Callin’ Baton Rouge: Garth Brooks’ Tiger Stadium Show Could Be Record Breaking
It is good to be Garth Brooks!
Not only is he the most successful country music artist of all time, there are those who would argue, as far as the financial side of things is concerned, he's the most successful single artist of any music format ever.
That puts him ahead of Elvis and Michael Jackson. Even bigger than Elton John or Madonna.
If memory serves me correctly, he was the first solo artist to ever sell one hundred million records.
And now he is within reach of another record...maybe 2! The oldest 100,000-crowd concert reported to Billboard Boxscore is Grateful Dead's concert at the Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey on September 3, 1977. That show saw an attendance of 107,019 people, which, to date, remains the largest ticketed concert for a solo artist (not a music festival, free event, etc.) in the United States.
As far as records for stadium shows goes (stadium sized venues used by professional sports teams), that record belongs to George Strait. Strait set that record at AT&T Stadium in Dallas back in 2014 with 104,793 fans in attendance.
However, the Garth Brooks Stadium Tour, slated for April 30 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana has already sold 102,000 tickets and currently stands at number 2 behind Strait on the list, with the potential for additional tickets to be sold closer to the concert date. So, this concert could be record breaking on two fronts: It could be largest stadium show in American history and potentially could be the largest ticketed concert for a solo act/band in the US.
According to Dan Fuson of Varnell Enterprises, the concert promoter for this huge Garth extravaganza, who exclusively wrote to Kiss Country says,
Hey Gary! We have officially sold out as of now at 102,000. Once we get into the building in April we might be able to add some more tickets based on the production setup, but I won’t have a specific number until then.
In addition, WBRZ writes
In the past three weeks, Garth Brooks has sold 570,000 tickets in three cities alone.
Stealing a line from the movie "Dumb and Dumber", "so you're telling me there's a chance."
Yes there is a chance. However, it's unlikely there's room for another 5,000 so Grateful Dead's record is probably safe, but it's Garth...and it's Louisiana. Heck, it's LSU for crying out loud, so who knows. That record might soon belong to the Bayou State! And even if he doesn't break the Dead's long standing record, he might be able to take down the stadium record held by George Strait. Either would be an impressive feat.