Who’s who of big summer concert tours in the top five this week. Taylor Swift enjoys another week at the top, followed by Justin Timberlake. Timberlake’s success may, ironically, be due more to his fall tour announcement than his actual summer tour. Either way, Timberlake fans who’ve been missing him on stage will have a lot to love in 2013.

A returning Luke Bryan follows the Brits on the countdown. Bryan’s latest album, Spring Break…Here to Party, arrived last month, and his summer tour is in full swing. The tour features guests Thompson Square and Florida Georgia Line, giving fans a lot of great country music for their ticket.

Racing at the Circuit of the Americas starts off the bottom five. The V8 Super Car Test event finishes up this Saturday, so you can still have time to check out this unique style of racing.

Beyoncé tumbles a bit this week, and Bruno climbs up to catch her. Rounding things out we’ve got a couple of pro teams. The Bruins going up against the Rangers in the second round of the NHL Playoffs, and the Texas Rangers are, just, you know, playing baseball.

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What is your favorite sports team?  Texas Tech Red Raiders

What is the most memorable sporting event you’ve attended?  The inaugural TicketCity Bowl with Texas Tech against Northwestern

If you could attend any sporting or music event in the world, what would it be?  The Masters

Is “Wisdom of the Wannabes” the next Deadspin or Grantland?  I’d be happy with just being a popular as The Greensheet

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What does the new Vikings Stadium remind you of?

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Katy Perry is the latest to join them on stage during their show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Vegas, something announced only a few hours before the show. This wasn’t the first time the Stones have called up some extra talent for this tour.

Previously the likes of Tom Waits, Bonnie Raitt, Gwen Stefani, John Fogerty, and Keith Urban have joined them at various shows. Stefani had the honor of helping kick things off at the Staples Center back on May 3rd.

The 50 & Counting Tour rolls on through June before heading back to England. The Stones are certainly able to marshal the biggest and best stars in music today, so who will they call up next?

The post Rolling Guest Spots appeared first on The TicketCity Blog.

There’s a lot of back and forth on what is and isn’t a “good sports town.” It’s been debated ad nauseam. Even athletes are getting into the act, with former Texas slugger Josh Hamilton giving his own thoughts on the subject after a move to the division-rival Angels — “Texas, especially Dallas, has always been a football town,” he said, and added “it’s not a true baseball town.” It feels like a personal jab at every one of the Rangers fans in the Metroplex, and you can bet Rangers fans will never let him forget it.

So, with apologies to Josh, that’s an easy thing say, but can he prove it? We tried. We’ve taken various data points that come out of our industry (the secondary ticket market) and some attendance/capacity figures to try to determine what city really does get behind its sports teams. Since it’s an overall city ranking, we picked the 15 cities/metro areas that have each of an NFL, MLB and NBA team (we wanted to add NHL as well, but it would have cut the list down to 11) and went from there.

After indexing all the ticketing and attendance numbers from the last regular season in each league (2012 MLB, 2012 NFL, 2012-13 NBA) we got a clear winner, and one you might have expected: New York City. Ranking 4^th in football, 1^st in basketball and 3^rd in baseball, the Big Apple was one of only two cities that ranked in the top 5 in every sport.

Here are the Top 5 and their scores:

100 – New York City

97.9 – Boston

97.7 – Dallas

90.2 – Chicago

82.0 – Philadelphia

We can go a bit deeper and look at the top 5 in each league that we looked at as well:

NBA

100 – New York City

91.6 – Miami

83.6 – Chicago

80.9 – Boston

75.5 – Oakland

NFL

100 – Dallas

87.9 – Chicago

81.8 – Boston

81.6 – New York City

77.6 – Washington D.C.

MLB

100 – Boston

86.9 – Dallas

86.7 – New York City

86.6 – Philadelphia

81.5 – Detroit

What to take from this

-  While Dallas would still be #1 with all NFL cities involved, many teams that would be ranked high on this list (see Lakers, SF Giants) aren’t included because the cities don’t have all three of the major sports we used.

-  The #1 indicator of support will always be success. Cities that were closer to the bottom of this list (Phoenix, Cleveland) haven’t seen too much success recently and the support will therefore wane over the years.

-  Big markets dominate. It’s hard to say any city that has 3-4 major professional sports teams isn’t a big market, but NYC and Chicago are definitely bigger than Denver and Cleveland and it shows.

