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The overwhelming whiteness of concerts at Fenway Park

Ryan Benharris has gone through the list of concerts at Fenway Park since they started in 2003, and found that out of all 66 concerts, only one has had a black headliner - and that even then, Jay-Z had to share billing with Justin Timberlake.

Hosting one (or one half) of a concert by a non-white performer over the course of sixteen years on public permits is discrimination of the most blatant kind.

It’s not just on the city. It’s on the Red Sox. It’s on the artists like Zak Brown Band, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Phish, and Billy Joel to at least acknowledge that this is happening in Boston.

Entirely white performers at every show at Fenway Park don’t represent the Red Sox and they don’t represent Boston. The citizens of Boston deserve better than this bad look.

Do better @RedSox

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Comments

How many black performers have been denied the venue due to the color of their skin?

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great question!

/s

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the white guilt is so real with you and what ever idiot wrote this, its pathetic. artists choose on their own to perform at the td garden because their show will have a much, much, much better chance of their show selling out. how does that have anything to do with fenway????

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This isn’t a reach using UHub standards.

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you mean double standards

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Nobody called anyone a racist.

Somebody just asked a question.

When someone goes off the deep end because someone asked a question, well, isn't THAT a sign of guilt?

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It’s “Going off the deep end” to ask a single question about why a venue that is an international tourist destination has had one black performer and one female performer in 16 years?

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The quote was, "[it] is discrimination of the most blatant kind". That's not asking a question.

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I love that I’m an “idiot with white guilt” while you’re a guy who has to post anonymously because youre too ashamed of your opinion to give your name

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Probably posting anonymously so he doesn’t have an army of pink hats outside his house terrorizing his family because they don’t appreciate diversity of opinion.

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That well-known demographic of terrorizers, protesters from the women’s march who will hunt you down and stake out your house.

Which is to say: have you ever met or spoken to someone who wasn’t a trump voter? It might inform your ability to comment on things on the scary internet.

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Which is to say: have you ever met or spoken to someone who wasn’t a trump voter?

Odds are no. Trump had so many voters.

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This will be entertaining.

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Making money any way possible is the what this ownership group does best ie selling fenway bricks, dirt etc. I agree those numbers look very lopsided but I think they would welcome any performer that can sell the place out. How do these numbers compare to concerts hosted at Gillette stadium & other 40k person capacity venues across the country? And not to nitpick but the majority of Dave Matthews Band is African/African American (though their fan base may not be).

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What performers of color could fill Fenway?

Not generically, but fill an arena the size of Fenway with people from the Boston area?

I'm thinking someone like Bruno Marz could sell that many seats ... but I'm old and white so I'm not that familiar with what is popular right now.

Those in the know should make some suggestions.

The Fenway concerts seem geared to "classic rock" favorites to lure old people with money to buy $100 tickets and merch, which rules out a lot of potential acts wanting to sign on.

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Make Kiss 108 happen, Swirls. Popular songs are played every 1h40m now.

Ariana Grande, trap rappers, and the giant rectangles of noise that are known as Imagine Dragons are among the most popular contemporary acts.

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Ahh yes.... those pesky "old" and apparently wealthy, white people. Can't we ship them off to Florida already?? $100 dollar tickets??? When's the last time you paid to go to a concert?

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Beyonce and JayZ sold out multiple arenas in each city of their European and US tour for On The Run II.

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The stands hold 65,000 and whatever they can put on the field....sell a lot more tickets compared to Fenway.

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I was going to compose a list but, the same performers of color who fill The Garden?

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Went to buy Billy Joel tix and they were $150, Ok, high, but fine for a treat. Then there was $40 convenience fee. We passed.

He'll sell out, but the fees are getting ridiculous.

Gave up season tix a few years back for the same reason.

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BTS could easily fill Fenway.

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The Fenway concerts seem geared to "classic rock" favorites to lure old people with money to buy $100 tickets and merch, which rules out a lot of potential acts wanting to sign on.

