June 8, 2006--The Tennessean reports that only about half the tickets to the Dixie Chicks October 3 GEC show were sold in the first weekend tickets went on sale, arena chief Hugh Lombardi confirmed yesterday. Half-sold is usually a pretty good opening weekend of ticket sales for an arena show, but back in 2003, the Chicks nearly sold out a GEC date in the first weekend of sales.
Nashville isn't the only city with low ticket sales. About 20 Dixie Chicks shows went on sale this past weekend, and a source close to the tour called nationwide sales "disappointing." The paper reports that neither a Chicks' publicist nor a publicist for their record label could be reached yesterday.
Some might be surprised by the ticket sales, since the Chicks' new album, Taking the Long Way, has been No. 1 in sales for all genres for the past two weeks, selling a total of about 775,000 copies so far. But that hasn't translated into tickets sold. Wade Jessen, Billboard magazine's director of country charts, pointed to the fact that the Chicks' two new radio singles both failed to break into the top 30 on country charts.
"There's absolutely no radio penetration on anything for this new album," Jessen said. "Here's an act off the radio and without a studio album for three years, so I can't say that's entirely surprising." Still, the GEC expects the Nashville show will sell out, in part because it's still four months away.
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