Front-row ticket mystery solved, charitably to boot...

[GinaSuperCat]

As reported on TPT:

Today WaterAid announced that on Tuesday, May 1, 2007 a special benefit ticket auction for front row seats to all concerts on the North American leg of The Police's upcoming tour will be held on Ticketmaster.com. The proceeds from this auction will benefit WaterAid, a non-profit organization whose mission is to overcome poverty by working with people in the world's poorest countries to improve access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene education.

Two pairs of front-row-center VIP seats will be auctioned on Ticketmaster.com, beginning Tuesday, May 1st at 10 a.m. Eastern Time (U.S.). In addition to the best seats at each venue, the highest bidders will receive a VIP package including VIP parking and premium VIP Gift Bags. This benefit auction is one of the only way fans of The Police can still obtain tickets to the most highly anticipated music tour of the summer.

The auction will close on May 11th.

For more information on WaterAid, please visit WaterAid.org/usa.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

!!!

[jedsoon]

I second that!

[DirtyMartini]

Thirded!!!

[Kim]

Good for charity, bad for fans.

[GinaSuperCat]

If it weren't for the charity auction those interested in front center would just be paying the same likely more to a scalper...it's not like we have much of a chance of getting those in the general or even presales versus the scalping bots...at least the money here goes to a good cause

[sockii]

>Two pairs of front-row-center VIP seats

So it's not the whole front row, mind you, just two pairs per show, as I read this.

Good gesture, though I think it's still gonna end up going to some bigwigs who can then write it off as a big fat tax deduction.

(You know what _I_ think would have been a great idea for a fans? One pair of front row tickets offered up as "free" fan club prizes per show (or at least for a certain number of shows.)

Yeah, a girl can dream...

[GinaSuperCat]

I still think that there might be room to 'dream' about that possibility, Sockii, but that such a prize would be only revealed much closer to the shows. My guess would be if that were to be something the FC did they would do it at the last minute, will call only, etc. since it seems that even FC members are trying to sell passcodes/tickets to the FC only show...a prize of free premium tickets would probably be (and should) be done in such a way as to prevent even consideration of transfer possible...kinda like how they do radio station prizes...also it would be much easier to make sure the 'winners' could not tranfer the tickets if there are only one or a few (like escorted directly to the seating area after issuance of tickets), thus avoiding the problems that we are seeing when having to accomodate thousands of will call pickups like the Vancouver show...just an idea

The FC show was exclusively for the fans (and I'm confident more things are in the pipeline for the fans, as well, and I'd bet tix too), this is for the charity...and in its absence those seats would likely be sold for pure profit...having to think about buying from scalpers is not good for fans too, but that's the ticket system, another ball of wax...

It would be great if the auction winners were kept low profile, the focus on such an auction should be the charity, but alas I know the world in which I live pretty well...it'll be some publicity added in on the side <grin>