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JAY-Z/KELLY CLARKSON CONCERT A BUST: Arizona organizers blame recession for lack of ticket sales.
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA), who put on the concert, paid Jay-Z $750,000 to co-headline the event with pop star Kelly Clarkson. While Jigga praised the odd pairing, telling MTV it reaffirms that "good music" is neither black nor white, it wasn't enough to sell tickets.
According to estimates listed in the Arizona Daily Star, the student union gave away over 4000 tickets to the Last Smash Platinum Bash in hopes of securing marketing deals with newspapers and radio stations. However, the show still posted a loss of $917,000.
The event cost a total of $1,420,000, but tickets and merchandise purchases only yielded $503,502. The loss forced the ASUA to empty its $350,000 cash reserve to cover the debt.
According to the Arizona Daily Star, the university bookstore said it will assist the ASUA in paying off the debt through another established emergency fund. As a consequence, the UA Bookstore organization will also lower its contributions to the student group by $570,000 over the next five years.
ASUA president Tommy Bruce blamed the concert's failure on the Recession, telling the Arizona Daily Star: “Nobody predicted the economy would be the way it is now last May."
Arizona Stadium, which is known for football, had not hosted a concert in 32 years.
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