.7 million), Fleetwood Mac ($39.4 million), The Rolling Stones ($38.1 million), Neil Diamond ($35.1 million), Eric Church ($26.6 million), Billy Joel ($28.2 million), Justin Timberlake ($27.9 million) and Kenny Chesney ($24.3 million) rounding off the Top 10.

One Direction also won the biggest gross from a single show (or single run of shows). A four-night stint at Saltama Super Arena in Japan drew 120,328 fans, and added $17.8 million to their coffers.

Image: Foo Fighters' crowd in Adelaide
Source: Frontier TouringFacebook