No Shoes Nation Means No Seats Empty: Kenny Chesney Breaks Own KC Record

Jill Trunnell – Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney stands alone at the top of his own attendance record at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., July 14. The stop on his “Trip Around The Sun” tour racked up 57,528 tickets sold, besting his old record from 2015 with Jason Aldean.

Kenny Chesney capped a record-breaking week with a sold-out show at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., July 14, moving 57,528 tickets and besting his previous record there of 57,358 when he co-headlined with Jason Aldean in 2015.

For Arrowhead Stadium, Pollstar has other big sellers including The Rolling Stones in 2015 (49,502), Taylor Swift in 2011 (48,562) and U2 in 2017 (39,593).

Two days after the KC show, the leader of the No Shoes Nation learned his latest hit, “Get Along” became his 30th hit to top country airplay lists, as reported by Billboard, for another record.

And those aren’t the only career highs from Chesney, either. His April show at Miller Park in Milwaukee brought the highest attendance, at 43,526, of any of his three shows there. His tour opener at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., sold 57,528 tickets and a June 5 show at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field cleaned out 55,238 tickets.

The Messina Group’s Louis Messina has seen a lot of Chesney barnburners, but even he marvels at his client’s continued upward trajectory.

“Night after night I watch Kenny at these shows and he’s found a new gear. It has been the most amazing summer where he keeps shattering his own record in so many of these NFL stadiums (Tampa, Milwaukee, Kansas etc). His show remains one of the highest energy parties of the summer, and he’s hitting that stage harder than ever,” Messina told Pollstar.

There’s plenty of road ahead of Chesney and tourmates Old Dominion (Thomas Rhett and Brandon Lay also make appearances on selected dates), including Chicago, Nashville, New York and two nights in Boston to close out another summer Aug. 24-25.

“He’s always been about the person at the very back of the stadium, but this is something else,” Messina says. “From the moment No Shoes Nation hits the parking lots, it’s on. We’re seeing it in the shows, and we’re seeing it in the people coming out in all these stadium cities.”

For Pollstar’s 2018 Mid-Year Special Features, Chesney came in at No. 5 on the Top 100 North American Tours chart, with $62.1 million grossed on 25 shows according to Pollstar data.