BottleOfRum&aLime wrote: ↑January 30, 2018 12:48 pm
I know I've read before that Wrigley always puts a no-compete clause in their contracts, and that Alpine falls under that clause. That's what I've heard when Buffett played there, as well as Zac Brown Band, who opted to go to Milwaukee which presumably is outside the no-compete area. Does anyone here know definitively if that's true?
Nope, someone just threw that out there a couple of years ago and everybody took it as gospel. There may be such a clause, but nobody has ever come up with anything substantial to prove this, only conjecture. I, for one, have my doubts about any of it and feel more or less its Jimmy knowing his audience. He knows if he puts 40k butts in Wrigley, the attendance at Alpine will be very poor as he just doesn't have the audience size he once did. Heck, the last two shows he did at Alpine were very poorly attended (I think around 20k or so IIRC) and that was without the huge Wrigley shows. A lot of those Wrigley attendees would have have been Alpine attendees had there not been a Wrigley show. But, probably most of them would not go to Alpine after already doing Wrigley leading to even a sparser attendance numbers.
The bottom line is, he can sell out Wrigley for various reasons (venue, location not in the middle of nowhere, easy to get to, etc.) whereas he can't sell out Alpine anymore due to those and probably other reasons as well. Jimmy is first and foremost a business man, don't doubt that for a second, and he will play where the money is which unfortunately is Wrigley. Its sad because I have seen every Jimmy show at Alpine since 95, I believe. The atmosphere there is second to none. After seeing a few shows in Wrigley (not Buffett) I will not be back for concerts. Unless you get floor seats right by the stage your seats are way far away, the sound is poor, no tailgating, and the bars are over crowded and ridiculous with their drink prices. I understood last year with Alpine not having any shows at all, but now two years in a row has me worried that Jimmy may have played his last show at Alpine. I really hope not, but it sure seems that way to me.