What struck me most was how focused the NACDA conversation was on revenue, and how concerts keep coming up as one of the most compelling answers. Athletic directors across the country are sitting on some of the largest performance venues in the United States and only using them a handful of weekends per year. The question being asked in every hallway conversation in Las Vegas this week was: how do we activate these buildings more? Concerts. Events. Experiences.
And it made me think hard about the artists who are actually doing it right now at the highest level, because there is a very small group of artists in 2026 who can fill a 60,000 or 80,000 seat football stadium. I use my hands as an analogy, the opposite of the hang gesture of how big a fish did you catch. The number of artists doing clubs is that massive fish, but the number of artists able to fill stadiums is like a guppy. That is the topic I want to dig into today, because what is happening at that altitude of the touring business right now is quite interesting, and it has direct implications for everyone in the event programming world.
Let us start with Morgan Wallen, because what he is doing on his Still the Problem Tour right now is a case study that talent buyers are studying closely. His 23-date stadium run kicked off in April at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, and to my knowledge, nearly every show has sold out. He is playing back-to-back nights in most cities, which means he is filling those buildings twice in a row. Think about what that requires. You are not just selling one night worth of tickets in a market. And he is doing it at NFL and major college football venues across the country.
The four college stadium stops on this tour tell the full story: Clemson Memorial Stadium, Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida (which I attended as a site visit), Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor (yesssss!!!), and Saban Field at Bryant-Denny in Tuscaloosa. These are some of the most storied football venues in the United States, and Morgan Wallen is filling them with ease. That is not something that happens very often. That is not something that most artists will ever do. That is what rare air looks like.
The Clemson stop this month, June 26th and 27th, is a particularly good example of what happens when a college athletic department leans into concerts the right way. Clemson Memorial Stadium, known to every college football fan in the country as Death Valley, is hosting live music for the first time in more than two decades. The school partnered with the Still the Problem tour to bring it to life under what they are calling Death Valley Nights. That is a lesson in smart programming. I don't know them or advise them, but that's an athletic department understanding that their stadium is more than a football venue. It can be a community asset. The experience of seeing a concert in Death Valley will be completely different from seeing that same show in a traditional amphitheater or arena, and that uniqueness is part of what makes the demand so strong.
Then there is Zach Bryan. If Wallen is the face of mainstream country at the stadium level right now, Bryan is doing something that might be even more remarkable from a pure touring achievement standpoint. His With Heaven On Tour is a 40-plus date run across North America and Europe, and it comes off the back of one of the most talked-about concert moments in recent history.
Last September, Bryan kicked off live concert history at Michigan Stadium and set the record for the largest single-ticketed concert in United States history. The Big House, normally hosting over 107,000 people for a fall game, had never hosted a concert before. Zach Bryan was the first act to play there, and he sold every seat. He is now back out in 2026 hitting college stadium after college stadium: Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, H.A. Chapman Stadium in Tulsa, Autzen Stadium in Eugene, Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, and Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn to close the tour in October.
The final run of this tour ends at another college football venue. That is not a coincidence. Bryan understands that these buildings carry a different energy than a traditional concert venue, and his audience responds to that.
Now here is where it gets really interesting from an industry perspective. While Wallen and Bryan are operating in a different stratosphere, there are other artists who tried to go the stadium route in 2026 and have run into real trouble. The touring industry has been talking quietly about the term "blue dot fever" this spring, which refers to the sea of unsold seats showing up on ticket maps for certain tours. I'm not going to mention the artists who have been fingered in delivering low sales on their tours, since I happen to love them and work with them on our style of softer ticket shows.
As I referred to above, not everyone can nor should be trying to play stadiums. But candidly, the blue dot fever theory was also applicable for arenas and smaller, hard-ticket venues too. The contrast with Wallen and Bryan is stark, and it raises a genuinely important question for buyers and programmers: what separates the artists who can do this from the ones who cannot? We can take that question up in another blog. For now, I'll leave that billion dollar question to the major promoters and agencies to figure out.
