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Tickets for Garth Brooks’ two upcoming Portland shows went on sale this morning, followed immediately by the news that two additional shows would be added, and then a fifth show on Sunday afternoon was added as well. This means the once-and-future Chris Gaines will be at the Moda Center for nearly a week, playing from Sunday, April 12 through Thursday, April 16 (with two shows on Sunday and a day off on Tuesday).

I asked for some numbers on how many seats would be available per show, but was not provided that information; the Moda Center capacity hovers somewhere around 20,000 for a basketball game, but concert configurations and stage setups can alter that number. Brooks’ people announced at noon that the take for all five shows was at 61,969 tickets sold—an oddly exact number that has surely grown in the time since they sent that press release, as tickets are still selling as we speak. Reportedly, this is the new ticket sales record for the Moda Center, including during its prior incarnation as the Rose Garden, which leads me to ask: Does this run of five Garth Brooks shows have the most number of seats available to see a single act in Portland’s history?

If there are in fact somewhere around 20,000 seats per show, that brings the total close to 100,000 people over the course of five shows—one seat for every six residents in Portland. That’s insane. I can’t think of an event or even a festival that would have had a similar number of potential tickets available, but finding historical records with accurate attendance draws is more than a little tricky. Sure, huge acts like the Beatles and U2 have played in Portland before (either at the Rose Garden or Memorial Coliseum) but none of them did a five-show run.

Brooks’ people say that the Moda Center/Rose Garden’s previous record was also held by Garth: 54,873 tickets sold for a run of shows that took place July 25-27 in 1996.

So, odds are pretty good that you’re going to a Garth Brooks show. Can you remember a bigger concert or series of concerts in Portland’s history?

Ned Lannamann is a writer and editor in Portland, Oregon. He writes about film, music, TV, books, travel, tech, food, drink, outdoors, and other things.

6 replies on “Portland Likes Garth Brooks the MOST”

  1. Your math is way off. You’re presuming people who live in Portland proper are really into Garth Brooks. Demography tells me they’re driving in from Clackamas and Vancouver.

  4. Garth Brooks is about as good as mainstream country from the past three or four decades gets and if you disagree go fuck yourself. You probably bandwagoned onto and off of Kanye.

  5. It wasn’t a ticketed event, but wasn’t the crowd for the Obama rally on the waterfront where the Decemberists played estimated around 75,000?

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