Editors Note: After 2 days of ‘exhaustive discussion’ the Northern Iowan broke the news that U2 was not coming to the UNI-Dome. Instead the concert moved to Carver-Hawkeye. 

The Irish rock band U2 will perform Oct. 20 in the UNI-Dome, according to Lynn Kind, UNI-Dome director. 

Information on ticket prices and outlets is not yet available, Kind said, but should be released soon by concert promotes. 

“Usually tickets go on sale four to six weeks before the concert,” he said. “It’s entirely up to the promoters.” 

The concert will be the first in the Dome since 1985, when Motley Crue played to a crowd of 6,500. The Police appeared in 1983 for a crowd of 19,000, according to King. The Dome has a capacity of 24,000 for concerts, he said.

The large capacity of the Dome is one of the reasons for the lack of concerts there recently, Kind said. Many smaller groups avoid the Dome because of its large size and instead play smaller arenas where their chance of selling out the concert is better, he added. 

“Unless the group is very big, it has trouble selling enough tickets to fill a stadium the size of the Dome,” King said. Groups would rather play in a smaller arena (like the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids) to a full house in a stadium like the Dome to a less-than-capacity crowd, Kind said. 

King said he is expecting a near capacity crowd for the show, and possibly even a sellout. “U2 is the hottest rock band in the world at this time,” he said. “This is a show that reaches a wide range of demographics – you and old alike. 

The group’s most recent album, The Joshua Tree, made its debut in April at number seven on Billboard’s album chart. 

An article in the April 20, 1987, issue of newsweek magazine described U2 as “the rock phenomenon of 1987.”

“In concert, the grandeur of their music fills an arena like a pipe organ in a cathedral. U2 is tapping a big audience tired of the empty flitz of over synthesized pop,”  the article stated. 

The Joshua Tree, which is the group’s fifth studio album, contains the recent hits “With or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

An article in the May 7, 1989, issue of Rolling Stone magazine said The Joshua Tree “will very likely become one of the most successful, not to mention most important, records of the decade.”

The band released its first album, Boy, in 1980. Subsequent studio albums include October, War and The Unforgettable Fire. 

Negotiations for the concert began in April, King said, after promoters contacted UNI.

“The concert will be the culmination of a concerted effort by many people,” King said. “We are really pleased about it.”

The possibility of more concerts in the future will depend partly on the turnout for this one, King said. 

“What it comes down to is response,” he said. “We have to show that there is an interest in seeing concerts in that building.”

King said he expects the concert to generate close to $250,000 in the community. 

An opening act for the band has not been announced, King said. “I assume they will have an opening band, but I haven’t been told who it might be,” he said.

Contemporary and Jam productions are co-promoters for the concert, King said.