Stepping back from the stadium conversation for a moment, I want to highlight two artists who are doing something special right now at a completely different price point and venue size, but with the same authenticity that I just described. The first is Wyatt Flores. Wyatt is a 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Stillwater, Oklahoma, whose debut album Welcome to the Plains drew raves from NPR, Rolling Stone, and The Bluegrass Situation. This week he announced his sophomore album Scared of Heights, dropping July 31st, and released a new single called "Half the Man."
He has over 1.4 billion streams, he plays with a full live band that shreds, and his red dirt Americana sound connects with audiences in a way that is completely genuine. For buyers working college markets, festivals, and fair dates, Wyatt Flores represents solid value right now because his trajectory is pointing straight at the next level.
The second act on my radar this week is Chase Matthew. I had him last perform on a cold and rainy night back in April. It coincided with Michigan's championship run in the final four, so the crowd was light. But the reports about him being worth every penny of his value were still what I expected. Chase has over a billion streams and a Platinum hit in "County Line," but he still gets underestimated in certain booking circles. He just wrapped a run in Australia as part of his Holdin' It Down Tour and is currently playing festival dates across the country through the summer.
What makes Chase Matthew so compelling for buyers is the nature of his live crowd. His fans know every word. If you watch them from the stage, they sing every song. He wins over rooms that did not come specifically to see him. That is a rare and genuinely valuable quality in an artist, especially for fairs, military shows, and corporate events where you need someone who performs above the billing. Chase Matthew does that every single night.
The NACDA conversation in Las Vegas deserves a little more space here because I think it represents something significant for the live entertainment industry that does not get covered enough. College athletic departments are sitting on venues that rival or exceed the capacity of major concert facilities, and for the first time in a serious way, the people running those departments are actively looking at concerts as a revenue strategy rather than a one-off novelty.
The panels I attended were not asking whether to do concerts. They were asking how to do them well (by the way, it's why Degy was there!). What artists work in these buildings. How you structure the deal. How you manage the student and alumni audience. How you handle production in a facility designed for football. These are real operational questions, which means the experimentation phase is over and the strategy phase has begun. That shift matters enormously for anyone in our world who is thinking about how to build partnerships with athletic programs.
Beyond NACDA, the Billboard Country Live event wrapped up in Nashville during CMA Fest week and was a great showcase of the next tier of country talent. The two-day run at Category 10 brought in over 30,000 fans total with The Red Clay Strays headlining night one and Tucker Wetmore headlining night two. The full bill also featured Chase Rice, Drew Baldridge, Corey Kent, Hunter Hayes, Lanie Gardner, The Band Perry, Alana Springsteen, Alexandra Kay, Ashley Cooke, Priscilla Block, and more.
For buyers, events like this are a great temperature check to see who can stand amongst the rest to carry the attention of your booking. A lot of the names on that bill are exactly the sweet spot for college shows, city events, and mid-size festival slots.
We talked about the artists who are in truly rare air at the very top of the touring business right now. But the reality of our industry is that most events are not stadium concerts, and most of those acts I gawked about are likely out of the price range for most. So here are my five picks this week for the buyers and programmers who are working in those smaller-than-stadium spaces. These are artists who deliver outsized results relative to their current price point, and every single one of them is ready to go.
First is Riley Green. He's on fire in every single way right now, and I'm doing everything I can to get some U.S. military dates back on the books with him. Riley is in the middle of his Cowboy as It Gets Tour and is having the best year of his career. His back-to-back collaborations with Ella Langley both went to number one, and his profile has never been higher. He is the kind of artist who sells out mid-size venues and absolutely crushes fairs and festivals. Blue collar, completely authentic, and an exceptional live performer. If you need a country headliner next, Riley Green belongs at the top of your list. He's got a shot on this trajectory to be that future stadium artist if everything breaks right.
