GarthBrooks.com
Earlier this week, the city said it had received hundreds of complaints from residents living near the venue, and decided to rule the five shows would violate local concert statutes Brooks responded by saying he'd only play the entire run of shows, or none at all. Approximately 400,000 people - equivalent to about a tenth of Ireland's entire population- had purchased tickets to the five-run set scheduled for July 25-29.
Speaking at a press conference in Nashville Thursday, Brooks called on Taoiseach Enda Kenny to intervene. "You have a gentleman over there standing by his decision," he said of Dublin's city manager. "There should be somebody above that gentleman who can say we're going to have five shows." Brooks added: "If the prime minister himself wants to talk to me I will crawl swim fly over to him. I will drop on my knees just to let those 400,000 people see me."
There have been reports throughout the day of meetings scheduled, and then canceled, between Kenny and Brooks' tour promoter. Brooks himself indicated he had heard no further developments. Ireland's RTE News now reports an agreement is likely to be reached later this evening, with speculation that the two additional concerts would be held later in the year.
The numbers getting thrown about the cost of dropping the shows were not insignificant: The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has put the cost of the cancellations at 50 million euros, or about $68 million, and the Irish Mirror reported fans had spent a total of $35.5 million on tickets, with over 200,000 hotel rooms booked for what was to be the start of a mid-summer comeback tour that would kick off in Dublin's 83,000-capacity Croke Park Stadium later this month.
"It's 'not Ireland' to say, 160,000 people? 'Screw you.' It's not you guys," Brooks said.