U2 Back In Foxborough Next Year?
I just got emailed a survey asking me about my experience last month at the U2 360 shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, MA. The email stated:
Dear U2 360° Concert Attendee,Would you like the opportunity to win 2 tickets to either a 2009 regular season New England Patriots game or the 2010 Gillette Stadium concert of your choice?
Please complete this short survey about your experience at this year’s U2 360° Concert and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a chance to win!
Your feedback will help us bring the best concerts to Gillette Stadium in the future!
What was surprising to see in the survey was the question of “Would you purchase tickets if U2 returned to Gillette Stadium in July 2010?” - that answer would be hells yeah!
So, is this survey designed to build consensus among attendees? The rumored list of dates circulating right now does not include shows in the Boston area, so perhaps the Kraft Entertainment folks at Gillette want to prove that U2 need to come back to the area. I find it hard to believe that U2 wouldn’t come back to the greater Boston area if they’re on tour in 2010. Maybe they just need the data to back it up.
Regardless, Gillette Stadium will absolutely need to revisit their parking/traffic nightmare because it should not take 3 hours to get to the highway, which is only 5 miles down the road.
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11 Responses to “U2 Back In Foxborough Next Year?”
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i think they might do this for all events.
but really, unless U2 plays an entirely different set with an entirely changed set up, I think the obnoxious parking that took up 12 hours of my life over two days was more than enough, thank you.
but as soon as I hear them playing “mofo” live, I’ll rent a effing helicopter
Well, with that MLB baseball official letting slip U2 are planning on playing some ball parks, a better bet might be Fenway Park in Boston itself. The Red Sox schedule has them away from home for 10 - 11 days twice in July. The Yankees are also away from home for an extended period around the same time frame. Chicago’s Wrigley Field also has hosted concerts the past few years (they have a good chunk open in June). Though Wrigley and Fenway are on the smaller side (considering the tours gigantic size) i wouldnt bet against them.
While U2 would be the only concert I would go to Fenway for (what an awful venue for a live show!), I can’t imagine them being able to get all of the trucks for that production into Fenway.
I’m starting to wonder if that survey was sent out specifically because of the traffic/parking issues.
If the Philly 7/20/10 and NY 7/24 & 7/25/10 rumored dates are correct then they should be able to hit Boston/Foxborough.
Having seen the stage up close I have a hard time seeing that thing inside Fenway. Also, Fenway holds half the capacity of Gillette so you’d have to do two Fenway shows to equal one at Gillette.
I hope more than anything that they don’t do Gillette next summer! It was the worst concert experience I’ve ever had! From the parking and the getting out of there….to the idiotic stadium staff and the terrible sound that the stadium makes during a concert. Please do it in Boston! Harvard stadium in Brighton….Allumni Stadium at BC….Fenway! Just not down in the boonies again!
I followed peoples comments on your Foxboro post about the line starting right after the concert and refrained at the time from commenting about my experience at the Gillette Shows. But if a survey is out there I really hope before answering you take to heart some of the comments posted here because not all of us have been asked for input. Here goes, I am a long long time fan, been to I think 14 shows dating back to 1983. My experience with Gillette Stadium is without a doubt the worst experience I have ever experienced at a U2 Show and possible any concert ever. The staff were not helpful when they easily could have been, not pleasant and in fact rude and at times caused what I felt to be unsafe crowd conditions. Nothing from my experience of the GA line seemed well controlled and I am frankly shocked that there were not some serious injuries or problems with the GA line. I attribute the lact of incidents soully to the U2 crowd because although I agree the crowd was somewhat different there were enough of the core crowd to keep things civil and safe when it clearly was on the verge of going very wrong. I love U2 and if they play Gillette again I will be there but before we give a resounding yes to the surveys can we also make it clear how much we would appreciate going to a different local venue, Fenway, Harvard, BC anywhere else please.
I also wanted to add to my comment above that while in the GA line outside there were three different times when I actually felt as if I was not safe and I have never felt that way in a U2 crowd ever before. And it was clearly the actions of Gillette Staff that made the crowd conditions that were very unsafe! I have never seen such poor management of a GA U2 line and I have wait many times in these lines. And my comments that I am making here have absolutely nothing to do with fan run pre lines at all. This go round I chose not to participate in the pre line list but arrived at the stadium at 11am and had a spot right up front.
Me again, ha ha, can you tell how much I have bottled up the feeling about Gillette Stadium. I loved the show itself so I have not said much about the Gillette but I also have to respond to what you said about parking needing to be revisted. What we experienced at Gillette was the parking revisted, that is supposed to be so much better this year than last year. I actually know three different people (two do not even know each other) with season tickets to the Patriots for years that have not renewed there tickets due to the traffic nightmares alone. So traffic patterns will not run any differently what you got was as good as it gets since the construction fo the mall and it’s parking lots.
Nikmik,
I was at the concert with two current Pats season ticket holders who said they’ve never seen traffic/parking problems like that before.
For what it’s worth here’s a link to the survey so you can let them know about your experience.
http://survey.kraftsportsgroup.com/fillsurvey.php?sid=119
I can’t help but think that anybody holding out hope for a metro Boston show on this tour is living in dreamland. Check the venues so far - all BIG football stadiums. In fact, PaulM has stated from the beginning that ‘tiered’ stadiums were a requirement for this production. And name another New England stadium that seats ~60,000… I can’t think of one. Face it: with 360, it’s Foxboro or nothing. Given that, I’ll choose Foxboro.
If it is foxboro I will probably be back as well, although I was at Toronto 2 and that show was better than Boston shows and the Rodger Staff was firm yet professional and courteous but most of all safely managed the crowd. Was not planning to travel for second leg of tour but now it is definately a possiblity. I would be shocked if they skipped Boston market on second leg but (and I can not believe I am about to say/think/type this…) maybe it would not be the worst thing ever.