The US dates announced so far are in venues with these capacities:
Madison Square Garden - 20,000 for concerts
Hollywood Bowl - 17,376
UIC Pavilion Chicago - 9,500
Not sure of the exact size of the amphitheater in Orange, but it is smaller than any of these. With the extra dates added, The Cure will play to 60,000 in New York, 52,000 in Los Angeles and 19,000 in Chicago. That's 130,000 in two weeks. Initially there were three dates, now there are eight. Lots of room built into this tour, someone was expecting this kind of demand for tickets. That's another reason I'm convinced of the new album.
I read the info from the link provided by Ulrich. Sounds to me like not only have The Cure finished a new album but RS has finished the second half of 4:13 Dream (whatever that may turn out to be).
I'm also interested in what went wrong with Porl in the last line-up (as was mentioned in the link). At least whatever was going on did not manifest itself on-stage (not to my eyes/ears anyway). They were playing fantastically right to the end. Looking at RS' demeanor during the European tour in 2008 and comparing it to how he looked in April 2009 is very telling, but that happened over time so it wasn't as noticeable.