And don't forget the venue needs an overwhelming amount of suckers to buy 7 dollar sodas and 10 dollar beers (I may be out of touch on that exact pricing but I remember taking a second mortgage to buy beers at Garth Brooks in the 90s... my last concert attended).

I checked the top grossing acts of the last four decades on the wikis. Swirls is spot on globally. Classic rock/Arena rock was and still is king. The Jacksons being the glaring exception.

For the record, I don't get U2. I Ubered their last Gillette gig and can say that the attendees I transported don't really get them either.... but they sure liked saying they attended. Fyre mentality. Geesh.

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Daddy and I feel like the Red Sox make the most of making people feel welcoming. We have white ball GIRLS at the HOT corners. We asked a certain african american writer who said he loves listening to Lady Gaga and the Rolling Stones when trying to get home late at night after being at the bar and we even told him how much we like and accept his dreadlocks to let him know how culturally sensitive we be woke.

Do you know hard it is to get Beyonce, or Selena, or Kanye, or PSY, or A.R Rahman to come to Fenway? It turns out, because we resarched it, that those people don't eat the same type of culturally empowered equitable meals that we have at Fenway. So we thought we would be insulting them if we asked them to have a Fenway Frank or $8 cup of ice cream out of a plastic batting helmet. We're saving us the embarrassment of showing how unprepared we are to be more aware.

I'm not a huge country music fan, but many of them it turns out do like hot dogs and soul cycling and the type of all american well balanced foods that we offer and beer. We made the couscous decision not to invite people in case we offended them which would be worse publicity. So we did invite some country music people because they would not feel offended.

So I think the Red Sox should be commended for not doing anything racially insensitive? We have invited artists young and old. Transvestites love Lady Gaga, she calls them her tiny creatures, We are totally open minded and welcoming just like Brookline where we let some of those Metco kids come in to our public schools too. Our valedictorians do well.

People need to be more nice, and kind and appreciate that it takes all types and kinds and comments and we need to empower and support those who want give everyone voices and songs from everywhere.

We're not racist our sister's cousin in law is black. We love this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43gm3CJePn0

I'm hoping for NBA Young Boy to come and play HubWeek and Fenway next year and give an eloquent speech about becoming a millionaire as a millennial. It's all about the Benjamins!

Don't hate the player, hate the game.

#metoo
#soulcycle
#Benjamins

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?

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Adam, can we please get Reddit style buttons so that we can downvote this crap to oblivion? I generally don't look at user names and I'm tired of wasting my time with the one or two sentences I read before realizing it's another wall of unfunny drivel from this user.

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that the lineup has been heavy from the start with members of the Not Quite Dead Yet Poets Society?

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Roman points out that technically, white is an ethnicity not a race. Or points out that actually, Hitler had some good ideas and the rest just got blown out of proportion. Whichever.

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will this little snack tide you over until dinner?

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Wrong. White is a color. Caucasian is a race. Irish-American, Italian-American, Polish-American, Armenian-American, Greek-American, those are ethnicities.

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Snitch9ine won't be available for the foreseeable future.

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I have to go to Lynn or Revere for Latin music..

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Nothing better than having Phaedra blasting out of thumpa-thumpa cars as they creep by. Happily, they seem to make housecalls all over Boston so I don't have to go to the "Latin Quarter" to get my fill.

/It is still okay to say "Latin Quarter"? I do so want to be, as the kids say, "excitant."

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Latin is Latin. Stop applying your own fixation about color. Some Hispanics are black, some are white. Many are mixed race. None worry about it.

Social justice warriors apply the term People of Color to Latinos to try to increase the ranks but in the end their focus is always African Americans.

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Reggaeton is totally white people music, bachatta too I suppose?

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IMAGE(https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8f/05/b1/8f05b1d3c47d7707c5f6649232817a7e.jpg)

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And it's Dominican.

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Have you ever been out in Boston?

