Demand There for More as Red Dirt Stock Sells Out Four Concerts and Makes More for NIL
STILLWATER – I don’t know the music tastes of stadium namesake and late Oklahoma State benefactor Boone Pickens, but Pickens was a good ole Oklahoma native of Holdenville, Okla. and he was a profiteer thatloved making money. Oklahoma State University and athletics in conjunction with promoter Russell Doussan of the Doussan Music Group have “captured lightning in a bottle” and sold out four dates April 10, 11, 12, and 13 in Boone Pickens Stadium. Over 180,764 tickets have been sold to see the headliners The Turnpike Troubadours and the return after close to 15-years of Cross Canadian Ragweed. Add in popular red dirt music genre acts like The Great Divide, Stoney Larue, and Jason Boland and The Stragglers.
When the shows on Thursday, April 10 and the Sunday, April 13 sold out on Tuesday, Oct. 8 there were still 95,000 people in the cue trying to buy tickets. The process of potentially arranging for more dates in ongoing. The demand is obviously there.
“You have captured lightning in a bottle,” promoted Russell Doussan told the folks at Oklahoma State. “I’ve been in this business a long time and I’ve only seen something like this once with Garth (Brooks).”
The crazy nature of the massive ticket buying in just the presale portion of the ticket opportunities has been compared to current acts like Taylor Swift and Oasis.
The Turnpike Troubadours, with a heritage and strong tie to Eastern Oklahoma and in particular the Tahlequah area, has been an tremendously popular touring act and served as one of the flagship acts in the Red Dirt music genre. Now, you combine the Turnpike Troubadours with the reunion of popular lead singer Cody Canada and his bandmates in Cross Canadian Ragweed and it has created an energy in the fans of Red Dirt that is seldom seen. Those are the headliners, but the home of Red Dirt in North Central and Eastern Oklahoma cherish acts like The Great Divide with their hit “College Days” a song about being in college from their days at Oklahoma State.
Now, after the bands, promoters, and other entities takes their fees and cuts the concert is to benefit NIL at Oklahoma State for athletics and football. The initial thought with one concert was that NIL at OSU would take in somewhere between $500-to-700,000. With four concerts sold out, I was told the expected take for NIL in athletics will be between $3.2-and-$3.5 million.
The quote is absolutely accurate in the Oklahoma State athletics and Red Dirt music have created a financial fusion that is going to rock Stillwater and the surrounding area next April as hotels are booked up, restaurants, businesses, the entire town had best prepare for a modern day version of Woodstock with close to 200,000 people being in town over the four-day period.