Is the Clinton stadium tour going to be canceled?

So far, half of the events scheduled for the stadium tour of Bill and Hillary Clinton have been canceled. Even worse, both of the two out of four events canceled were in the United States, and the two conversations delivered to audiences were both in Canada. Advance ticket sales for last night's scheduled event in Sugarland, Texas, a suburb of Houston, were so dismal that prices were slashed by 90% for the cheapest seats. But even that level of discounting apparently didn't prevent another prospective sea of empty seats, such as the 83% empty arena in Toronto that had to be humiliating for the fading former first family.



Toronto, 83% empty. Screen grab from Daily Mail video. The Sugarland gig last night was canceled but has been face-savingly described as "postponed ... in order to attend funeral services for former President George H.W. Bush." I call BS. This claim doesn't withstand minimal scrutiny. The state funeral honoring the forty-first president is taking place today, and it takes less than three hours to fly from Houston to Washington, D.C. I strongly suspect that the Clintons' contract with Live Nation, the sponsor of the tour, does not have them flying commercial airlines, so a post-presentation departure from the very nice executive terminal at Sugarland Airport (I've been there – it's a busy hub for corporate jets) into Reagan National Airport could have gotten them a full night's sleep before attending the state funeral today. So with all of the American sites so far canceled (the kickoff presentation in Las Vegas was canceled without explanation), it seems quite possible that the entire tour will be deep-sixed – a mercy killing, if you will.

Here is the original list of planned dates: Hillary and Bill Clinton 2018-2019 Tour: Dates, Tickets Nov. 18 – Las Vegas – Park Theater

Nov. 27 – Toronto – Scotiabank Arena

Nov. 28 – Montreal – Bell Centre

Dec. 4 – Sugar Land, Texas – Smart Financial Center

April 11, 2019 – New York – Beacon Theatre

April 12, 2019 – Detroit – Fox Theatre

April 13, 2019 – Philadelphia – The Met

April 26, 2019 – Wallingford, Conn. – Toyota Oakdale Theatre

April 27, 2019 – Washington, D.C. – DAR Constitutional Hall

April 30, 2019 – Boston – Opera House

May 2, 2019 – Vancouver, B.C. – Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena

May 3, 2019 – Seattle – WaMu Theater

May 4, 2019 – Los Angeles – The Forum The contract between the Clintons and the tour-promoter, Live Nation, a publicly owned New York Stock Exchange-listed company with over ten billion dollars a year in sales, is confidential, so I don't know if the Clintons have a guaranteed minimum compensation. But it is a pretty safe guess that poor attendance and deep discounts for ticket prices mean that the tour is losing money for Live Nation with each poorly attended show. It is not cheap to rent stadiums, hire staff, provide security, and charter jets for the Clintons. How much money would a publicly owned company be willing to lose in order to save face for the Cintons, now that they are unlikely ever to regain use of the Oval Office? Maybe the evening with the Clintons slated for the Beacon Theatre, a smaller venue right on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, will survive. But I will be watching for further cancelations. There are five whole months until the next scheduled appearance on the tour. If I wanted to save face, I'd bury the news of the cancelation around the Christmas holiday.