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The vast majority of Fenway shows are old geezer bands. Bands that have been consistently touring for years and maintaining the kind of concert fan base that will come out for stadium shows year after year. And how many Black artists fit that bill?

Look at who was on the R&B charts when Pearl Jam or Billy Joel were at their peak and see how many of those artists are touring and filling 20K+ venues anywhere. If Cameo or Bell Biv DeVoe are selling out baseball stadiums in every city in America but Boston, there might be more to this guys critique. But the issue at Fenway seems more about age and longevity than race.

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mary j. blige, nas, laryn hill, maxwell, erykah badu,... are still touring stadium venues.

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At a minor league basketball arena outside of Memphis.

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That and hotter, newer performers will choose Gillette (cap 60,000) over Fenway (cap 35,000) or the Garden (cap 20,000)

Fenway's smaller, but commands a nostalgia premium.

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+1; this is basic non-inclusiveness in boston (persons tend to get bent outta' shape when the r-word is dropped).
the powers that be that make decisions on who to recruit to perform dont have a lot of black friends. so when they are planning a concert then rolling stones pop into their mind and not mary j.

why is sweet caroline the 7th inning stretch song and not poison (we give more love to some random singer than a local band that recorded one of the best songs of all time).

like a lot of things in boston, this just isnt intended for me.

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But they're no band. The Roots are a band. Kool and the Gang are a band. Earth, Wind & Fire is a band. One of those three is busy with a nightly TV show. I don't know what the other two are up to, but I would be (expletive) delighted to see them at Fenway.

As for Jay-Z at Fenway, Big Pimpin' was, and always will be, my jam, and the greatest rejection of monogamy ever put into song (even though he chased Texas Yoko Ono in the end), but there's no chance I would ever pay a nickel to see a rapper in concert. I can stay home and listen to records for free. What guitar solo is Shawn Carter gonna bust out for me?

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I love R&B but I'll pass on BBD and Jay Z. I saw BBD at the Budweiser Superfest many years ago, they just aren't good live, and Jay Z is simply nasty.
The type of R&B I want to see isn't going to perform at Fenway or Gillette anyways .
I'm happy with India Aire, Jennifer Hudson or Patti LaBelle in smaller venues. It's all about quality, not quantity, who cares about the bean counters fixation on color.

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Earth, Wind & Fire is a band.

When I read the headline of this article, I was all like "Well dang, I'd go see Earth Wind and Fire if they played Fenway". Then it occurred to me that I have no idea what race Earth Wind and Fire were. Teh Googles show they are black. Okay.

So now I need a rock solid bucket list artist or band to get all properly virtue signaled....

Harry Belafonte before he went insane...or dead... I have no idea. Too late for that anyway due to his insanity. Run DMC.... but it ain't the same without JMJ. Slick Rick! I would pay over 100 a ticket for Slick Rick..... the guy with the thing on his eye.... which brings me to Nicki Minaj. Is she black? I would attend a Minaj or Cardi B concert for free...... I owe Cardi B a favor anyway.

Virtue. Signaled.

And for the record, BBD were lab created, not artistically formed. Another fake band put it best "You know so much of the music we here today is preprogrammed electronic disco. You never get a chance to hear master bluesmen practicing their craft anymore
By the year 2006 the music known today as the blues will exist only in the classical records department in your local public library So tonight, ladies and gentlemen
While we still can let us welcome from Rock Island Illinois The blues music from Elliot Jake and Elwood Blue, the Blues Brothers"

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I find it wrong that in this day and age we are celebrating bands that are only made up of one race. How can any singular race band’s music be enjoyed when we know that the band that’s making the music doesn’t celebrate diversity?

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I find it wrong that in this day and age we are celebrating bands that are only made up of one race. How can any singular race band’s music be enjoyed when we know that the band that’s making the music doesn’t celebrate diversity?

