Milwaukee's American Family Field among world's top-grossing stadiums for concerts in 2023
American Family Field missed out on the two biggest blockbuster stadium tours of 2023, with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé bypassing Milwaukee.
But it still was one of the world's top-grossing stadiums for concerts this year, according to concert trade publication Pollstar's year-end report.
The Milwaukee Brewers stadium was No. 35 on Pollstar's list of the 100 top-grossing stadiums in the world for concerts in 2023, in data provided by Pollstar to the Journal Sentinel. In the United States, it was the 19th highest-grossing stadium, its peers primarily football stadiums with larger seating capacities.
According to Pollstar, the Milwaukee stadium sold 178,107 tickets for concerts, collectively grossing $35.4 million. That's a massive leap from 2022, when the stadium ranked 78th; that was its first time on Pollstar's year-end Top 100 charts since 2018. Last year, according to Pollstar, the stadium sold 119,424 tickets and grossed $13.3 million from concerts.
While American Family Field didn't land dates for Swift and Beyoncé, the year's two highest-grossing tours, it did host three of the top 10 North American tours at the box office for 2023, according to Pollstar data.
Morgan Wallen, No. 3 on Pollstar's top-grossing North American tour charts, kicked off the North American leg in Milwaukee in April with two shows. Pink, who had the fifth highest-grossing North American tour according to Pollstar, played American Family Field in August (the first woman headliner with a tour stop in a Wisconsin stadium), while George Strait, No. 8 on Pollstar's list, played one of just 14 shows in 2023 at American Family Field in June.
Strait broke an attendance record for the stadium, with Pink breaking it again in August. Opened as Miller Park in 2001, American Family Field hosted the most concerts in a year in its history in 2023 with four. It will host at least four shows in 2024, with Kenny Chesney, Green Day and two dates for Luke Combs.
More: The 20 best Milwaukee concerts of 2023 — and the most disappointing show of the year
Other Wisconsin concert players also made Pollstar's 2023 charts
Several other Wisconsin concert players made Pollstar's year-end charts, which is based on data provided by promoters and venues. (An important caveat: Not every show's box office tally is reported.)
Live Nation-backed Madison-based promoter FPC Live was No. 24 on Pollstar's worldwide promoter grosses chart for the year, accumulating $108.4 million from nearly 1.4 million tickets sold. That's up from last year, when it ranked 32nd, with $77.1 million grossed from 1.2 million tickets sold.
FPC Live venue the Sylvee in Madison was No. 13 of the top-grossing clubs in the world, making $6 million, about flat compared with 2022 when it ranked 12th. Another FPC Live Madison club, the Majestic Theatre, came in at No. 122, down from No. 98 last year, with a $798,420 gross.
On Pollstar's year-end arena box office chart, Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee came in at No. 81, making $24.7 million from 209,223 tickets. (The Bucks arena scored two of the top 10 grossing tours of the year with Drake and Bruce Springsteen dates.) In 2022, Fiserv Forum ranked 79th, but it grossed less, $14.7 million. This year was the second busiest for concerts at the arena since opening in 2018 with 21 (not including comedy shows and other touring events).
The Resch Center in Green Bay also made the arena chart at No. 200, grossing $4.7 million from shows, down from No. 90 after making $12.9 million from shows in 2022.
On Pollstar's worldwide amphitheater grosses chart, the American Family Insurance Amphitheater, which hosted 19 concerts in 2023 (the same as the year prior, the most since 2004), clocked in at No. 44, making $8.8 million from 115,193 tickets. (That was up from 2022's ranking at No. 59, with a $5 million gross.)
Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, which hosted Willie Nelson's Outlaw Music Festival and a Post Malone date this year, came in at No. 90 on Pollstar's amphitheater chart, making $2.1 million from 29,369 tickets. That's down from 2022, the venue's busiest season since 2003, when it reported $7.8 million in ticket sales and ranked 44th on Pollstar's amphitheater chart.
Three Wisconsin theaters also made Pollstar's worldwide top-grossing venues chart: Fox Cities Performing Arts Center in Appleton (No. 50, $11.2 million gross); the Grand Theater in Wausau (No. 169; $2.6 million); and the Pabst Theater Group's Riverside Theater in Milwaukee (No. 186; $2.4 million). The Riverside was not on Pollstar's chart in 2022, while both Fox Cities and the Grand reported higher grosses this year from last year (in the former's case, more than twice as much).
Led by Swift's "The Eras Tour," the first tour with a projected gross of $1 billion (with more dates scheduled for 2024), the touring business had a record year in 2023. The cumulative gross for the top 100 tours in the world jumped 46% to $9.17 billion from $6.28 billion in 2022, according to Pollstar, with average grosses per show up 53.2%, and average ticket prices increase 23.3%.
Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: American Family Field one of top-grossing concert venues in 2023
