As the end of 2010 comes to a close and 2011 is about to begin, I see some good news. First off, the retail experts are claiming this current holiday shopping season will go down as one of the best in years. This is good news for all of us that make a living with the discretionary dollar. If people are willing to splurge a little then maybe this will rub off on the live event & entertainment business.
According to a newspaper article in The Boston Globe, concert promoters/producers are going to lower some concert ticket prices for 2011. I would love to take credit for this since I have bitching about this all year. In truth, I believe that reality kicked in. They realized they can’t continue to charge prices so high that you need to take out a bank loan. This doesn’t work well when banks are not giving out loans that easily. The article also mentioned that promoters were going to try and make more money off tee shirt and other merch sales. Isn’t that how it used to be? When I was a teen and went to concerts, the tickets were $10 bucks and the tee shirt was $15. We built big ass arenas for the volume. Let’s get back to filling the arena and making the money on volume.
Speaking of going to concerts when I was young, did you see the list of the top five grossing concerts for 2010? Besides Lady Gaga, the geezers ruled! Don’t you find that interesting? There could be several reasons including that only people in their 40′s can afford the ticket prices. We better get young people back to buying concert tickets or soon live concerts will be fossils in a museum.
As I mentioned at the top, I really am looking forward to 2011. The New Year shows a lot of promise and I hope all of you will prosper in it.
Have a very happy and healthy New Year!
Tags: concert promoters, concert tee shirts, discretionary dollar, Lady Gaga, lower ticket prices 2011, merch sales, retail sales indicator, sales based on volume, show merchandise, top 5 concerts 2010
