Irish rock band U2’s upcoming concerts in Gothenburg is a money-spinning business for the Swedish city, generating hundreds of millions of kronor from visiting rock fans.
U2 is returning to Gothenburg, the second-largest city in Sweden, and some 110,000 people will visit the two concerts (31 July, 1 August) at the Ullevi Stadium.
According to American music trade magazine Billboard, total income from the U2 360 Tour, that’s currently traveling in Europe, is expected to exceed 3 billion kronor (€275 million, $400 million). That gives the Irish band the opportunity to beat Rolling Stones’ previous record of 3.3 billion kronor set in 2006.
Live Nation, the tour promotor, won’t reveal how much the two concerts in Gothenburg generates in terms of money, but according to daily Dagens Nyheter the income just from ticket sales would be around 70 million kronor.
The concerts are also good business for the city as most of the visitors arrives from other parts of the country and other countries. Tourist promoter Göteborg & Co and analysis firm QNB said that the city is expected to land 200 – 250 million kronor from the tourists. Every visitor spends some 1,500 kronor a day on restaurants, hotels and shopping.
“The average age is a bit higher on U2 concerts and so the visitors have more money to spend”, said Tobias Nielsén, economist at QNB, to Dagens Nyheter.
However, U2 and lead singer Bono’s ambitions to fight poverty and save the environment has came under question after it emerged that the tour have a carbon footprint big enough to fly the band to Mars and back, not the last because the band members clock up an far-fetched 70,000 air miles in their private jet and criss-cross the globe with their 390-tonne stages, along with 200 crew and backstage staff.
“The carbon footprint generated by U2’s 44 concerts this year is equal to carbon created by the four band members travelling the 34.125 million miles from Earth to Mars in a passenger plane”, Carbonfootprint.com’s environment consultant Helen Roberts said to The Independent.
[U2 360° Tour stage in Barcelona]
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