This venue is interesting in that, other than their benefit performance in 1964 at New York's Paramount, this show had the highest price ticket for any of the Beatles U.S. tours, at $8.50. Interestingly, this same show also had a $2.00 ticket as well, which is one of the lowest admission prices of any Beatles concert (The $1.50 Paramount ticket is the lowest). The back of all but the $2.00 tickets feature Charles O. Finley with a Beatles Wig on!
Kansas City was not originally on the schedule for this tour. Mr. Finley, being the prominant and rich owner of the Kansas City Athletics (which he later moved to Oakland), promised his community he'd get the Beatles to perform in his town. So he arranged contact with Brian Epstein shortly before the 17th of Sept. (one of the few days off that the Beatles had on their tour itinerary) and made them "an offer they couldn't refuse". Brian, being the thoughtful manager he was, left the decision to perform or not (regardless of the money)
entirely up to the boys. When he posed the question, while holding the phone,
they were only half paying attention while playing cards and John quipped
quickly back to Eppy "We'll do whatever you want Brian!".
Mr. Finley was able to keep his promise and pull off what no one else could
ever do during that period - actually talk the Beatles into giving up a day
off which they valued so much. Incidently, this "offer they couldn't refuse"
was directly responsible for the high ticket prices and reportedly when they
didn't all sell at that price right away, he printed up the $2 tickets to
help recover his money!
The song "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey" was added to the standard 12-song setlist. Gate receipts reportedly totaled $100,000, with the Beatles share working out to $4,838 per minute. Municipal Stadium was demolished in 1976.
