Billboard's Top 25 Tours of 2009, #14

[michelej1]

Billboard, 1-22-10, by Bob Allen

http://www.billboard.com/events/hot-...04061184.story

Topping the latest Hot Tours tally is Trans-Siberian Orchestra with box office stats arriving from 17 concerts reported by two promoters. Live Nation checks in with totals from six performances at three venues, with top numbers coming from Van Andel Arena (Jan. 2) in Grand Rapids, Mich. With 21,933 in attendance for two sold out shows, combined box office grosses were $1,042,455. San Antonio-based promoter Stone City Attractions reports over $4.4 million from 11 TSO shows in six arenas. The highest-grossing venue was the 18,500-seat AT&T Center in the promotion company's home town. The San Antonio arena earned $964,827 from two shows on Dec. 26. The updated grosses bring the Orchestra's overall winter tour grosses for both the East and West touring ensembles to $42.6 million to date.

Country star Brad Paisley lands at No. 2 on the Hot Tours list with the first 2010 totals reported from his American Saturday Night Tour that launched last year. Totals from 2009 ranked Paisley among Billboard's top 25 grossing tours of the year. This year's kick-off came at the AT&T Center in San Antonio (Jan. 7), and the top-grosser among the first six reported venues was the Xcel Energy Center (Jan. 16) in St. Paul, Minn. The sold-out concert grossed $759,690 with 13,856 fans in attendance.

Three Andrea Bocelli performances in November have been reported by U.K. promoter Kilimanjaro Live/AEG, ranking the tenor third among the current slate of Hot Tours. Performances at U.K. arenas in Birmingham, Liverpool and Glasgow brought in over $3.4 million (U.S.$) in box office grosses. Seven of Bocelli's fall 2009 concerts have now been reported, producing an overall gross of $10.8 million with over 80,000 tickets sold.

Melbourne, Australia's Rod Laver Arena reports four of the concert tours they hosted last Nov. and Dec., and all four appear on this week's Hot Tours rankings. Fleetwood Mac (Dec. 1-2) is No. 4 with a two-show gross of $2.9 million, and Nickelback ranks fifth based on totals from two shows at the arena on Nov. 16-17. Green Day's two performances on Dec. 14 and 16 land the rock band in the No. 6 spot, and native Aussie Keith Urban rounds out the arena's presence on the Hot Tours list with a performance on Dec. 12 placing him at No. 9.

1 TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA
$6,689,746
Dec. 16-Jan. 3
FedExForum, Memphis (2/0)
CenturyTel Center, Bossier City, La. (1/0)
Verizon Arena, North Little Rock, Ark. (2/0)
Ford Center, Oklahoma City (2/0)
AT&T Center, San Antonio (2/0)
Frank Erwin Center, Austin, Texas (2/0)
Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids, Mich. (2/2)
Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex, Birmingham, Ala. (2/0)
Sommet Center, Nashville (2/0)
152,716 (177,817)

2 BRAD PAISLEY
$3,466,531
Jan. 7-16
AT&T Center, San Antonio (1/0)
Ford Center, Oklahoma City (1/0)
INTRUST Bank Arena, Wichita, Kan. (1/1)
Tyson Events Center, Sioux City, Iowa (1/1)
Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa (1/0)
Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, Minn. (1/1)
64,807 (68,124)

3 ANDREA BOCELLI
$3,455,870
Nov. 4-8
National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, U.K. (1/0)
Echo Arena, Liverpool, U.K. (1/1)
Scottish Exhibition & Conference Centre, Glasgow, U.K. (1/1)
29,014 (29,589)

4 FLEETWOOD MAC
$2,906,690
Dec. 1-2
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (2/0)
21,855 (25,000)

5 NICKELBACK
$1,999,490
Nov. 16-17
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (2/0)
18,124 (24,800)

6 GREEN DAY
$1,723,610
Dec. 14-16
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (2/0)
22,231 (25,000)

7 JEFF FOXWORTHY, BILL ENGVALL, LARRY THE CABLE GUY
$1,644,149
Jan. 7-8
Scotiabank Place, Ottawa (1/0)
Air Canada Centre, Toronto (1/0)
23,386 (30,103)

8 ELTON JOHN
$1,585,873
Jan. 6-9
Neal S. Blaisdell Center, Honolulu (2/2)
13,880 (13,880)



9 KEITH URBAN
$829,222
Dec. 12
Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne (1/0)
10,110 (11,000)

10 ALICE IN CHAINS
$701,369
Nov. 12-Dec. 7
O2 ABC, Glasgow, U.K. (1/1)
O2 Academy, Birmingham, U.K. (1/0)
Academy, Manchester, U.K. (1/1)
The HMV Forum, London (2/1)
Rock City, Nottingham, U.K. (1/1)
O2 Academy Brixton, London (1/0)
17,827 (18,730)