Soldier Field is having a huge weekend. Following the big Oasis concert Thursday night, the much-discussed stadium on the lakefront will host The Lumineers on Friday and My Chemical Romance on Saturday. Two more shows follow: System of a Down and Avenged Sevenfold play Soldier Field on Sunday and Monday.
One reason for the confluence is that it reduces expenses: The bands can share some of the costs of configuring the venue. The Chicago Cubs typically try to do much the same thing for their Wrigley Field concerts. But while one very big Labor Day weekend does not a future make, this Labor Day weekend is a very notable indication of the ongoing viability of Soldier Field, post-Chicago Bears. Especially since the likes of Oasis have a far bigger economic impact than a Bears game, which attracts mostly locals and suburbanites who typically cart in their own tailgating supplies.
Consider the Oasis show Thursday night: The closest other city for Midwest fans of the famously fractious Manchester, U.K., band to see them in person was Toronto. When Oasis played in Dublin, Ireland, earlier this month, the audience numbered 160,000 during the two nights; that suggests the band could have sold out three or more nights at Soldier Field without any problem. This level of “clearance,” to use industry parlance, greatly increases the upside for Chicago, where Oasis, The Lumineers and My Chemical Romance collectively have raised hotel rates this weekend; room rates topping $500 are common for Loop properties. Planes, too, have been filled. It doesn’t always happen (fans of Paul McCartney also can see him in Des Moines this fall), but Chicago makes bank when it does.
Concerts are having a big moment. Lollapalooza, as we have written, had a banner year in Chicago. Coldplay, thanks in part to its audience-focused camera, notorious but viral, is more famous than ever (its “Music of the Spheres” tour is in the middle of a 10-night stand at London’s Wembley Stadium, which has a nightly capacity of about 90,000).
All of that suggests a case for increasing the seating capacity of Soldier Field, Bears or no Bears. Bands have to tour; there’s little money to be made in sales of recordings anymore.
Economic impact studies often can make claims that strain credulity, and we’ve learned to roll our eyes. But we were struck by a report in the U.K. press that the Oasis tour, which many fans had thought would never happen, was so influential as to have had an impact on the overall U.K. inflation rate.
The U.K.’s widely watched Consumer Price Index rose this summer, influenced by the increased cost of airfares and hotel rooms. Dubbed in the press as an “Oasis bump,” this has been partly if widely attributed to the rise in prices for hotels and other services near the many U.K. venues where the band played. Oasis caused enough economic action to worry the Bank of England, which has set a 2% inflation target even though U.K. inflation is spiking closer to 4%.
There’s a danger of overstating the significance of one band. Still, economists have suggested that the Oasis bump was largely responsible for a 9% rise in hotel room prices even if you take the country as a whole.
Wow.
Extrapolate that to a single, cash-strapped city, Chicago, and the benefit of hosting these mega concerts becomes obvious, especially in a city with so many music venues (a restored Uptown Theatre would add one more, capable of punching above the weight of its capacity due to its history too).
Concerts are one area where this city’s status as the capital of the Midwest has proven hugely beneficial; few bands could even imagine a U.S. tour without Chicago as one of its stops. And if you’re playing New York as part of a stadium tour, you’re probably singing in New Jersey. When it comes to making memories, Soldier Field has East Rutherford beat.
Thank heavens. We need all the shows we can get.
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