For first half of 2014, Barclays Center again leads U.S. venues in tickets sold, but total is less than half the 2013 figure

Pollstar magazine, 2014

The Barclays Center again ranks first nationally among venues in the number of tickets sold for concerts and family shows--but the total is less than half the comparable number for 2013.

In 2013, the Brooklyn arena ranked third worldwide, with 657,423 tickets; this year the figure is 11th, with 302,726 tickets in the first six months. according to Pollstar magazine.

That compares to 356,512 in little more than three months in 2012, when the arena opened with a very busy schedule.

So there's clearly significant demand for the Brooklyn venue, but it's not being promoted quite as hard. It's possible that bookers are not offering artists as generous terms as they did previously.

Interestingly enough the former home of the New Jersey Nets, the marooned-in-suburbia Izod Center, ranked second in the U.S. so far in 2014 and 18th internationally, with 237,420 tickets sold.

Maidson Square Garden ranked sixth in the U.S., and 27th internationally, with 207,482 tickets, a modest increase over the comparable 2013 figure of 194,327.

Note that MSG historically earns far more per ticket than the Barclays Center, according to Billboard compilations.

Sporting events are not part of the poll. When the Brooklyn arena adds the hockey Islanders in 2014, that should steady arena revenue while limiting--as with MSG--open dates for concerts and family shows.

Pollstar magazine, 2013

The perspective from New Jersey


From John Brennan in the Bergen Record, 7/18/14, Izod Center ranks 2nd in US for 2014 for concerts/family show tickets sold so far, per Pollstar:

Izod Center, the venerable 33-year-old Meadowlands arena, placed second in the U.S. to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in concert and family show tickets sold at such facilities in the first six months of 2014, according to Pollstar magazine.
The concert industry publication recorded 237,420 tickets sold in events reported to the magazine, compared to 302,726 for Barclays Center. The latter arena placed 11th worldwide compared to 18th for Izod Center, with the top 10 sites in Europe or Mexico.
Madison Square Garden, which completed its three-year, $1 billion “transformation” last fall, placed sixth in the U.S. with 207,482 tickets sold. Prudential Center in Newark ranked 13th in the U.S. with 154,844.