McGuinness: U2 Tour Yet To Break Even

LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — According to the band's manager Paul McGuinness, U2 has yet to break even on their current 360 tour, despite widespread sellouts and strong ticket prices.

In a recent interview with Billboard's Ray Waddell, McGuinness noted that while the band hasn't broken even yet, they are on track for what will turn out to be a record breaking tour with an expected $300 million in grosses.

"Whether we're playing or not, the overhead is about $750,000 daily. That's just to have the crew on payroll, to rent the trucks, all that. There's about 200 trucks. Each stage is 37 trucks, so you're up to nearly 120 there. And then the universal production is another 50-odd trucks, and there are merchandise trucks and catering trucks." McGuinness said.

Despite these steep production costs, McGuinness expects that the tour will be well into the black well before the final curtain comes down.

"When do we hit the break-even point? We haven't hit it yet. But we will sometime between now and the end of this leg." he told Billboard.

McGuinness also took the opportunity to express his views on the proposed Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger. According to McGuinness, he is in favor of the union of the two firms and believes that it would be good for the industry at large.

"I've nothing against big companies. Big companies are there to be infiltrated, they want to be infiltrated, they want you to come in and tell them how to do it, what to do. I've never found a big corporation hostile to anything we wanted to do. Similarly with Live Nation — our relationship is very close indeed. This is our fourth tour with Arthur (Fogel, global music chairman for Live Nation)." McGuinness told Billboard. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers