I know SM is incompetent and they don't really seem to care about their older groups in general, but for such a monumental milestone that very few groups have reached for a group that still has a sizeable fanbase, for an anniversary all the members are so excited for, what is SM doing? In the months leading up to the comeback which'll be on July 8, the members have all talked about how excited they were for the comeback and the following tour. They've promised really big and ambitious things, and have hinted at wanting to go to places to meet fans where they haven't been before. SJ's biggest fanbases are in East/South-East Asia and in Latin America, which is why they always go there for every single "world" tour they have, but they still have sizeable fanbases in other parts of the world, notably the Middle East, North America, Europe and even Oceania. The last proper world tour was SS9 (2022-23), and according to some members like Ryeowook, Australia and Canada were on the stops but didn't make the final list because of scheduling issues. Apparently, it was also planned that the US would have around 2-3 stops, but that fell apart too. SS9 ended up just being a tour with an Asia leg and a Latin America leg. In 2023, Super Junior-D&E had a small fanparty tour and went to places SJ hadn't been to before like Australia (two stops), Canada, New Zealand, etc. And even though they had a really terrible promoter to the point where so many fans didn't even know they came, they all relatively sold well and Donghae and Eunhyuk promised they'd come back and bring the whole group with them to Australia and Canada. Now jump to 2025, and it's SJ's 20th anniversary tour that all the members have been hyping up. Members like Shindong have said the tour is going to be long (around 7-8 months), so it made a lot of people excited that the tour length probably meant they'd go to more tour stops. At SMTOWN LA, they hinted that they were looking at an LA stop for SS10. Then yesterday, they dropped the tour list, and from August 2025 - April 2026, there will be 16 stops overall - and surprise! Four stops will be in Latin America (two of which in the same country), and the rest are just in Asia. No North America, Europe, Oceania. Not even the Middle East when they're one of the most popular groups there and made history as the first group to hold a solo con in Saudi if I recall correctly? Maybe I shouldn't have been clinging onto a promise from 2 years ago from a duo who had left SM by then, but the lack of a single North American or Europe stop in particular is really shocking, especially when NA ELF form a huge chunk of attendees whenever SJ have a 15 min appearance at SMTOWN/any other festival, and when SJ is skipping SMTOWN London where most European ELF were hoping to see them. No Middle East, and the Latin America leg doesn't even include Brazil? No Vietnam, where SJ concerts and their subunit performances sell out and sell well? It literally just feels like it's last year's last-minute, rushed cashgrab Asia tour, plus the Latin American stops. I've been seeing complaints that SM isn't picking the usual big venues for their Asia stops as well, when they know they're going to sell out in minutes there. Mexico's venues are also apparently really small and unsafe. From what I've heard, according to a few promoter sources, SM negotiated for these venues and booked them really late, and for Brazil in particular, they were going to put Brazil on the list, but promoters couldn't afford them because SM jacked up costs and charged exorbitant priced for the promoters. Like sure, the Western fanbases for example aren't as noticeable as Mexico's or Japan's, but I'm sure we (and SJ) would've been fine with a much smaller venue that wasn't a 20k stadium like in Asia. I just know SJ are seething because they've always been transparent about wanting to go to new places and meet all their fans. They've even acknowledged how fans from all over the world travel just to see them because they never go to them. At the end of the day me stating the obvious won't change anything and I'm still (delusion) hoping for another set of announcements but it's not looking likely. Because if they're not going anywhere else beyond SS10 they'll never come. I know Super Shows are a quick and easy way to get free money for SM because they always sell out (see Spin-Off last year lmao), I know SM don't care for SJ beyond that which is why they were so late and rushed with booking everything, but I'd imagine they'd at least care a bit more for the 20th anniversary of all events. I already saw some ELF whose cities are on the list getting mad at other fans for being upset that their cities aren't on the list... submitted by /u/admiralmasa [link] [comments]
