Busch Stadium Hosts Concert

The Eagles and Dixie Chicks will fly into Busch Stadium this summer.
The classic rockers and country trio will perform June 24, the first concert at the stadium since Dave Matthews Band and the Black Crowes played in 2008.
This is only the second concert for the stadium, which opened in 2006.
St. Louis Cardinals vice president Bill DeWitt III said concerts are the biggest way to drive additional revenue into Busch Stadium.
“It’s a goal of ours to have one big show a year. But it takes two to tango,” DeWitt said.
“If you have more than one stadium show a year you’re doing well,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor of Pollstar. “If you have three or more, you’re doing exceptional.” The stadiums have such a large capacity, they are hard to fill, he added. Giants Stadium in New York is one notable exception.
It takes a special kind of act to book Busch Stadium, DeWitt said. They have to be able to fill the majority of the space and have to be willing to play an outdoor show. But most importantly, “the tour needs to be flexible enough to fit into our baseball season. All those things have to be in place. There just aren’t that many bands out there that fit the bill.”
DeWitt was hoping U2’s show would make its way here, but it turns out it was too big. The stage would have taken up the entire field, which would’ve required complete resodding.
“That became too problemic,” DeWitt said. “We’re about baseball games first.”
Mark Campana, president of the Midwest division of Live Nation, adds that U2 is mostly playing stadiums with over 50,000 capacity. Busch Stadium has a 38,500 capacity for the Eagles show.
“U2 is going into major markets, and as much as I love St. Louis, it’s not considered a major market,” Campana said.
Jimmy Buffett also was considered for a Busch concert, but he preferred amphitheathers over stadiums for this tour. He’s coming to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater next month.
Campana says the success of the Dave Matthews Band show helped pave the way for the Eagles.
“Dave [Matthews] and his band loved the place and fan feedback was that it was a magical night,” Campana said. “It made it easy for us to talk to DeWitt and his team about bringing another event.”

source: Kevin Johnson