Venue change

[twm]

Official announcement:

AUBURN HILLS SHOW ON NOV. 13: The venue for the November 13 performance at the Palace has been changed to the Fox Theatre in Detroit. Palace ticket holders will be contacted by Ticketmaster for a chance to obtain preferred tickets for the Fox or to obtain a refund. Tickets for the Fox will go on sale to the general public on Friday, October 12.

Local newspaper report:

http://www.freep.com/article/20121008/ENT04/121008074/bob-dylan-palace-fox-theatre-concert?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE

[Love Expresso]

Not a big thing. Krusty tours the US every year for decades now. It is not such a big catastrophe in my eyes that they did have too high expectations and booked a far too big one... Management mistake?

LE

[twm]

Historically, Dylan has often played smaller venues in Detroit itself:

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/events/location/Detroit,%20MI#us/events/location/Detroit%2C%20MI

2012, 2009, 1991, 1990: all Fox Theater : 5000
2005 : 4400
2004 : State Theater: 3000 (though three consecutive nights there)
2001 : Not Cobo Hall but Cobo Arena: 12000
1999: Saint Andrews Hall : 1000 (a "night off" solo in the middle of a tour with Paul Simon playing large venues)
1994: MI State Fair : no idea of capacity or attendance

The Palace of Auburn Hills is near Detroit  (capacity 20700) and he's played there twice:

2006 : supported by The Foo Fighters
1998: supported by (1) Join Mitchell and (2) Dave Alvin and the Guilty Men

I have no idea of the thinking behind the booking but maybe someone thought Dylan plus Mark would do just as well as Dylan plus Foo Fighters. If the venue change was the result of poor ticket sales, then it seems they were wrong.  Equally, the recession has hit Detroit very hard indeed. According to one site I've seen, top price tickets are over $200 each at some of these shows.

I'm pretty sure Dylan has played in the Detroit area, if not Detroit itself, on other tours but I don't have the inclination to go digging around for details just now.

Has Mark played the Palace of Auburn Hills himself before? 

[dmg]

Mark played there before when he was touring with EC in September '88 and in February '92 with DS.

[diremark86]

The Palace holds over 24,000 for a concert. The Fox holds around 5,000. The Van Andel Arena they are playing the night before holds around 12,000. I was shocked when they originally announced the Palace as I thought it was too large myself. No doubt DS could sell it out, but not Mark and Bob. I for one welcome the change (even though I had front row at the Palace). I could be mistaken but I believe Mark last played the Fox on the STP tour (of which I was barely old enough to drive and couldn't attend). Its a great venue, other than its location lol.

[Pottel]

Got Great Memories of Floyd recordings there....

[twm]

As an audience member, I'd go for the smaller venue every time.

I bow to diremark's superior knowledge of the Palace's capacity. I took the 20700 figure from a contemporary source when Dylan last played there. That could have been wrong or it might have been the capacity for the set-up he had at the time. According to Wiki, the 24000 figure applies to set-ups with the stage in the centre and the capacity for end-stage configuration is 23000. Either way, I am stunned that they expected to get anywhere near break-even on ticket sales in (forgive me, diremark) that part of the States. I guess that, on balance, the misjudgement lies more with the local promoter who developed and then put foward the offer to Dylan's management. 

If there is any local  scuttlebutt on the background to this, I'd pleased if you could let us (well, me) know, diremark.

[twm]

http://blogs.windsorstar.com/2012/10/09/dylan-show-moved/

A "reasonable assumption" indeed. If there were any other reason to make the move, they would surely have said so. It's "the dog that didn't bark" logic.

[diremark86]

The only thing I have heard locally is lack of ticket sales. I like to keep a close eye on how things are selling and often search once a day to look for better seats than my own. To the best that I could see, the Palace was only half sold, if that. They released tickets a week after they went on sale. The first 6 rows appear to have been held to sell farther back. A week after the onsale, I ended up getting a 2nd row pair on ticketmaster. A day after that, front row was available, so I bought those too lol. A week prior, during the actual onsale, the best available was around the 20th row. I am very thankful though that they did the transition right. There was a secret presale for previous ticket holders that not even ticketmaster customer service knew about. It was pick your own seats so I could see all that was available. They held nothing back from the previous ticket holders. The entire pit section was available and of course sold, so for anyone hoping to get pit during the regular on sale today, its gone. One of the things that really surprises me about this particular venue change is that they are not owned by the same owner. The owner of the Palace would have had many options of his own venue wise, but instead it went to the Fox. Not that I am complaining. It is the most spectacular venue I have ever stepped foot it.

[ingridswing]

Amsterdam is almost sold out, it's a 17.000 people venue I believe.
Pnly some places left on 2nd ring

[twm]

Thanks for the information and the comment, diremark. Very interesting.  Look for my PM, please.

There are some lovely old theatres in the States (I'm thinking of the Eastman in Rochester, NY as an example) and I'm always pleased when Dylan plays these as they often need the support to keep going. Indeed, Dylan has played some in favour of larger venues simply in order to help them out.