Rolling Stones Top Concert Draw in 1997

The Rolling Stones raked in $89.3 million on its “Bridges to Babylon” tour this year, making it the top concert draw of 1997. Consumers spent $1.3 billion on concerts in 1997, the second-best year ever, but it was more an indication of rising ticket prices than a healthy industry, the concert business trade publication Pollstar said. The group sold more than 1.5 million tickets, Pollstar said. Second-place U2 actually sold more tickets, nearly 1.7 million. But U2 also played to a lot of empty seats, particularly on the second leg of its Popmart tour, which competed against the Stones, Editor Gary Bongiovanni said. Most tickets for the Stones and U2 cost about $60 and ranged even higher for third-place Fleetwood Mac. The best business year for the concert industry remains 1994, when $1.4 billion worth of tickets were sold.