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UndertheWire
07-31-2017, 11:41 AM
The subject of it being more lucrative to tour as Eagles rather than solo artists comes up quite often, particularly after the decision to continue to use the Eagles brand for shows.

I've been looking at the pollstar charts for the top 200 US tours for the last two years.
Eagles at #30 in 2015 (https://www.pollstarpro.com/files/charts2015/2015YearEndTop200NorthAmericanTours.pdf).
Joe/Walsh + Bad Company at #148 and Don Henley at #149 in 2016 (https://www.pollstarpro.com/files/Charts2016/2016YearEndTop200NorthAmericanTours.pdf).

Eagles, average gross per show, $1,250,000.
Joe Walsh+Bad Company, average gross per show, $316,000
Don Henley, average gross per show, $354,545

Even if they are keeping costs down when touring solo, they still employ and have to accommodate a lot of people. Don has said he doesn't make any money on his solo tours.

The next question is whether Don would make more taking all the profit from a solo show than he would from his share of an Eagles show.

The Don solo gross is 2/7 of the Eagles gross. Coincidentally, Don's share of profit from an Eagles show was 2/7 (according to Felder). Therefore if there were no costs, this would mean that Don made the same profit from an Eagles show as a solo show. Of course, there are costs and so long as the Eagles costs are less than 3.5 times the solo costs, Don's better off with the Eagles.

For example, if a solo show costs $350,000 and an Eagles show $950,000 (ie 3x)
Profit on solo show = 354,545 - 350,000 = 4,545
Profit on Eagles show = 2/7*(1,250,000-950,000) = 85,714

Of course, Joe only gets half what Don gets for an Eagles show but then he gets less than half what Don gets for a solo show, so he also is better off with the Eagles.

New Kid In Town
07-31-2017, 11:48 AM
Interesting UTW. I wonder if Don makes more now that Glenn is gone.:-(:-(
I wonder if Cindy inhert. his share of Eagles Limited and how much Deacon would get paid. I can't imagine him getting as much as Joe, Tim and Vince.
No question Don, Tim & Joe all make more money touring as the Eagles. I remember reading an old newspaper article at the beginning of HFO. The article said the Eagles would have a total gross of 300 million for touring, cd, dvd, and merchandise. They have continually been in the top five for tour gross profits since 1994.

groupie2686
07-31-2017, 12:21 PM
Cindy did inherit Glenn's share of Eagles Ltd. You can look up the company on the California corporations website. Henley and Cindy are co-owners, each owning 50%.

New Kid In Town
07-31-2017, 12:46 PM
Wow - groupie - thanks neighbor ! I figured she did but was not sure.
I know this sounds stupid(and I guess it is-lol) but what corporate site -ie: corps in Cali or something like that ? Thanks.

shunlvswx
07-31-2017, 01:21 PM
Here's the website.
https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/CBS

Its now called Eagles Recording Co which I think I have seen that name on the videos that get blocked. They have Colorado and Texas registration sent to CA. I'm not surprise Glenn left Cindy his half of the share. It looks like from the documents they changed that over just this year.

Back to the Eagles vs solo tours. The thing is Will, Scott, Steuart, and Michael were part of Eagles band plus also touring with Don when he did do a few shows here and there. So basically they just went on Don's payroll after the Eagles disbanded briefly last year up until they started back this month. Then you add Chris, Milo, Erica, Lara, Lily and the horn section into the mix, the profit gets smaller when you added 9 more people plus the people behind the scenes. Don's band and crew members) are probably bigger than Joe's and Timothy's. Well band wise its bigger than there, but I don't know about crew members) So i wonder if he's paying them the same as they paid them with the Eagles.

UndertheWire
07-31-2017, 02:14 PM
There's also Eagles Touring Company II. I don't see where it shows ownership, just the officers of the corporation.

Eagles Ltd could be a different corporation.

shunlvswx
07-31-2017, 02:16 PM
I missed that one.

groupie2686
07-31-2017, 02:30 PM
There's also Eagles Touring Company II. I don't see where it shows ownership, just the officers of the corporation.

Eagles Ltd could be a different corporation.

That may be true but I'm sure Cindy has some ownership...why would she an officer if she wasn't?

I thought I had seen Eagles Ltd. on there as well, I'll have to look again.

shunlvswx
07-31-2017, 02:34 PM
It is there. I don't know how I missed it. I couldn't find it at first.

I saw that Don and Cindy are directors on Eagles Ltd, but not Eagles Recording Co. I don't know what that means. The director part. She became director this year and it was only Don last year.

That kinda do explain why Cindy was ok or Don asking Cindy. She has a say in the band.

sodascouts
07-31-2017, 05:02 PM
What Cindy inherits is not as straightforward as "they simply hand her what Glenn would be earning if he were touring with them." It would be FAR more complex. Who knows all the contracts they drew up before the fact but it's never that simple!

Regarding profitability, don't forget the merch sales and the substantial guarantees the Eagles get regardless of ticket sales.

Still, I do think money is not the only lure. Even if it were not more profitable, it's a lot more gratifying to the ego to look out at a full arena than a theater of maybe a couple thousand.

UndertheWire
07-31-2017, 05:30 PM
I was surprised that only three active corporations showed up. Of course, there may be others without "Eagles" in the name.

At this point, I doubt that money is a big lure but... they want to make enough to pay everyone and make a profit. If the solo tours only break even - or even make a loss - that will matter less if there's an occasional Eagles show to pay the overheads (and keep management interested).

Those registration documents tell us about the officers of the corporations, not about the shareholdings, though it's likely that the officers are shareholders.

New Kid In Town
07-31-2017, 06:31 PM
Soda - So true. It seems like everything with the Eagles business wise is complicated........