The Death Of The Amphitheatre Decade

Every year thousands of tourists flock to the ruins of Ancient Rome and Greece, looking at what was built thousands of years ago and occasionally purchasing the "I Roamed Around Rome" t-shirts. Artifacts and relics are cherished on this ground, with many structures such as the amphitheatre in relatively decent shape.

The amphitheatre has also been one of the cornerstones of the North American summer touring industry over the last 10 to 15 years, cookie-cutter open-air venues that have all the similarities of the ancient amphitheatres except for the character or personality. Most of these "amphitheatres" (or in the case of a half dozen in the U.S. dubbed the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre) hold about 15,000 with a lawn section that offers cheap tickets but are far from the proceedings and filled with seagull shit if you're lucky.

Most of the summer tours hit these "sheds" for a few reasons: the logistics are the same, the rental space is usually cheaper than indoor arenas, and well, who likes to be indoors on a hot summer night? But with each passing year, these venues are finding it harder to fill those 90 or 100 days with 25 to 30 attractive bills that aren't multi-act lineups of has-beens, never-weres or '80 hair bands.

Arenas will usually be okay from such pressures, as sporting teams fill up 40 dates on their own, or 80 if two teams use the venue. And unlike the amps, shows can take place year-round.

The current climate sees about 20 to 25 acts maybe that have enough name and drawing power to sell out wherever they play, and on average 8 to 12 of those are off the road, either recording another crap album to tour behind or waiting until money is tight, resulting in the need to start routing another leg.

So, with the Eagles, Stones, McCartney, Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, Billy Joel, U2, AC/DC, Eric Clapton, Madonna and Springsteen more likely than not hitting the road the latter half of the '10s, and the hair bands eventually morphing into the hairy waistband bands by this time, what is to become of the amphitheatre......

I doubt these batch of amphitheatres (with the exception of Colorado's Red Rocks) will have the same tourist traps surrounding them by 2019. Most likely just more seagull shit.