The first wave of tickets are available starting today, with a Verizon-sponsored presale starting at 10 a.m., and purchases will be open to the general public at the same time on Friday, April 12. With a tour this unprecedented in nature, fans can expect packed houses and quick sellouts.
But this announcement poses a puzzling question for those in North Texas hoping to catch the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee when she passes through the area. And that question is why such a high-profile concert is booked to stop through Fort Worth’s Dickies Arena, of all places?
Dickies Arena, located near the Will Rogers Memorial Center, holds 14,000 attendees for center-stage concerts but it’s more often utilized for rodeo performance and sporting events. In comparison, American Airlines Center (home of the Dallas Mavericks and Dallas Stars) can host up to 20,000 concert-goers. And for a truly major spectacle, the Dallas Cowboys’ massive AT&T Stadium boasts 80,000 seats, and the room for up to 105,000 comfortable patrons during concerts that allow for standing-room admission.
So where is the logic here? If Dallasites are going to be forced to drive to Tarrant County for the Out Of This World Tour, shouldn’t it be to a venue that can accommodate many more of us? Especially for a once-in-a-lifetime, widely anticipated live music event of this magnitude?
Since Mona Scott-Young (music industry maven and Elliott’s longtime manager) has partnered with Live Nation to bring this tour to life, it just doesn’t make sense that arguably the world’s biggest corporate concert promoter would undershoot ticket sale projections to this extent in a major market like Dallas-Fort Worth.
Who do they think we are? Why wouldn’t Live Nation assume that as many of us as possible would jump at the chance to put our thang down, flip it and reverse it for such a beloved and established artist? Why wouldn't we all want to get our freak on with an absolute national treasure? Does anyone involved in this production understand how much gas is per gallon here right now?
Obviously we’ll have to wait until summer approaches to see if any of these questions can be answered, but until then you can watch Missy Elliott’s spacey and futuristic trailer for the Out of This World Tour below.
