Nice try - - you distinctly wrote the word "net" next to the 180K.
Post #42 (bold and underline mine):
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".......But an arena selling $10 tix for students, $25 general seating, $40 and $50 for up front tix, and 4000 seats, would have to go a very long way to net $180k (not to mention all the support marketing, salaries, etc.) ........"
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Sorry, but YOU used the word "net". The actual articles being discussed all stated that the event netted $40,000. The payment to the speaker is an expense, not a net. So why change the numbers being discussed?
As Uncle Rico showed in Post #15, many of the ticket holders were paying $100 each (not the $10, $25, $40 or $50 for upfront tix as you were using).
....and the payment to the speaker was $170,000 not $180,000.
You weren't even close to the ballpark with your numbers. That was Exponent-like ("Exponential"?)