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Dig this,

Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire - Live at the Greek Theatre '04

https://youtu.be/XzFPG4UtVko?t=3

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Because it was played once between innings and the fans reacted well to it. The batters come up to all genres of music, but for some reason that Neil Diamond song has stuck. It's odd, but since my favorite soccer club is know for singing a song from the Rogers and Hamerstein musical Carousel, I cannot criticize the taste of sports fan.

That said, perhaps the owners of said soccer club could perhaps experiment on some non-white acts. I mean, since they now have a bunch of concerts each summer, one or two days wouldn't hurt.

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Jim Plunkett (not the quarterback) has been playing around Boston and Cape Cod for years and his fan base definitely leans towards the "townie" type. His shows feature a lot of call and response type stuff that he "trains" the audience in and his version of Sweet Caroline featured the now infamous "so good, so good, so good" by the audience. After they introduced recorded music in addition to the organ at Fenway when it was played it was almost a Pavlovian response in the stands by people who would see him and it ended up catching on with a wider audience through that. I saw Jim Plunkett many times long before recorded music and Sweet Caroline was a thing at Fenway and even introduced the "so good" chant to a bar I worked at in DC when in college which was well before that too.

Here's the originator.

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I saw Jim Plunkett many times long before recorded music

Damn that guy must be REALLY old.

(and you as well).

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At least how I recall hearing it from an insider, the young guy in charge of the music was having a baby and got The Call. Threw on Sweet Caroline because they were naming the baby...you guessed it, and made for the hospital. The rest, as they say, is history.

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That could be the background as to why the song was first played over the PA system at Fenway. It's just that a lot of people think seem to think that the "so good" chant originated at the park but it was definitely a thing around town before that.

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So unworld class. Next thing you know people will be hurling racial epitaphs at Fenway Park.

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Trying to think of what that might look like.

Something like "Here Lies An Old White Idiot Buried In His MAGA Hat. Good Riddance."

Or maybe one of those angels in blackface on the tombstone?

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the Governor of Virginia

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Whoopie and Black faceTed Danson. Are they still touring?
Snoop dog. Does he still tour with women on leashes?

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The diversity police are on patrol.

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Adam can we get your input on this? It seems to me that you post these articles as click bait.

You need internet traffic on your site, a site that is often informative, and which many of us do appreciate. But sometimes you post articles like these that scream “comment here, to justify my existence to my advertisers”.

Fenway host concerts that will sell out. That’s all there is to it.

Your thoughts? Are you about to buy a ticket to a Chief Keef concert? Or is A Tribe Called Quest, a fantastic rap group, reuinting and coming soon to a stadium near me? Cause I would go.

What’s your favorite Tribe song?

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If what I'm posting offends you, don't click on it. Pretty simple.

Most people seem to follow that advice, because, based on my logs, I'm a complete failure at clickbaitery.

First, the page that gets the most views, by far, on any given day is the home page. I don't post links on social media directly to the home page, so strike one for my alleged clickbait efforts.

Second, the logs also show that over the past 30 days, almost half my visitors are "direct" visitors (46.2% to be exact), meaning they came here through a bookmark or typing in the URL, rather than following one of the links I so deviously spread around Twitter and Facebook (or which my minions so deviously spread around). Another 37% are coming in via search engines, which means they're looking for something specific.

So most people are not being baited by my links. They're repeat visitors (in a given month, about 72% are return visitors) who, for whatever reasons, just want to see what I'm posting. And because I sort of still adhere to blog style, you don't even have to click on a link on the home page to get the main point of most of my posts. If I had to depend on clickbait, I'd have had to declare bankruptcy long ago.

As for concerts at Fenway, I've never been to a single one, even though I'm right in Billy Joel's target demographic. I'm kind of a homebody, up here in the HubCave in our mountain fastness.

So, no, personally, the artist roster at Fenway doesn't affect me one way or or the other. But I am interested in the sort of city we are and are becoming. And in a city that is now minority majority, yes, I am very interested in things like the an analysis of the racial makeup of concerts at one of the city's largest venues, especially when they show that less than 1% of those concerts are by artists who aren't white.

