The Chicago Sun-Times has an article on Buffett migrating his annual Chicago shows from Tinley Park to Toyota Park in Bridgeview, Illinois. Here are some excerpts:

After 17 seasons of basing his Chicago area shows at the First Midwest Bank Amphitheater in Tinley Park (and before that Poplar Creek), Buffett announced that on July 24 and 26 he’ll make his debut at Toyota Park, 71st and Harlem in Bridgeview. The southwest suburb is welcoming Buffett’s tailgating flock of Parrot Heads with open arms.

In Tinley Park, that wasn’t always the case. Hardcore tailgaters from Chicago migrate instead to Buffett’s shows at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wis., where they’re as accepted as beer and cheese.

“What size shark hat should I wear?” wonders Bridgeview Mayor Steven Landek. “We encourage tailgaters. We have 30 acres of parking on site. The lots are well lit. We’ll have plenty of security. We know the other event to a Buffett show is the pre-concert.”

General Manager Mark Thiessen says Toyota will make “every effort” to open early. He’s now reviewing village codes: “Our goal is to make this his permanent home for as long as he continues to tour.”

“I’m a big Buffett fan — now,” said Mayor Landek, 51. “I’m not an avid music buff, but I understand this is great business. We’re prepared. We had almost 30,000 people last summer for the Eric Clapton [Crossroads guitar festival] event and it went off without a hitch.”

Read the entire article here.

The presale for the Toyota Park shows has ended. Ticket sales will resume tomorrow for the general public, Monday, March 3rd at 10 am CST on Ticketmaster. Click here for the TicketMaster purchase link.

LiveDaily has an article on Buffett’s latest tour announcements:

With summer right around the corner, Parrotheads are no doubt getting antsy for their live Jimmy Buffett shows.

Indeed, Buffett and his Coral Reefer Band have announced their first concerts of “The Year of Still Here” tour and will even treat fans to a couple of springtime shows. So far, they’ve got an April date in the Dallas area, a May gig at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and June/July shows in Philadelphia and East Troy, WI, as well as a two-night stand at Toyota Park in Bridgeview, IL.

Read the entire article here.

Jimmy Buffett played a private show on Friday night in Singapore at the Long Bar in the Raffles Hotel, according to a BuffettWorld forum member:

Last night (January 25, 2008) I was visiting the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore. I heard a number of Jimmy Buffet songs coming from upstairs a spiral staircase…less than 10 feet away from where we were. Included in the songs were Cheeseburger in Paradise, Brown Eyed girl and Margaritaville. It sounded like it actually was him…so we asked the hostess and she said that it was a private party, she could not reveal who was sponsoring the event, but in fact it was Jimmy Buffet. He made a joke about “…not finding it on E-Bay…” just before he concluded his set.

As guests were leaving the party upstairs…they were all given a “Margaritaville” goody bag.

Jimmy is currently traveling through southeast Asia after performing a benefit show in Hong Kong on January 18th.

I have been getting a lot of e-mails lately from people wanting to know when Jimmy Buffett’s tour dates for 2008 will be announced. Looking at the past few years, a pretty good argument can be made that they will come out in 3-4 weeks (around mid-February).

In 2007, the first dates were announced on BuffettWorld in mid-February. Those announced at that time included the September Gillette Stadium shows, the July Tinley Park and Alpine Valley shows, and April shows in Dallas and Houston. More dates were confirmed at the end of February: Indy, Bristow VA, Pittsburgh, and Cincy.

In 2006, Margaritaville.com posted the first tour dates on February 11th for the April tour leg. The June and August shows of that year were announced on February 23rd.

And in 2005, spring and summer dates weren’t announced until late February and early March.

So if history is any guide, I’d guess early February the rumor mill will heat up and in mid-February we’ll start getting some solid dates. This of course may not be accurate, but should be close.

The best and quickest way to get Buffett tour dates when they are announced is by signing up for BuffettWorld news updates. You can do that here!

Stubhub has released its second annual report on concert ticket sales activity, and Buffett’s 2007 Bama Breeze Tour did very well, despite having far fewer dates than most top performing tours.

Buffett placed 7th on the list of the Top 10 Selling Tours of 2007 (based on total dollar volume of tickets sold), even though he only played 25 national dates, compared to an average of 48 dates for the other 9 tours on the list. In 2006, Buffett ranked number 5 on the Stubhub list.

The average ticket price for a Bama Breeze show was $136, which did not even place on the list of the Top 10 Highest Average Tour Ticket Prices. The highest was Celine Dion with $347, and number 10 on the list was Michael Buble at $195.

Comparing the 2007 Bama Breeze Tour with the 2006 Party At The End Of The World Tour, Stubhub notes that Buffett saw a 30% increase in actual number of tickets sold for 2007, and a 34% increase in total gross sales.

One interesting note that Stubhub mentions: For the second consecutive year, six of StubHub’s Top 10 Selling Tours of 2007 also toured in 1986 or prior (The Police, Bruce Springsteen, Van Halen, Jimmy Buffett, Bon Jovi, Genesis)

Read the entire Stubhub report here.