Interesting facts

NFL: The Bears had the highest ticket price in the NFL last season and were one of seven teams in this group to have attendance over its official capacity. The Dolphins were last in attendance of these 15 teams by a longshot.

NBA: The biggest difference between 1^st place and 2^nd was the Knicks over the rest of the NBA. Attendance was quite low in Detroit but fans are packed into the arena in Chicago and Dallas. Tickets were really, really cheap in Philadelphia and Minnesota last season.

MLB: The Yankees have a TON of tickets sold on the secondary market, but only had about 87% capacity last season (it’s much lower this season as well). The Red Sox had over 100% capacity last season but have since seen their sell-out streak come to an end. Dallas was 3^rd in baseball, so Josh Hamilton doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

The post Sportstown, USA appeared first on The TicketCity Blog.

Homecoming week here on the countdown, as a lot of former top performers crowd in. A homecoming of sorts for Taylor Swift, who returns to the #1 spot after some time. She’s never been too far from the top for many months, and the momentum of the Red Tour only appears to be strengthening. Various lads from that most United of Kingdoms round out the top 3.

Popping into fourth place is Justin Timberlake. Timerlake’s Legends of Summer Tour with Jay-Z is already booked. His recent pop is thanks to the announcement of the tour after that one. Following a short break, Timberlake goes solo for The 20/20 Experience World Tour. That gets underway in October, and will be keeping fans warm throughout the cooler months into 2014.

Beyoncé rounds out the top 5 and George Strait opens the bottom 5. His big June 1st Alamodome concert will likely ensure we’ll be seeing him for the next few weeks. Bruno Mars, who had a short, but solid top 3 run, returns at #7, where’s he is followed by current bottom 5 fixture, the esteemed Mr. Bieber.

Timberlake’s next tour wasn’t the only announcement this week. The 2013 ACL Fest lineup was announced at midnight on the 7th and resulted in a frenzy of early interest. Headliners this year appeal to the usual eclectic variety of fans, and include Depeche Mode, Kings of Leon, The Cure, Eric Church, and Muse.

For the element of that eclectic variety that may not be quite so aware of why Depeche Mode is headlining (or that they existed), here’s a little ditty from 1984 I saw played on MTV! (Weird, right? I mean… music, on MTV). Enjoy the hair…

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Ranked 26th in attendance but #3 in the conference, starting point guard George Hill made a plea to Pacers fans in March after an incredibly poor at-home showing against the Lakers. Looking for a comeback in Game 3 against the Knicks, who are notorious for traveling well, Pacers fans may consider taking advantage of the cheapest playoff tickets in the league.

The post As Pacers Head Home for NBA Playoff Games 3 & 4, Ticket Prices Fall appeared first on The TicketCity Blog.

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I believe I know where Mr. Buffett is gonna go when the volcano blow: top of the TicketCity Week in Search Countdown! This (horrible) joke brought to you by the fact that I’m old enough to have grown up with the song “Volcano” as a staple of top 40 radio. It is also part of “The Big 8″ you’re likely to hear at any Buffet concert, including the one tonight at the Austin 360 Amphitheater. Thanks to the wind, you still have a chance to see this leg of the Songs From Somewhere Tour after it was rescheduled from last night.

Lots of movement across the countdown, though as usual the boys in 1D aren’t doing a lot of it. After a slight falter, they’re back at #2, followed by Miss Swift, who lands at #3.

The Oaks gains a spot. Last chance to get your Derby on this weekend. The most exciting 2 minutes in sports just makes it to the countdown at #10. Ladies, if you’ve been thinking: “I’ve got this really big hat and no place to wear it,” then you can’t miss the Derby.

George Strait rounds out the top 5. As expected, the June 1st show at the Alamodome is heating up. George will likely have a good run the next few weeks. He’s followed by Darren Criss, who is… um… one sec… from Glee! Yes, Wikipedia tells me that he is from Glee, and that I am… um… old, yes, old.

Both Beyoncé and Paul McCartney return this week. Each of their tours will get underway this month, so perhaps Beyoncé will one again become the powerhouse she was months ago.

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Strong drinks, deep pockets, big hats and fast horses- what makes the Derby your favorite horse race?

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