With the tour kicking off in the UK next week and only around 50% of tickets sold, what do you think will happen? aIs this the beginning of the end for the Girls? whoever thought it would be a good idea for them to play arenas needs their head testing! not even the Saturdays could sell out arenas!

Have to say, I was very surprised to get emails from Ticketmaster etc seeing that they will be performing at the O2. I really don't understand, who actually thought they'd sell it out?

I thought they'd be better of doing places like Hammersmith Apollo.

I hope they do well though as I watched them on X Factor and am happy seeing their popularity rise.

I'm not a 5H fan at all, but I think people may be misunderstanding the reasoning behind booking the arenas. I think its really ambitious myself, but even with the upper sections closed, it looks like they're still selling 5-6k or more so thats much larger than a theater venue. It just happens to fall inbetween the two sizes, so a reduced capacity arena may do the trick. They were probably hoping to sell more or expand, but this is what they got.

BTW Little Mix still has the largest UK arena tour for 2016 if I'm not mistaken, and they recently sold out Newmarket at 20k (the racecourse confirmed that) so a girl group can do full arenas.

Little Mix are household names in the UK though and were coming off the back of a huge number 1 single and years of minor-to-decent-sized hits. Fifth Harmony have had two big hits in the UK but that's it. They're pretty much unknown to the average Joe. No way could they ever sell out big arenas at this point of their career.

I totally agree. What I was trying to say was, just because an arena is secured as the venue, doesnt mean the expectation is to fully sell it out. The 5H tour never had the uppers open so they were going for reduced capacity. As far as I can see on Ticketmaster, the SSE Hydro is pretty much sold out for what they had on sale.

For example, LM originally booked a 4000 seater in Sydney but moved to the big arena and sold 6000 out of 7000, but because it was an arena everyone pooh poohed it thinking they were going for 15,000. They never were.

I think it looks and feels better to do multi nights at a smaller venue, but if the schedule only gives them one night then grab them sales.

I was never doubting that girl groups can't sell out arenas; Little mix, girls aloud, spice girls and destiny's Child are proof of that. I was just trying to get across that the Saturdays who were a moderately successful girl group struggled to sell out arenas. Fifth Harmony are not even close to the Saturdays level of popularity in the UK, so I was shocked at an arena tour.

the main purpose of a tour is to make money. at a reduced capacity the girls are going to struggle to make much from the UK dates after all overheads have been paid.

however there probably is need for a medium sized venues to cater to acts like this.

Well myself and a lot of others were surprised they went for full arenas in the US. I think their team misread the situation because they are selling out venues in South America and Mexico, and naturally thought it would apply elsewhere. Their team has an excess of hubris if nothing else.

Then again (the Hydro)

I phoned ticketmaster and got upgraded from the back all the way to row N in block 005 right in front of the stage. Ticketmaster said they don't usually offer swaps but when a date is undersold they can allow this. (The shade.)

I just wish they had played Belfast and it would have been interesting to see if they had picked The Waterfront rather than The Odyssey. Little Mix filled the Odyssey twice this year but then Little Mix are a UK band.

From another site:

Just back from the Dublin gig...I've never seen the arena so empty.

Yeah the ENTIRE back blocks were closed off with a huge curtain. To be fair though the bit they had open was pretty much full.

I love 'The Saturdays', but think 'Fifth Harmony' are far superior than both 'The Saturdays' and 'Little Mix'

I think their performance on BGT dug them a massive hole

OP mentioned The Sats
https://twitter.com/boymixharmony/st...99878876119040