Pink will be back at Pinnacle Bank Arena for the third time, and first in six years, on Sunday.
The aerobatic pop star last played the arena in 2018, drawing a sold-out crowd of 14,300 to witness her spectacular singing/dancing/flying show. She has since played two Omaha concerts, a 2019 engagement at CHI Health Center and a stadium show at Charles Schwab Field that drew a crowd of more than 35,000 to the sweltering baseball park in August 2023.
It took 10 minutes for Pink to become the arena’s first sold-out show when tickets for her November 2013 concert went on sale that March. That concert also drew more than 14,000 people, a PBA record in its first three months of operations.
Sunday’s concert is also a sell-out, perhaps the best indicator that it is the arena's “big show†of the fall.
Or, to be more precise, the big mainstream show, be it pop, country, rock or hip-hop.
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For SuicideBoys, the underground/independent rappers, played to more than 10,000 at PBA last week, which has to be seen as a big show — even if it can appear to some, at times, that the arena isn’t getting the run of major artist shows it experienced during its first decade, pandemic notwithstanding.
Similarly, while it didn’t draw a five-figure audience, Sexyy Red’s early September show brought arguably the hottest new rapper to the arena and, on Thursday, top contemporary Christian artist Brandon Lake, who just won three Dove Awards, will make a PBA stop.
That said, it’s obvious that Omaha is, this year, getting the vast majority of the biggest arena shows that come to Nebraska, a run that started with Olivia Rodrigo in March and will continue next month with concerts by country’s reigning entertainer of the year Lainey Wilson, Jelly Roll and Billie Eilish, who sold out the CHI Health Center two years ago.
Some of those shows are landing in Omaha rather than Lincoln because of the CHI Center’s relationship with Live Nation, the concert booking behemoth. Others, however, are choosing the Omaha arena for purely economic reasons.
Depending on the show staging, CHI has a capacity in the 14,000 to nearly 18,000 range. PBA’s comparable capacity is in the 12,000-16,000 range.
That’s 2,000 more tickets that can be sold in Omaha — and with shows by the likes of Rodrigo, Eilish and Jelly Roll certain to sell out at, say, an average ticket price of $75 (which is probably low), that's at least an additional $150,000 for the artist for the Nebraska show.
I can attest that the arena does everything it can to land those shows and is now pursuing similar-level shows for next year.
But, because the post-pandemic concert rush has, after two years, largely come to an end, many tours haven’t set second or third legs, which would bring artists back to Nebraska, and, more likely, Lincoln.
Other concert markets in Lincoln’s position — a smaller venue in a smaller city within 50-75 miles of a larger building in a bigger city — are having similar frustrating experiences as Lincoln.
But, with the big turnout for SuicideBoys and solid audiences for the more niche show, PBA and Lincoln will, almost certainly, get opportunities for some bigger shows next year. And, if artists like Rodrigo return to the road, Lincoln could land some of those shows that previously played in Omaha in the future.
For now, however, Pink is the arena’s big concert. And, having seen her a handful of times, it’s safe to say it will be a big show.