I see your point, but is that a fair comparison?
Yes. Why? Because Cage has a considerably smaller fanbase and none of them showed up. The show cost significantly less money to put on and the bands didn't get paid because of the poor turnout on a Friday night.
The comparison comes because you're talking about a very, very large investment in club rental, band payment, support, and intangables, with a very high ticket cost in a market that has been dying for some time.
Yes, MPA could've thrown this gig in the clubhouse and maybe it would've sold out, but being that SYX was JUST here and IE has changed singers twice since they were here last, I really doubt there would be 300 people there, as it would need to be on a Sunday Night. Putting it in Downtown Phoenix would be an absolute DISASTER. MPA deals mainly with Thrash and Death, guarenteed money makers now. He's told me how much he's been losing on other shows because no one shows up.
Symphony X just played the Marquee with Luckyman, and while I don't know the details of how it went, I don't think they're going to pick up the same band for a very large amount of money with Iced Earth 7 months later. It would be a massive, massive gamble and a very expensive one at that.
Promising Threat Entertainment doesn't follow through on paying people (ows me STILL for the Widow show) and deals with small local shows, and certainly does not have the backing for a large scale tour like this.
Arizona Events may have been able to pick this up for the Nile. They're the only ones I could imagine would have any actual interest in doing it, honestly, and I don't know enough about the venue or the company to tell you one way or the other if they were even offered the tour. Likely, Finberg shopped it to Tony and Luckyman, who both said no thanks for the reasons mentioned above.
Maybe I'm wrong, I'm just speculating based on what i know of the phoenix market.