Carrie Underwood’s tour put up big numbers — or did it?

Via canada.com...

Carrie Underwood had a successful tour in 2010 with Play On but how successful was it exactly? According to Underwood’s PR people, over one million fans took in the tour during it’s schedule of 108 dates.
Yet Pollstar’s listing of the top 50 worldwide concert tours has Underwood at a signficantly smaller number — 778,930 fans attending 102 dates.
How much of a difference are the two figures? Well, if Underwood’s totals are to be believed, she averaged 9,259 fans per show. Using Pollstar’s figures, Underwood averaged 7,637 fans per show.
When I first received the news release from Underwood’s camp, I didn’t think there was any reason to question the numbers. I took in Underwood’s show in Saskatoon on June 20 and I’ve got no doubts that she was definitely capable of selling a boatload of tickets. But I then started doing a little research and there are a number of websites where fans are expressing their displeasure at Underwood’s camp claiming her tour attracted one million fans.
So who is right in this dispute? Well, I’m sure Pollstar would stand behind the figures used in its listings and I’m just as sure that Underwood’s people can prove that their figures are from a reliable source. My best guess is that this is a case of comparing apples vs. oranges. It’s most likely that the sources, although trying to reach a similiar goal, used different methods to come to their final figures.
What interested me most about the Pollstar listing was that the artists were ranked according to gross sales per tour. Six country tours made the list: Tim McGraw (No. 25, $42.9 million); Brad Paisley (No. 26, $42.4 million); George Strait/Reba/Lee Ann Womack (No. 27, $41.6 million); Taylor Swift (No. 28, $40.4 million); Underwood (No. 32, $38.3 million); and, Rascal Flatts (No. 48, $28.4 million).
Of the six country tours that made the list, Underwood played the most shows (102), Strait/Reba/Womack had the highest average ticket price ($84.30), McGraw sold the most tickets (871,708) and Swift had the largest average crowd (17,873).