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Twice, I've been looking for something, did a google search, and was directed to your page. The first was when I was curious if anyone had done anything on the Canterbury Brook (great work, by the way.) The other was today, when I was looking for a list of Fenway concerts after reading this (nothing, but if someone has a good list, please link.)

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It's a lot of work for somebody, but the same analysis for all the 40,000+ seat big-city concert venues would say a lot about to what degree this is a nationwide phenomenon and where Boston fits into it. There are going to be disparities and they would be interesting.

FWIW, I agree with Mr. Benhariss' sentiments.

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This could very welll be the only large city in the western world where you point out 65 white artist to 1 black artist in a city with a 2:1 white:black ratio...and the white people say you’re ‘reaching’.

Then they wanna complain about ‘the media’ giving the city a bad rep. You’re all doing that on this board-and y’all are the liberal ones.

You all deserve a round of applause for your adamantv enial and obtuseness. Truly inspirational racism, truly.

Black people (and white people) all over the globe know you’re here and it’s probably why they’re not eager to perform in one of Boston’s most famous venues. This is the majority of the audience.

Anyone who’s not disgusted at the count is a racist of some degree and that’s not really debatable.

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So the residents of the city of Boston choose who plays at Fenway now?!? Nah, that’s BS.
Do performers contact Fenway to play concerts at the venue or vice versa? If Fenway is seeking out ppl to perform and not including artists of color, that is a problem, a big problem. But if performers contact Fenway to book the venue, who fault is it that artists of color haven’t played there?

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Because those two are really the only two big "non white" concert tours going around that didn't play there (except for a few Latin stars). The Jay Z/Beyonce concert was there, and they are in the top 5 concert tours out of anyone.

Everyone else probably isn't going to sell enough tickets. So except for Bruno and Drake, I can't think of anyone you could put in there that might sell out?

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Migos, Nicki Minaj?

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So I still can't think of many others except for some top Latin stars, who do well at other Boston venues (Garden and Agganis)

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If this is your concern in life then consider yourself privileged. There are people in Venezuela who haven't had a full meal in months but your concern in life is if Mary J Blige adds Fenway to her tour calendar.

Music is a genre not a color. Fenway attracts a certain music genre, mostly classic rock, that has nothing to do with color. R&B acts head to Lynn or Malden. Should we get our undies in a twist that Billy Joel isn't playing at the Lynn Auditorium? It's actually a nice venue and GREAT for seeing a concert. Much more intimate than Fenway. But you're too hung up on bean counting to see that many R&B artists perform at what is clearly an undervalued venue.

Another big issue is demographics. Bean counters focus too much on the color of the population. Boston has a large black population but it is heavily Haitian and Caribbean and not African-American.
That impacts the audiences available for concert tours.

Radio and the music industry are somewhat tied to each other. Media One is the largest black owned media company in the US and even they gave up on Boston. Media One couldn't make an urban contemporary formatted radio successful in Boston. Now iHeartMedia has it on 97.7 R&B, albeit an R&B station with a very bland, corporate tested playlist, that relies on attracting suburbanites who's taste in R&B is limited to pop acts like TLC and En Vogue. This station would fail miserably in Philly or New York competing against real R&B stations like WDAS and WBLS that play real R&B

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In no particular order, I think most of the bands below might sell-out Fenway Park.

When they were alive and fit it the 2003 start-of-concerts @ Fenway Park:
- Aretha Franklin
- Prince
- Michael Jackson

Not touring but, again, fit the 2003 start-of-concerts @ Fenway Park:
- Tina Turner

Many of these still touring:
- Stevie Wonder
- Parliament-Funkadelic
- Bootsy Collins
- Santana
- Buddy Guy
- WAR
- Tower of Power
- George Benson
- Al Green
- Mavis Staples
- Toni Braxton
- Sly + The Family Stone
- Rufus w/Chaka Khan
- Lionel Richie
- Smokie Robinson
- Janet Jackson
- Patti LaBelle
- Pointer Sisters
- Isley Brothers
- Kool + The Gang
- The Ohio Players
- The O'Jays

Some of the above might get a bigger draw if they played as a touring entourage.