And then there's Riley's collab partner, Ella Langley. Sure, I know I swung big with this week's names but it's hard not to recognize what these superstars are doing. Ella just opened for Morgan Wallen in Tuscaloosa and is on the bill for multiple other stadium dates this summer, so her price is skyrocketing. If you can land a date, her return on investment is exceptional. Her single "Choosin' Texas" became the first song by a solo female artist to simultaneously top the Billboard Hot 100, Hot Country Songs, and Country Airplay charts. She is a once-in-a-generation kind of momentum story, and she performs at an elite level.
Maybe someone in your budget range is Alana Springsteen. She performed at Billboard Country Live in Nashville this past week alongside Tucker Wetmore and absolutely turned heads. Springsteen consistently delivers a performance that is bigger than her current billing. She has the songs, she has the stage presence, and she has a genuinely loyal audience that shows up. We had our eye on her for college bookings several years ago when we added Alana to several dates on Degy's Country on Campus package tour.
Fourth is Zach Top. Zach is one of the most talked-about artists in country music right now for the way he sounds, which is like he could have been a star in any decade of the genre's history. His voice is genuinely special, his songwriting is traditional without being nostalgic, and he is opening for Chris Stapleton on select All-American Road Show dates this summer, which is about as strong an endorsement as this business offers. He won't and shouldn't come cheap anymore, but for those who want a country act with serious credibility and growing name recognition, Zach Top is a name to move on now.
And fifth this week is Gavin Adcock. Gavin has been on basically every major Morgan Wallen stadium date this summer as a direct support act, which means he has been performing in front of 50,000 plus people night after night across the country. That kind of exposure does not just build a fanbase. I caught his set in Florida with a little mini me kid he gave the spotlight to on the Swamp stage. He connects with his fanbase and has a big shot to use this summer's tour as a leaping ground for the next stage of his career.
I took the redeye out of Las Vegas, which normally provides for some interesting people watching all its own. I won't force you over to my social media, but if you do, you'll spy the photo of the man who was on the floor in the front galley of the airplane with legs across the flight attendant seat. I thought I was just dreaming in the overnight hours, but I have a photo to prove it.
I am still fired up from the NACDA conversations and everything they represent for the future of concert programming inside college athletics. Watching the ADs who were skeptical about concerts three years ago now actively strategizing about how to use their buildings is a genuine shift, and I think we are only at the early stages of what that means for the industry. Our Notre Dame photos were on those screens for a reason. There is a real opportunity here for the right partners to help shape how this goes.
Personally, I am spending this weekend in Canada with the family trying to recharge and relive some moments that shaped me. Excited to be back in the office on Wednesday to get ahead of what the summer looks like across our event calendar. ID250 and Freedom Fest mania are about to slam us in the face. I'm just preparing my mind and body for what will be Degy's busiest few weeks in a long time.
Questions, ideas, or just want to talk through a booking decision? Come find me at ari@degy.com. I read every one. See you next weekend!
For more than 25 years, Degy Entertainment has been one of the most active and trusted entertainment buyers in the world. We book and execute nearly 3,000 events annually across 30 countries, working in talent buying and middle buying to connect artists with events of every size and type. From college shows and corporate events to fairs, festivals, military programming, and major stadium productions, our team brings the relationships and experience to make it all happen. If you are building an event and need a partner who understands both the creative and the operational side of live entertainment, we would love to talk. Visit us at www.degy.com or reach out directly to ari@degy.com.
What does "rare air" mean in the context of touring artists?
"Rare air" refers to the exclusive stratosphere of touring artists who can successfully fill large stadium venues (60,000+ capacity). Very few artists operate at this level – the number is proportionally tiny compared to those performing in clubs or smaller venues. Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan are prime examples of artists in rare air in 2026.
How many artists can actually fill a college football stadium?
Based on current touring data, fewer than 50 artists globally can reliably fill a 60,000-80,000 seat college football stadium. This includes established superstars in country music, pop, and hip hop. New artists and mid-level acts attempting stadium tours often face challenges with unsold seats (referred to as "blue dot fever").
What is "blue dot fever" in touring?
