Paul McCartney has announced the latest additions to his 2014 “Out There” summer concert tour. Alas, once again, the long and winding road for this former Beatle and veteran superstar appears to be skipping San Diego.
Apart from playing a private party in Rancho Santa Fe in 2003 (for which he was paid a reported $1 million that he donated to charity), McCartney has not performed a concert here since a 1976 San Diego Sports Arena date. That show was part of his “Wings Over America” tour with his first post-Beatles band.
Today, 38 years later, he continues to regularly mount arena and stadium tours around the world. And, at least when he tours the U.S., he continues to leave San Diego off his itinerary.
Never mind that his 2014 U.S. tour is being produced by Goldenvoice/AEG Live, the same company that owns a controlling interest in Valley View Casino Center (formerly the San Diego Sports Arena).
Never mind that when McCartney announced the 2013 leg of his “Out There” tour last year, his publicist issued a statement that read: “The ‘Out There’ tour will see Paul and his band travel the world throughout the year, visiting both places of historical significance to Paul and new spots for the very first time. Further announcements and dates will be added in the coming weeks.”
And never mind that, for this year’s “Out There” tour, McCartney and his band so far are again skipping San Diego in favor of such decidedly smaller locales as Albany, New York; Lubbock, Texas; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Fargo, North Dakota. Mind you, we have nothing against these places, especially Fargo, which inspired the name of one of our favorite Coen Brothers’ movies.
But it is puzzling that McCartney is performing in those places this year, as well as Aug. 10 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles and Aug. 14 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco (where The Beatles played the final show of their career in 1966), but not in San Diego. That is, not unless he were to suddenly announce a concert here after his San Francisco concert, which — thus far — is the last date on his tour (the Padres are conveniently on a road-trip between Aug. 14 and 24, while Qualcomm Stadium currently has no events listed after April 30).
Yes, both Dodger Stadium and the soon-to-be-demolished Candlestick Park both have larger capacities than San Diego’s Petco Park. And, yes, both those stadiums hosted concerts by McCartney and the Fab Four in the mid-1960s, as did San Diego’s now defunct Balboa Stadium. (McCartney’s reps did contact Qualcomm Stadium once in recent years to inquire about its availability, according to a stadium spokesman, but McCartney’s interest never went beyond that one initial inquiry.)
At this juncture in our story, it’s important to remember that size isn’t everything.
McCartney’s July 5 Albany concert will be held at the Times Union Center. That 24-year-old venue has a capacity of 12,600, making it smaller than both SDSU’s Viejas Arena and Valley View Casino Center (where he performed with Wings in 1976)..
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