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I can't imagine ingesting enough drugs that would allow me to envision Mavis Staples selling out Fenway Park.

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Stevie Wonder and Sly & the Family Stone, please.

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I love that list!!! Side note; Tavares and the Sugar Hill Gang have played Florian Hall recently.

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Good lord this is beyond rediculous. Bottom line is that if you can find acts (outside of Beyonce) that would command well over $100 just to get in the door then ownership would do it. They target bands like the stones and Pearl Jam because the fans are middle age, in their prime earning period of their careers, and can plop down a few hundred bucks for a two hour show no problem. And the shows will be packed night after night.

Would the writer have the same to say for venues down south that might attract primarily country bands? Racist also I guess. And what about soccer at Fenway? Did they not do a good enough job hosting friendly matches from countries with enough people of color? Get ready, that will be the next criticism

Also, I was at the bruins game the other night. WAY too many white people in the stands and on the ice. Time to ban hockey. Bunch of white guys with sticks. Racist top to bottom

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Sorry that you are uncomfortable in your own skin Adam aka whitey. You are dividing the nation with your attitude and fake news blog.

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using your trolling powers for good? If you could figure out how to harness the kinetic energy from thousands of people rolling their eyes this hard, we could get the Commonwealth to its emissions goals well before 2050.

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Your political party have already done far more dividing than anyone can ever hope to outdo

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Wow. Someone actually had time to research this. This is a man in dire need of a hobby. What a reach.

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Never a basketball game.

Unbelievable and I think this guy is onto something.

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Basketball game outside and in a baseball park? Can you please give examples of a black city or any city that has ever done that?

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The NBA does not have a history of playing outdoor games. By the time you'd have a reasonable assurance of decent weather, you'd be in the playoffs or off-season.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_outdoor_games

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You saying the NBA has a diversity issue. Also, please name a single NBA event which takes place outdoors. You think drama queens like Lebron want to play outdoors in the cold?

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Shame on you.

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Sometimes the truth hurts. The NBA has more flops than European football.

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I don't doubt that the person who triggered the story was sincerely interested in the issue -- and then perhaps after seeing the result became concerned.

BUT this is not a headline of importance --- and it has Nothing to do with Racism. John Henry and the Red Sox ownership & C-level of FSG, LLC*1 --- are probably some of the most liberal [some would say Lefty] major ownership in Sports. After all John Henry's owns the Boston Globe -- hardly a bastion of Trumpism.

Here's a quote from a Forbes story about FSG, LLC*1 aka the Red Sox + Fenway, etc. = John Henry & Friends

JAY Z IS LOOKING for a place to play in Boston, and pal LeBron James sells him on Fenway Park.

*2

What is more interesting than the story as someone has pointed out -- is the Knee Jerk responses to the story.

Ultimately, its all about Business and Math -- once again STEAMB [Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math, Business] is shown to be valuable compared to Ignorance, Fear, Hatred and the usual suspects.

Let's put it in perspective:

Neither Fenway Park -- the mothership of Fenway Sports Group*1 -- nor the Res Sox could survive on just the population of the City of Boston -- no matter what its racial or ethnic makeup -- its just not big enough. Look at the size of the city proper behind the rich teams [e.g. Houston --2.3 Million, NYC --8.1 Million, LA -- 4 Million, Chicago --2.7 Million ] all are far bigger in population than within Boston's city limits

What makes Fenway and the Red Sox aka Fenway Sports Group, LLC successful as a business venture*2 is that they have figured out how to capitalize on the New England Effect -- and use it as a base to become a Global Enterprise*2,3