Blue dot fever is industry slang for the sea of unsold seats (appearing as blue dots on ticket maps) that show up on certain stadium tours. It indicates when an artist's touring reach doesn't match stadium capacity expectations, resulting in significant unsold inventory. The term became common in spring 2026 as some artists attempted stadium-level tours without sufficient ticket demand.
How much does it cost to book Morgan Wallen for a stadium concert?
Morgan Wallen's stadium booking fees are exclusive to major stadium tours and are negotiated directly with promoters. His Still the Problem Tour is a branded tour package – individual stadium dates are not available for booking. Contact Degy (ari@degy.com) to discuss similar stadium-level country artists at accessible price points.
Can college athletic departments really make money hosting stadium concerts?
Yes, but it requires strategic planning. College stadium concerts generate revenue through ticket sales, premium seating packages, concessions, parking, and sponsorship partnerships. The NACDA conference emphasized that forward-thinking athletic departments view stadium concerts as serious revenue strategy, not novelties. Success depends on realistic attendance projections, appropriate artist selection, and professional event execution.
Why would Zach Bryan set the record at Michigan Stadium?
Zach Bryan's record-breaking concert at Michigan Stadium (largest single-ticketed concert in U.S. history) resulted from perfect alignment: he was the first artist to perform there, had massive regional appeal, created genuine cultural moment, and benefited from intense demand. The venue's historic significance amplified the moment.
What's the difference between a stadium concert and an amphitheater or arena concert?
Stadium concerts are typically outdoors, hold 50,000+ capacity, require specialized production, and have longer audience sight lines. Amphitheater concerts (10,000-25,000 capacity) are outdoor but more intimate. Arena concerts (10,000-20,000 capacity) are indoor, more controlled environments. Each venue type affects artist selection, pricing, and production requirements differently.
Are college football stadiums good concert venues?
From an audience experience perspective, they offer unique atmosphere and historic significance (as Ari notes about Death Valley Nights). From a production perspective, they present challenges: designed for football not concerts, limited infrastructure, weather exposure, and complex logistics. However, the novelty and community impact make them increasingly popular.
What does "back-to-back nights" mean for touring artists?
Back-to-back nights means the artist performs the same venue on consecutive nights (e.g., Friday and Saturday). This indicates extraordinary demand—the promoter can fill the venue twice. Morgan Wallen's back-to-back stadium nights across multiple cities show unprecedented demand at that venue size.
Why would Ella Langley's booking price spike after opening for Morgan Wallen?
Opening for Morgan Wallen at stadium shows gives Ella massive exposure to 50,000+ person audiences night after night, building her brand value and demonstrating her ability to perform at that scale. This increased visibility and proven stadium capability justify higher booking fees for her own headlining shows.
What makes Wyatt Flores and Chase Matthew good hidden gem bookings?
Hidden gem artists (Wyatt Flores, Chase Matthew) offer strong return on investment relative to their current booking price: they have authentic audiences, proven live performance quality, growing streaming numbers, but haven't yet reached mainstream superstardom. Early booking captures them before fees increase.
How do agent partnerships help with artist selection for stadium events?
Experienced booking agents (like those at Degy) provide crucial guidance: which artists can realistically fill your venue, what pricing is competitive, which artists' fan bases align with your audience, and how to structure deals profitably. Direct stadium bookings without this expertise often result in unsold seats or budget overruns.
Will every college athletic department eventually host stadium concerts?
Likely not. Stadium concerts require substantial production expertise, artist coordination, and financial risk management. However, forward-thinking athletic departments are increasingly viewing stadium events as strategic revenue generators. The NACDA shift toward treating stadiums as event venues—not just sports facilities—represents a significant industry change.
What should event programmers learn from Morgan Wallen and Zach Bryan's success?
Key lessons include: artist selection matters enormously (not all artists can fill stadiums), authentic artist connection with audiences drives demand, venue uniqueness (like Death Valley) amplifies the experience, and strategic programming (Death Valley Nights) creates compelling narratives beyond just the show.