Ticket farce...call the Police! (Darren DeVivo)

The Police recently announced their 2007 reunion tour and it included two dates at Madison Square Garden on August 1 and 3. Tickets were to go on sale to the general public this past Monday, February 19 at 9AM. I attempted to purchase my tickets online at Ticketmaster's website. I've done this hundreds of times. I was online and ready to go some ten to fifteen minutes before the onsale. At 9AM exactly, I was able to "get in the system". I got 'em, right?! No! Could you believe that two shows at Madison Square Garden were sold out in a matter of seconds?! Seconds????!!!! Maybe they were gone before they went on sale. Ya know what? The whole setup is bogus. There were more "pre-sales" that you needed to have an interpreter to help sort through them all: Best Buy customers get an advantage. Buy a "membership" to the Police's website for an additional $100 and you get early access to tickets - the price of the tickets isn't enough?! Oh, I'm sorry...you also get a laminate for the $100, too. Sting's website had some sort of deal for "insiders". This is all getting ridiculous. The fact that the tickets were never available when they were supposed to be available is beyond bullshit!! Something stinks here. A couple of years ago, the on sale date was changed WITHOUT AN ANNOUNCEMENT for Paul McCartney's most recent shows at Madison Square Garden. Let's move up the on sale date and not tell anyone...yeah, that's fair.
This Monday morning at 9AM, tickets will go on sale for an additional date - the Police will now play an August 5 show at Giants Stadium. Great...just what I love, a Sunday night show in the Meadowlands. I love sitting in hours of traffic late on a Sunday night. That's not to say having to deal with a stadium show. Of course, that's assuming I can get tickets when they go on sale. They might already be sold out...36 hours in advance.

Darren DeVivo
2/24/07