It all about Scaling [to the nearest 10,000 from wikipedia] and your audience:
Boston proper has about 700,000 people = 1 Congressional District size
Throw in the rest of Suffolk County and the contiguous suburbs:
Cambridge -- 110,000
Newton -- 90,000
Quincy-- 90,000
Sommerville -- 80,000
Brookline -- 60,000
Revere -- 50,000
Chelsea -- 40,000
Watertown -- 40,000
Milton -- 30,000
Dedham --30,000
Winthrop -- 20,000
subtotal = 640,000 [almost the size of Boston]
Total = 1,340,000 [approx 2 Cong Districts]
The rest of the inner suburbs within or touching Rt. 128 add about another 1,000,000
and now the total you gets comfortably past 2 Million and approaching 2.5 Million -- Houston City Size
keep going out to the Boundaries of the T and you are well past 3 Million
The direct signals of the Big 4 TV Stations reach over 4.5 Million including Worcester, Manchester NH
Greater Boston MSA*4 == 4,730,000 -- about the size of the City of LA
Greater Boston CSMA*4 == 8,100,000 -- about the size of NYC
Go all the way out to encompass New England -- 14,100,000 -- a couple of Millions bigger than Pennsylvania and a couple of Millions short of NY State
Throw in the Canadian Maritimes if you want -- overall the core of Red Sox Nation might approach 20 Million -- NESN cable coverage

That's who FSG markets the Red Sox and through them Fenway as a venue for Hockey, Ice Racing and Concerts -- and Yes it is an overwhelmingly Euro-based population

No surprise and no guilt either -- that's just what it is

Now let everybody go back to doing something hopefully productive!

*1 Fenway Sports Group from the Wikipedia Article:

Divisions:
Fenway Sports Management
Fenway Sports Group Real Estate

Subsidiaries
Boston Red Sox
Liverpool F.C.
Fenway Park
Anfield
Roush Fenway Racing (50%)
Pawtucket Red Sox (10%)
Salem Red Sox
Fenway Sports Management --- the lebron James Connection
New England Sports Network (80%)
Fenway Theater
Fenway Music Company

*2

Red Sox Nation Goes Global
Kurt Badenhausen
Forbes Staff
I cover sports business with rare dips into b-schools, local economies
This story appears in the April 14, 2014 issue of Forbes.

JAY Z IS LOOKING for a place to play in Boston, and pal LeBron James sells him on Fenway Park. British soccer team Liverpool is looking for a jersey sponsor--at the last minute Boston-based New Balance sweeps past rivals to do the deal. Best Buy BBY -1.3% decides to stop sponsoring the Boston Red Sox--it moves that money to Nascar, backing Roush Fenway Racing instead.

None of this is happenstance, and none of this is what you'd expect from a company with its roots in one of the most tradition-laden franchises in the most tradition-laden sport. As corporations go, the Boston Red Sox are no more--they are but a cog (with Liverpool and the Nascar team as the other cornerstone assets) in the Fenway Sports Group, the most sophisticated, synergistic player in the coming age of international sports conglomerates.

FSG is attempting to marry the clubby world of team ownership and the slick field of sports management. A sports conglomerate that's integrated vertically, horizontally--and globally--Fenway Sports Management handles all sponsorships for its three teams, as well as players and squads it doesn't own, including James, Heisman winner Johnny Manziel, Boston College, MLB Advanced Media and the PGA's Deutsche Bank Championship. Sponsors face a bewildering array of possibilities across teams, events and athletes. "We wake up every day and think about how to increase revenues because we think that is the best way to fuel a winning product," says co-owner Tom Werner, who originally made his bones in Hollywood, producing the likes of The Cosby Show and Roseanne.....

