Hip and Miss: Update

In my earlier post Hip and Miss I went on a long tiring rant on how our night was ruined by Ticketmaster and the Winnipeg Goldeyes Organization.  Although I do stand by the bulk of what I wrote it has come to my attention that the Goldeyes Organization were pretty much blameless in this situation.

As it turns out the club, only rents the facility to a promoter who in turn is in charge of organizing the event.  Security, layout and setup, concessions and the like are handled by the promoter.  Basically the Goldeyes turned the keys to the building over to the promoter and says, “have fun, bring her back in good shape” and that’s the end of their involvement.

Hip and Miss: Ticketmaster and Goldeyes bungle what should have been a home run.

Let me state categorically this rant is NOT directed at any of the talent from this Thursday night’s Tragically Hip show at Shaw Park, but I have to get this off my chest first.

Ticketmaster you’ve managed to ruin yet another concert going experience thank you very fucking much, but let me begin at the beginning.  As a dedicated live music fan I enjoy going to concerts as much as humanly possible.  As I am in a position to do so, my friends and I often seek out the best tickets possible for these rare occasions for a night out.

When my circle of friends found out that one of our all-time favourite live acts, The Tragically Hip, were coming to town we were beyond the moon ecstatic.  The chance to see a great live performance by Gord Downie and The Hip at their eclectic best in a small Winnipeg venue such as Shaw Baseball Park seemed too good to be true.

In an attempt to secure some prime seats my friend Jeff, a long-time member of every Tragically Hip fan club available and Gord Downie disciple, called the exclusive distributor of tickets Ticketmaster during a pre-sale event that was limited to Tragically Hip Fan Club members.  Jeff being the obsessive Hip fanatic that he is, called the second the pre-sale opened and got a representative in short order.  Fine and dandy, right? He asked the Ticketmaster representative for a seat in the front centre section as close to the stage as possible.  Ok, everybody with me here?  He was given 4 seats in Section 1 Row 9.  Score, right on! Something didn’t seem right with those seats. In Jeff’s mind, being the logically minded individual that makes him so efficient when purchasing tickets, he knows that section numbering normally starts on the left and works inward; so Jeff asks to speak to a supervisor with a seating chart.