I was looking at flying to New York to see the show in 2006 and I could pull tickets, in sets of two, on Ticketmaster for a week leading up to the show. I was getting anything from Upper Bowl to Side Stage. The timing just didn't work out for me.
I also remember fan reviews stating there was a smattering of empty seats around.
Of course, I'm sure it was 95+ percent sold and I'm not even sure how to go about "proving" this fact, but nevertheless tickets were readily available, albeit in minute quantities. No big deal.
The empty seats argument holds no weight because when referring to sales, you are talking about PAID attendance, not actual attendance. So the # of empty seats is not reflective of sales, necessarily.
Again, as Jarmo and I just said, more tickets are often released as the date of a show approaches. Hence, your ability to get seats in the week leading up to the show.
Ali
And don't forget that many tickets go unsold through Ebay and StubHub that were "sold" already. I've been to many events that were sold out where there were lots of seats empty due to the scalpers being unable to unload their tickets at the last minute.
Yeah, that's very true, dude. In the end, it makes no difference whatsoever to the band or promoter who buys the ticket as long as it is sold. It only matters to the venue because the fewer people that are there, the fewer people that can buy concessions and pay for parking, etc.
Ali
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