Tulsa World: BOK Center ranked second in the U.S. in first-quarter ticket sales

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BOK Center ranked second in the U.S. in first-quarter ticket sales

Between Jan. 1 and March 31, Tulsa’s new venue hosted events with 149,302 tickets sold. Tulsa World file

By BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer
Published: 4/14/2009 4:52 PM
Last Modified: 4/14/2009 5:07 PM

Documents: View the top 50 arenas ranked by first quarter ticket sales.

The BOK Center is ranked No. 2 in the United States and No. 9 in the world by Pollstar magazine for the number of tickets sold at arenas during the first quarter of 2009.

Between Jan. 1 and March 31, Tulsa’s new venue hosted events with 149,302 tickets sold.

BOK Center General Manager John Bolton said the arena’s performance shows that “the building is healthy, the city is healthy, and the interest in music and entertainment in Tulsa is very high.”

The only American arena above the BOK Center on the Top 50 list generated by the concert industry’s trade publication is the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla., which had 169,492 tickets sold.

The Top 10 is filled out by venues in the United Kingdom, Belgium, Mexico and Australia, with London’s O2 Arena ranking No. 1 with 503,846 tickets sold.

Oklahoma City’s Ford Center landed at No. 49, with 55,358 tickets sold, while Kansas City’s Sprint Center was at No. 14 with 111,358 tickets sold and Dallas’ American Airlines Center was at No. 50 with 54,471 tickets sold.

The tickets count in the tally when an event takes place, not when the actual sale occurs.

For the three months, the BOK Center hosted 46 ticketed events, which includes 13 Oilers hockey games. However, the ticket sales for

local sporting events are not factored into Pollstar’s ranking process, Bolton said.

Some of the events that helped contribute to Tulsa’s total are the eight-performance run of Walking With Dinosaurs with 49,096 tickets sold, the Elton John and Billy Joel concert with 17,335 tickets sold, Celine Dion with 15,933 tickets sold, Brad Paisley with 11,685 tickets sold and the two games of the Harlem Globetrotters with 10,604 tickets sold.

The January AC/DC concert’s ticket count is still in flux due to the refunds offered because of that night’s ice storm.

By BRIAN BARBER World Staff Writer

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Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "BOK Center a ticket bonanza," which was published on 4/15/2009. So far, 36 comments have been made.