Slow Advance Ticket Sales Put ALICE COOPER

Slow Advance Ticket Sales Put ALICE COOPER's Newfoundland Concert In Jeopardy

The following story is courtesy of Gary Kean from The Western Star:


The ALICE COOPER concert set for Corner Brook, Newfoundland on October 22 is still a go, but after Tuesday it might be 'No More Mr. Nice Guy'.

The shock rock legend, renowned for his theatrical performances, is scheduled to play the Pepsi Centre next month, but slow advance ticket sales are putting the show on thin ice.

According to Will Smith, the Pepsi Centre’s general manager, the concert’s promoters will likely be reviewing advance ticket sales Tuesday. If they have not improved, Smith said the plug could be pulled on Corner Brook — the last Canadian stop on the Psycho Drama Tour before it hits the United States and Europe.

“The promoter is questioning whether or not to go on with the show,” said Smith. “My recommendation to anyone in Corner Brook who’s interested or sitting on the fence about going to see Alice Cooper, they need to come in and buy tickets. If tickets sales haven’t picked up by next Tuesday, the promoters could decide they are not going to go ahead with it. If they see a big bump in tick sales heading into Tuesday, that decision might be swayed.”

Smith said the promoter is already bound to paying Alice Cooper a fee for the Corner Brook date. However, cancelling the show could save the promoters all the incremental costs associated with actually staging the concert, including items like transportation, labour and accommodations costs for the artist and crew.

“The promoters base that decision almost exclusively on advance ticket sales,” said Smith.

Corner Brook’s reputation for slow advance ticket sales is notorious amongst concert promoters, which Smith said is a relatively small circle of people in regular contact with each other about concert trends. Corner Brook’s only saving grace is its 4,000-seat venue which is not in direct competition with the nearest, larger centres such as St. John’s, Sydney or Halifax.

If a show is rolling through the area and the tour dates allow, Corner Brook is regularly identified as a possible stop. However, the traditional laggard pace of advance ticket sales in the city is always a red flag when those opportunities arise.

“There’s an expectation here that you can just walk up to the box office 10 minutes before the show and buy a ticket,” said Smith.

“That’s a challenge for the promoters and it makes them concerned about the Corner Brook marketplace.

“More often than not, we have good ticket sales at the end of the day, but we have really lackluster ticket sales leading up to the show and it becomes very difficult to get a read on what’s going to take place in Corner Brook.”

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