September 6, 2007
Numbers don't add up for Elton John ticket sales
The brain trust at the University of Montana ticket office has struck again. In a daring homage to The Three Stooges, the powers that be conjured up an almost completely dysfunctional wristband-based ticket sales scheme for the Elton John concert that resulted in the following spectacular sales figures.
Five tickets were sold at Southgate Mall, zero tickets were sold at Worden’s and zero tickets were sold at the University Center. There were five windows trying to sell tickets at the Adams Center, where I was number 60 in line. I determined that one window managed to sell 15 tickets before a sellout was announced.
My research was interrupted by the arrival of a television news reporter. I gave an interview. The ticket office staff declined. I imagine that it’s hard to give an interview when you’re cowering in your office trying to come up with a plausible explanation for this self-inflicted debacle.
So, what happened to the more than 7,100 tickets that were not sold to wristband wearers? They were all sold on the Internet, many of them, I suspect, to eBay scalpers who will be happy to part with them for a modest sum.
This pathetic mess could have been avoided by simply allotting a fixed number of tickets for each sales venue, including the Internet. After you finish buying your ticket from a scalper, be sure to ask the ticket office management why they didn’t think of that. Maybe they don’t get paid to think.
Jeff Stevens
Missoula
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