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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowEditor’s note from Oct. 17, 2024: As Indianapolis prepares for Taylor Swift’s Era Tour, to be hosted Nov. 1-3 at Lucas Oil Stadium, we wanted to make available this edition of the IBJ Podcast from a year ago that tells the story of how Indianapolis was able to land the tour dates. Enjoy!
When people say Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour could have a seismic impact on Indianapolis during its three-show gig next year, that’s not just a figure of speech. When Swift performed in July at Seattle’s Lumen Field, the show generated seismic activity similar to that of a magnitude 2.3 earthquake, thanks to a combination of the sound system and the dancing and cheering of fans.
When the Indy shows take place in November 2024, Swift’s local fan base will have waited more than a year and a half to see the music event of the decade, since Indianapolis wasn’t on the list of cities for the tour’s first pass through America. There’s no question whether the three shows will break the attendance record for concerts at Lucas Oil Stadium, which Swift herself set during her previous tour. Everything about this show is huge, starting with the complex stage and set pieces that require 90 semis to transport.
In this week’s edition of the podcast, Eric Neuburger, the director of Lucas Oil Stadium, fills us in on the negotiations that led to landing the tour in Indianapolis. To fully appreciate the relationship that brought Taylor to town, you’d have to go all the way back to 2008 and the first concert ever staged in the stadium. Looking ahead, Neuburger discusses the advance work required to prepare for the shows, the questions that still need answers and the staff of more than 2,000 people that will be required to stage and host each concert.
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Fail – should’ve booked IMS late summer/early Fall. Sold the infield, sold the grandstands, put up giant screens on trucks on the track – and then break the record for largest concert in the US ever (btw – its 107k in 1977 by The Grateful Dead). Big time miss.
There definitely would have been demand for something like that too. It appears like tickets for all three shows are gone with the initial presale that happened Friday, some of which went to scalpers who have already listed them for thousands of dollars on third–party sites. Ticketmaster could cancel tickets that are exchanged but they won’t because they love the money they get from exchange fees.
Agree it wasn’t a pre-sale for fans, it was a pre-sale for scalpers. I would be interested in knowing how many of the tickets sold were to people living within 250 miles of Indy. This years tour proved that TS ticket sales are essentially an IPO with a guaranteed return. Most tickets will be re-sold to real fans at exorbitant prices. Shame that greed and price gouging has taken over her tour.