Cascadia Summit Ticketing: Blame The Two-Day Ticket Option
by Jeremiah Oshan on Feb 1, 2011 6:15 PM PST
in Sounders: MLS Regular Season
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PrintAs many of you know, today's Cascadia Summit ticketing did not go particularly smoothly. Like many of you, I tried to buy tickets through Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. and was greeted with a message telling me that the two-day passes had not been released. I spent about 15 minutes trying to get tickets that way (I was being stubborn, I admit). I gave up around 10:15 a.m., but went back on about 10:30 to give it another shot. I instead tried to buy just tickets for Friday's match, and surprisingly was able to secure two.
I spent the rest of the day making phone calls in an attempt to figure out what, exactly happened. Those phone calls, unfortunately, did not yield many great answers.
I instead tried to create a timeline of event from Twitter. The combination of what I learned from those phone calls and the Twitter timeline suggest that two things were at fault: A very heavy demand and a glitch with the two-day passes. Quite possibly, no two-day packages were ever sold, which is probably an issue that should be addressed. Don't know that this will make anyone feel better, but here's my reconstruction of events as told through Twitter:
It all started innocently enough with messages like these just before 10 a.m.
Reminder: Cascadia Cup tickets on sale at 10 am! #Sounders @soundersfcfans @bp2u
LikkitP
LikkitP
The first messages of successful purchases then followed shortly after.
Got my ticket for the Portscum pre-season match. See all you beautiful bastards there! #Cascadia #Sounders #ECS
Michael Wiegand
TheBlueTheGreen
Problems began to surface a few minutes later.
@EvRoKo I couldn't get Cascadia cup tickets either. at 10:06. #sounders could they really be sold out?
Jeremy Bertrand
jbertrand
Which then led to speculation that tickets were, indeed, gone.
damn I think these cascadia summit tickets sold out faster than a hannah montana concert #partyintheUSA #MLS #sounders #timbers #whitecaps
eighmee
eighmee
Shortly after, the word got out that the issue was two-day package related and that single-game tickets were still available.
ticketmaster is still selling tickets to Timbers and Whitecaps games. No double package yet.
Gorilla FC
GorillaFC
@SoundersFC soon confirmed the glitch.
@evroko Ticketmaster is fixing the 2-day pass glitch. We'll let you know. Keep trying in the mean time. http://sndrs.com/f3x4
Seattle Sounders FC
soundersfc
At one point, @SoundersFC said there would be 100 two-day passes available once glitch was repaired, potentially adding to the confusion.
@thomas513 The Timber/Sounders match is nearly sold out if not already. 100 2-game packs will be available once Ticketmaster fixes the bug.Seattle Sounders FC
soundersfc
But, as many of us know, that never quite happened.
@cgrin Unfortunately because the Timbers match sold out during the Ticketmaster issue, 2-match passes are no longer an option.Seattle Sounders FC
soundersfc
This led to another round of unhappy customers.
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as best as I can tell
Absolutely no one has the full story/explanation as to exactly what happened, particularly when you add in the apparent trouble surrounding the allocations of tickets to Portland, Vancouver, and even Seattle for the Vancouver-Portland match on Saturday. From where I sit it was a day filled with rampant speculation fueled by outright anger and frustration, all bouncing around the echo chamber and receiving heavy doses of misinformation. I don’t think anyone screwed up, it think it was a total screwup from the 10:00:00 and on…
...that's MISTER Keller to you!!!
I emailed the fo
I got a response and I can post here if you’d like, but to sum it up it said I’m sorry you couldn’t get them. The portland game sold out so fast that only a couple hundred 2 day passes were available. We are going to now sell the community shield tickets sooner to help ease demand. My response was well that doesn’t help me see portland and vancouver now does it. No response yet.
A sky of blue, a sea of green...(or claret)
That's basically the response we got as well
Unfortunately, the root of the problem was probably whoever thought of the idea to sell two-day passes: that was always going to be a problem. Eliminate the two-day passes, and I think this would have been much more straightforward.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, North American soccer editor SB Nation and of course follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on Feb 1, 2011 11:38 PM PST up reply actions
yes that probably was it
but they don’t have to lie to me and say “the timbers game sold out so fast” I was there at 10. Had the glitch problem, heard you had to wait, checked at 11 and saw that I could buy tickets to both games still, it just doesn’t add up. My theory is that the fo is out to get me…
A sky of blue, a sea of green...(or claret)
what exactly does
the Colorado game have to do with the Portland/Vancouver games? Unbelievable.
They should have scheduled these games at Qwest. The Sounders draw 18,000 for a friendly with USL Portland in 2010, yet they decide to have the first-ever meeting between the clubs at the MLS level in a 4,500-seat facility. What exactly were they thinking?
I actually don't mind the Starfire idea
They wanted to create a more training-camp feel, which I can’t blame them for. It doesn’t even bother me that demand far outstripped supply. Ticketmaster really appears to have bungled this, and the Sounders probably should have never offered a two-game pack.
Editor/writer at Sounder at Heart, North American soccer editor SB Nation and of course follow me on Twitter
by Jeremiah Oshan on Feb 2, 2011 8:55 AM PST up reply actions
Ticketmaster bug!?
Ticketmaster should be forced to refund all of our service fees for services not rendered. This is rediculous.
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