Year End: Tina Turner’s farewell tour pulls in the year’s top gross

In a year that brought welcome evidence that ticket prices had leveled after two years of significant increases, the legendary Tina Turner bested some popular acts that were a third of her age to log the top-grossing North American concert tour of 2000, according to two concert industry publications.

Turner, 61, spent most of 2000 traversing the world on what she said was her "final big stadium rock tour." According to Pollstar magazine statistics, the goodbye paid off handsomely, grossing $80.2 million from 95 North American shows. Amusement Business magazine--whose statistics include shows outside North America (and which has a slightly different reporting period)--pegged the tour's worldwide take at $108.8 million for the year.

Boy group 'NSync, which spent much of 1999 embroiled in lawsuits with its former management and label, emerged as an even stronger act in 2000. Besides releasing the year's top-selling album, "No Strings Attached" (Jive), 'NSync also grossed $76.4 million on the concert circuit, enough to earn the group the No. 2 slot on Pollstar's year-end chart. The group grossed $51.5 million on the concert circuit in 1999, according to Pollstar.

Charting at No. 3 on the Pollstar chart was Dave Matthews Band, which grossed $68.2 million in 2000, an increase of nearly $10 million over the band's 1999 concert take.

KISS, which is still in the midst of an open-ended "farewell tour," charted at No. 4 on the Pollstar chart. The foursome worked hard for the honor, however, playing 128 North American shows during the year.

While other acts had grueling tour schedules in 2000, Barbra Streisand grossed $27 million from just four shows. The average price to see one of Streisand's "farewell" shows was more than $470, Pollstar reported.

Fans snapped up a record $1.7 billion in concert tickets in 2000, up from 1999's record l $1.5 billion, according to Pollstar.

Country comeback?

Live country music--which experienced a 16% concert gross decline in 1999--came back strong in 2000. Led by the successful tours of Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, Dixie Chicks, and the venerable George Strait Country Music Festival, country music grosses increased 38% over 1999's numbers, Amusement Business reported.

Dixie Chicks and Tim McGraw were neck-and-neck for honors of the top-grossing country music tour of the year. Pollstar gave the McGraw-Hill tour the edge, calculating their 2000 grosses at $48.8 million to the Dixie Chicks' $44.4 million. Other reports pegged the gross difference at less than $70,000. Those numbers were close enough for Dixie Chicks to issue a tongue-in-cheek press release demanding a recount.

Dixie Chicks were the undisputed winner in the popular vote, however. More fans saw the Chicks on tour in 2000 than saw McGraw and Hill, but McGraw-Hill commanded a higher ticket price.

The George Strait Country Music Festival easily grossed more per show than did any other country tour, pulling in nearly $21 million from just 10 shows. Joining the tour's namesake in 2000 were Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Lee Ann Womack, Mark Chesnutt and Asleep at the Wheel.

Ticket price trends

The average price for a ticket to one of Pollstar's top 50 tours of 2000 was $43.75, a slight tick above 1999's $43.63 average. But the average ticket price jumped more than from 1998 to 1999, an increase of about 30%.

The real price of a ticket, however, was much higher. The box office reports collected by Pollstar and Amusement Business don't factor in taxes, facility fees and ticketing charges, which can, in some cases, add a premium of more than 50% to the price of a ticket. In addition, the statistics don't include tickets sold by brokers, which can be priced exponentially higher.

The year-end charts issued by Pollstar and Amusement Business are compiled from unaudited box office reports, which generally are provided to the publications by concert promoters. That seems to be changing, however. SFX Entertainment, which is the largest concert promotions firm in the world, informed the publications this year that they planned to stop providing the numbers.