1. Over-saturation of that market.
2. Ticket prices.
3. Less and less general interest for new U2 music.
I can't tell you how frustrating it is to be an Australian U2 fan lately. No I+E tour. No TJT anniversary tour. And now the E+I tour cranks up again in the US. But I would totally understand why a general U2 fan (as opposed to a hardcore one) would pass on seeing them play for the third time in 3 years...
1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. Yes.
Hopefully, TJT will be the last time they try to play stadiums. They got away with last year because they were touring behind TJT. The only way that I see that they could ever tour stadiums again would be if they did an Achtung Baby/ZooTV retrospective like they did with TJT. If they had tried to play stadiums this time out, they were be playing to some 60 percent-sold venues in some markets in the US.
I can't speak to Europe, but just about every act is seeing some declining sales in the US. It's a combination of an aging fan base, high prices and people having seen so many of these bands many times already.
They can still do stadiums and will probably always be able to do a 60 date stadium tour around the world, while promoting a new album. But, there needs to be at least a 3 year gap between tours. For example, if this tour goes into 2019, then they should not tour again until 2022 if they want to play stadiums again. The gap is needed to allow demand to recover. The band hav toured in 2015, 2017, and now 2018. Many of the shows each year have been in the same cities. This has led to over saturation which is why some arenas are not selling out.
A 60 date stadium tour in 2022 could play the following places:
United States/Canada - 15 shows
Europe - 25 shows
Latin America - 10 shows
New Zealand/Australia/Japan - 10 shows
United States/Canada - 15 shows
1 show per city
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Edmonton
Toronto
Montreal
Boston
New York
Philadelphia
Washington D.C.
Atlanta
Miami
Dallas
Chicago
San Francisco
Los Angeles
Europe - 25 shows
1 show per city
Dublin
Glasgow
Manchester
Cardiff
London
Amsterdam
Paris
Marseille
Lisbon
Barcelona
Madrid
Zurich
Milan
Rome
Vienna
Munich
Berlin
Dusseldorf
Stockholm
Oslo
Helsinki
Warsaw
Prague
Zagreb
Athens
Latin America - 10 shows
Mexico City - 3 shows
Sao Paulo - 3 shows
Buenos Aries - 3 shows
Santiago - 1 show
New Zealand/Australia/Japan - 10 shows
Auckland - 2 shows
Sydney - 2 shows
Melbourne - 1 show
Brisbane - 1 show
Adelaide - 1 show
Perth - 1 show
Tokyo - 2 shows
With a normal stadium configuration, no seating behind the stage, they could sell an average of 50,000 tickets for each show. With an average ticket price of $135 and 3 million tickets sold for the whole 60 date tour, the band would gross over $400 million dollars. Although that is well below the $700 million of the 360 tour, it is still higher than almost any other artist will probably be able to do in 2022 except maybe Coldplay.