Timing Keeps Elton, Billy Show Out of L.A.

Why is the Elton John/Billy Joel stadium tour skipping Los Angeles for the second year in a row?

Has John--who has performed here dozens of times since making his U.S. debut at the Troubadour in 1970--tired of the city?

Not at all, according to John’s tour producer Connie Pappas Hillman. Prior commitments last year prevented the duo’s hugely successful $47- million tour from staying on the road long enough to reach Los Angeles, she said.

The reason for playing San Diego’s 51,000-seat Jack Murphy Stadium on March 22 this trip rather than Los Angeles? Timing.

“Everything just pointed this time to San Diego,” Hillman said Friday.

That, she says, is because the weather in March is more favorable historically in San Diego than Los Angeles--and there was no time to return to Southern California in case of a rain-out. In addition, John hasn’t played San Diego in 11 years, while he has played numerous dates in Los Angeles in the ‘90s. John, too, may play Los Angeles later in the year in support of his upcoming album, “Made in England.”

Besides San Diego, where tickets go on sale today at 10 a.m., the John-Joel tour will also stop March 24-25 at the 12,500-seat MGM Grand Arena.

“We did the same thing with the Stones, and it was very special,” said Barry Fey, promoter of the Vegas dates, where tickets are already on sale. “When you take a stadium show and move it inside with all that production, it’s amazing.”