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One concertgoer says he feels “robbed” and Budweiser Gardens officials are clarifying what went wrong after a ticketing scramble left scores of fans missing part or most of a country music show at the downtown arena.
The doors were scheduled to open at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for star Cody Johnson’s show, alongside opening acts Drake Milligan and Corb Lund. But as fans arrived, people who’d bought tickets from third-party websites that essentially act as online scalpers were directed to the box office to get them validated – creating a massive line around the building and delays longer than 90 minutes.
“It was chaos,” said 27-year-old Alec Martyn, who travelled from Barrie with his girlfriend for the concert, arrived at the rink 7:30 p.m. but didn’t get inside until 9 p.m. – missing the two opening acts before catching all of Johnson’s performance.
In an interview, Budweiser Gardens general manager Kelly Austin says the situation was the result of the arena changing ticket providers after this show went on sale, and not being able to contact fans who bought tickets through third-party brokers online.
“When we made the transition, we contacted all of the ticket purchasers to let them know how to validate their ticket on our new platform,” she said. “The problem with the third party is that we only have the contact information for those who originally purchased the tickets.”
Ticketmaster, the massive American live entertainment conglomerate, became Budweiser Gardens’ primary ticket provider as of July 1, moving away from previous provider, Paciolan.
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Martyn, who bought two tickets for $500 total on the third-party website GameTime, recalled moments of panic after arriving at the arena. He was told by an official as he tried to enter that “those tickets aren’t good” for entry.
“We thought they were frauds at that point. He said ‘you need to get them re-validated’” at the box office, said Martyn, who recalled a lineup around the building and only four box office windows open to handle it.
“It (the 90-minute lineup) completely changed my mood. He’s my favourite artist but by the time we got in I was so frustrated,” Martyn said. “You can’t blame it on Cody Johnson. He was phenomenal, it was amazing, but we missed the two other acts and I’m not getting refunded for that.”
Facebook users wrote of “tons and tons of people . . . getting nowhere” and being “(ticked) with Budweiser Gardens on how they handled this.”
Martyn said that he and his girlfriend called Ticketmaster and GameTime, respectively, who blamed the issue on each other. “And clearly Budweiser Gardens was not prepared.”
Martyn says he saw at least one couple being told their tickets were no good and they were not allowed into the show. But that conflicts with the account of Austin, the arena’s general manager, who emphasized that no one was turned away and everyone was able to get in.
While the Bud Gardens website added an information tab for ticket holders before the Ticketmaster transition, she said that staff will discuss internally about other ways to get the word out.
In the meantime, she is encouraging anyone with tickets from third-party brokers to get them properly validated ahead of time.
“We’re sorry for any inconvenience that happened the night of the show,” she said. “We will look to see if there’s any other ways of communication moving forward.”
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