The Rolling Stones confirmed to play concert at Adelaide Oval
ADELAIDE Oval will host rock gods The Rolling Stones for a blockbuster concert in front of up to 70,000 people during a festival season set to be the city's biggest.
The Advertiser revealed in October that the world-famous band was being headhunted for an Adelaide performance to mark the opening of the upgraded stadium early next year.
It can now be revealed that the concert date will be announced today. It is understood to be on Saturday, March 22.
The show will come at the tail-end of the city's famous festival season, which includes the Fringe and Adelaide festivals, as well as the Clipsal 500 V8 race.
It will be Adelaide Oval's first major music event and held just one week after the state election.
It is understood the Government has used taxpayer funds to help lure the band and a source close to the deal said the payment was less than $500,000.
However, industry sources have previously said a carrot of "at least several million dollars" would be needed to bring the band to Adelaide, a city it has avoided on its last two Australian tours.
Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger is a noted cricket fan and it is believed the band has been attracted in part by the chance to play at one of the world's best-known sporting grounds.
While details on ticket pricing are not yet known, fans can expect to pay some of the most expensive fees yet seen for an Australia music performance.
VIP standing tickets to the band's Hyde Park, London, shows this year went for more than $560 and $165 to stand up the back. A VIP "hospitality" ticket set back UK fans more than $1600.
Music promoter Michael Gudinski, who heads Frontier Touring, has previously said securing the Rolling Stones for another Australian tour would be a "dream come true".
The State Government promised the Adelaide Oval redevelopment during the 2010 election campaign after the Opposition unveiled its own plans to enliven the Riverbank precinct.
The upgraded ground had its first test at the weekend during a Sheffield Shield match, where South Australia and Western Australia played in front of only one operational grandstand.
The Ashes Test starting on December 5 is expected to have capacity for 35,000 people because the 18,000-seat southern stand will also be open. Five thousand seats will also be made available in the half-finished eastern stand, where the Government says construction is ahead of schedule.
The Ashes Test is also being promoted as the first chance for the public to use the $40 million River Torrens footbridge that will link Adelaide Oval to the Adelaide Railway Station.
The first AFL match will be a Showdown between the Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide Power on the evening of March 29, a week after the Rolling Stones concert.
That match will have capacity for 50,000 fans because the entire stadium is expected to be operational.
Concerts at Adelaide Oval will have an even larger capacity because fans are permitted on the turf.
The Rolling Stones last visited Adelaide in 1995 for their Voodoo Lounge tour. The concert was at Football Park and 28,000 tickets were reportedly sold.
Adelaide missed out on the Licks Tour in 2003 and Bigger Bang tour in 2006.
The Rolling Stones first played in Adelaide in 1965, where tickets for the two Centennial Hall shows on February 11 and 12 could be bought for as little as 16 shillings.
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