*3 Considered by many to be one of the top Sports-related businesses

An an April 2014 article in Forbes, senior editor Kurt Badenhausen called FSG "the most sophisticated, synergistic player in the coming age of international sports conglomerates"

*4 Greater Boston from Wiki

Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston, the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts, and the most populous city in New England, as well as its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern arc of the US northeast megalopolis and as such, Greater Boston can be described as either a metropolitan statistical area (MSA), or as a broader combined statistical area (CSA). The MSA consists of most of the eastern third of Massachusetts, excluding the South Coast region and Cape Cod; while the CSA additionally includes the municipalities of Manchester (the largest city in the U.S. state of New Hampshire), Providence (the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island), Worcester, Massachusetts (the second largest city in New England), as well as the South Coast region and Cape Cod in Massachusetts. While the small footprint of the city of Boston itself only contains an estimated 685,094, the urbanization has extended well into surrounding areas.

and

Greater Boston is ranked tenth in population among US metropolitan statistical areas, home to 4,732,161 people as of the 2014 US Census estimate, and sixth among combined statistical areas, with a population of 8,099,575.

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There should not be any concerts at Fenway Park. Have concerts at Franklin Park or White Stadium.

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they do:
soca in the park / reggae in the park.

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What would Elvis say ?

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Black people do not like Fenway. They have little reverence for the park itself somewhat because of the Yawkey stuff but mainly because baseball is not that popular with them. They prefer not to be outside during concerts exposed to the elements. With white people, it gets complicated. They are interested in venues with "character" and get more excited to see their favorite musical groups play in these venues so they can post about it. Black people could care less about that and only want a venue that's new, comfortable, and with better amenities, such as TD Garden.

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Red Sox officials say 23 percent of their employees are people of color, which is only slightly higher than the rest of Major League Baseball. As for the front office staff, the team says it doesn’t have data readily available. -- WBUR, October 2018

John Henry infamously said he was "haunted" by philanthropist Tom Yawkey's racism, yet in 2018, the Red Sox still weren't able to count how people of color worked in the front office? Please. This isn't Walmart or China Petroleum with millions of employees. Far-left WBUR dutifully left it alone, not asking when the "data will be readily available." BTW, how many African-Americans in the front office of the Globe?

Publicity hounds, Red Sox owners follow the news closely and most likely are frightened by stories like this one on UHub about a City Hall Plaza rap concert that ended in violence . They apparently don't want that element on stage or in the front office but it's OK, John Henry is a devout liberal and opposes Trump. Kudos to Ryan Benharris for exposing these frauds.

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Sometimes the Knees Jerk so violently that --- almost nothing makes it from the eyes to the brain

Under those kinds of conditions -- the Knee Jerker is unlikely to read more than one or two lines before they fire off a preconceived or pre-prepared by someone else's talking points

Well anyway here's the quote from my longish post -- followed with a brief explanation

Here's a quote from a Forbes story about FSG, LLC*1 aka the Red Sox + Fenway, etc. = John Henry & Friends

JAY Z IS LOOKING for a place to play in Boston, and pal LeBron James sells him on Fenway Park.*2

What that means is that one component of Fenway Sports Group is the Fenway Sports Management --- and at least at the time one of their Clients was LeBron James

It was LeBron who recruited Jay Z to play a concert at Fenway Sounds like a max-ed out White Supremacist plot doesn't it!!

OK -- Comprenez vous, Verstehen Sie, Rozumiesz, Enteneu, du forstår, Érted?????????

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You might want to take a look at the artist in question, and consider what race his fans might have been. You're also old enough to remember the Green Day riot on the Esplanade, which involved artists every bit as pale as you or I.

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Wow, I can't believe how triggered people are by this question. Knowing how racist Boston is, you'd think people would maybe think twice before they instinctively respond "no we're not!"

A few theories about the Fenway concerts:
- Management is trying to appeal to the largest demographic who currently attends and spends money at Red Sox games: middle aged to older white people.
- Management is worried about the "wrong element" coming to Fenway and causing problems either in the venue or outside the venue before or after. I'm sure they are afraid of the bad press if there is a shooting or some other incident.

Are both of these reasons racist? Yup. The first one is slightly more excusable than the second, but not by much.

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Lets keep it that way ! Just sayin

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