BY MELISSA RUGGIERI
Pollstar, the concert industry bible, released its annual wrap-up of the busiest venues and highest-grossing tours and Atlanta represented strongly in all of the venue categories.
Here’s how we fared (all data, according to Pollstar, is based on number of tickets sold between 1/1/14 and 12/31/14)…
Top 200 arenas worldwide:
Philips Arena came in 10th for tickets sold with 608,084. The venue was the fourth U.S. venue in the Top 10 (following Madison Square Garden, Barclays Center in Brooklyn and the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill.).
The Arena at Gwinnett Center was No. 141 with 85,194.
The O2 in London topped the rankings with 1.8 million.
Top 200 theaters worldwide:
The Fox Theatre had a mighty impressive showing at No. 4 with 456,459 tickets sold. It follows Mexico City's Auditorio Nacional (1.37 million), Radio City Music Hall (1.17) and Las Vegas' Colosseum at Caesars Palace (509,633).
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre also represented well at No. 55 (127,708).
Top 200 clubs worldwide:
Downtown Atlanta's The Tabernacle landed at No. 118 with 29,323, while Terminal West at King Plow Arts Center squeezed in at No. 195 with 10,297.
Leading the list of clubs is House of Blues Boston (314,392), followed by the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C. and Terminal 5 in New York.
Top 100 amphitheatres worldwide:
Aaron's Amphitheatre at Lakewood scored at No. 25 with 193,649 and Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park in Alpharetta slid in at No. 39 with 146,906.
Also making appearances are Wolf Creek Amphitheatre in College Park at No. 76 with 43,137 and Chastain Park Amphitheatre at No. 93 with 24,976.
Leading that list is the venerable Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado with 601,230.
And the Georgia Dome landed in the rankings of the Top 100 outdoor stadiums and festival sites despite having a roof that doesn't really qualify it as an outdoor stadium (we kid, we kid…kinda). Anyway, kudos to them for hitting No. 27 with 128,062 in ticket sales (Jay Z/Beyonce and One Direction were major attractions and with Taylor Swift and the Kenny Chesney fest coming through in 2015, expect to see them back on the list next year).
And now for your Top 10 money-making tours of 2014.
Most of them played Atlanta except for Michael Buble (who performed at The Arena at Gwinnett Center in 2013), Bruno Mars (also 2013) and The Rolling Stones (who stayed overseas).
One Direction (grossed $282.2 million/69 shows)
Justin Timberlake ($184.7 million/103 shows)
The Rolling Stones ($165.1 million/25 shows)
Katy Perry ($153.3 million/106 shows)
Beyonce/Jay Z ($109.7 million/21 shows)
Michael Buble ($105.1 million/103 shows)
Lady Gaga ($88.7 million/84 shows)
Eagles ($86.5 million/61 shows)
Paul McCartney ($84.5 million/32 shows)
Bruno Mars ($84 million/76 shows)
For more of Pollstar's year-end rankings, visit here .
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