As someone who has loved this album from the moment I first laid ears on it, I have perhaps spent more money buying and re-buying this album over the years than any other in my collection. Hell, I've even purchased the Classic Albums documentary in two different formats: VHS when it caem out and DVD ten years later. I'd buy it on Blu-Ray, too, if they ever released it in that format and I don't even own a Blu-Ray player.
Having said that, I have dreaded the coming of 2017 because of the skyrocketing costs of attending concerts these days. While ticket prices for Soldier Field have not been announced, it's fair to say that good seats will be in the $350+ range and up. Even at half that price, multiplied by 80,000 (Soldier Field's capacity), that comes to over $14,000,000.
That should keep The Edge in skull caps until at least the 30th Anniversary Achtung Baby tour.
Keep in mind that this is not even counting t-shirt sales, which are a major source of tour profits for major touring acts because of the low cost ($5 to print a t-shirt that they then sell for $40 and up). If 50,000 concertgoers buy a single $40 t-shirt, U2's paycheck for the evening jumps another $2,000,000.
Did I mention they'll also take a cut of parking and concessions, too?
Not to burst anyone's bubble, but a tour manager friend of mine revealed that bands with lucrative concessions deals worked into their performance contracts intentionally work lulls into their sets in order to drive concertgoers to the concession stands. So when Bono and the boys turn in a 10-minute rendition of "Red Hill Mining Town", you'll know why.
Considering that on the day it was released, I bought the album on vinyl, then on cassette a week later, and, last but not least, on CD in December after receiving my first CD player for Christmas, then on VHS when the Classic Albums documentary was released in 1999, and again on CD when the remastered and expanded 20th anniversary editions were released in 2007, I'd say that, instead of high-jacking the same fans who shown up for tours in support of albums we literally hated, U2 should be paying us this time.
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How much, you ask?
Oh, I dunno, $350 sounds about right to me. I mean, we've all got busy lives these days and the fact that the shows are during the summer, some may have to juggle vacation plans already made, but perhaps if U2 throws in free parking, concessions, and a t-shirt, it won't hurt nearly as much when we tell Aunt Edna that we can't make the family reunion in Topeka this year.