Concert History | U2 at Franklin Field — Better Sightlines Did Not Guarantee Even Sound

<!-- concert-queue-id: 1608; dedup-key: u2|1997-06-08|franklin field|philadelphia -->

On June 8, 1997, U2 brought the PopMart Tour to Franklin Field in Philadelphia, with Fun Lovin’ Criminals opening. [U2’s official tour archive](https://www.u2.com/blogs/popmart-leg-1-1997-north-america) fixes the date and venue. The session matters less as another stop on a stadium itinerary than as a test of what a college football ground changed—and what it could not fix.

Dan DeLuca’s contemporary *Philadelphia Inquirer* review, [preserved with attribution here](https://www.u2station.com/tours/1997/06/june-8-1997---philadelphia-pennsylvania-usa---franklin-field.php), judged Franklin Field’s sightlines better and its sound clearer than Veterans Stadium’s. The same account records the other half of the venue: long entry lines and a traffic jam on the Schuylkill Expressway delayed concertgoers, including the reviewer, beyond the opening act. A bowl could improve the view inside while the roads and gates still determined how much of the bill a ticket holder heard.

An independent contemporary review complicates any claim that the stadium simply “sounded better.” Craig Shapiro’s June 18 report for *The Virginian-Pilot*, [archived by Virginia Tech](https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1997/vp970618/06170130.htm), describes a 30-ton public-address system moved with a 52-truck production and a crew of more than 200. From his position, the mix was uneven and the band felt remote against the set’s scale. These accounts need not be forced into agreement: Franklin Field could offer better geometry than another stadium while still distributing sound unevenly across a large bowl. Together they show why “stadium sound” was not one experience shared equally by every seat.

This argument is distinct from the 1960 NFL Championship memory already pinned here. That story concerns daylight, television blackout, and temporary seating; this one concerns how a 1997 concert used—and strained—the same stadium as a listening room.

**Coordinate method:** the pin at 39.950000, -75.190000 reconciles [Wikidata’s independently maintained Franklin Field coordinate](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5491503) with the center of [OpenStreetMap’s mapped stadium footprint](https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/665447049). [Penn’s facilities record](https://facilities.upenn.edu/maps/locations/franklin-field) identifies the same block and address. Precision is ±180 metres: the pin represents the stadium bowl and field, not an undocumented 1997 stage, gate, or seat.

**Cover:** JJonahJackalope’s [2024 exterior photograph of Franklin Field](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franklin_Field,_Philadelphia,_2024.jpg), own work, CC BY-SA 4.0. It shows the stadium from South Street and Convention Avenue; it does not depict U2, the concert, or the 1997 configuration.