Scam Alert: Entertainer Garth Brooks has been performing to sold-out crowds and rave reviews in Las Vegas. His performances at the Encore Theater at Wynn Las Vegas are so popular that tickets are now on sale for dates through Thanksgiving 2010. Depending on how you look at it, new ticket buying rules from the Wynn will protect Garth Brooks fans from buying counterfeit tickets and from paying two or three times the ticket price from unauthorized brokers.
Or, the new ticket buying rules are so restrictive that they will discourage Garth Brooks Fans.
Tickets cost $125 — plus tax and fees — through Ticketmaster. You can buy only four tickets per performance, and you’ll have to provide the name of everybody in your group. No changes are permitted after the tickets are purchased, which means if Best Buddy Number One cancels for one reason or another, you can’t give the paid-for ticket to Best Buddy Number Two.
Also, when you pick up the tickets at the Wynn on the day of the concert, you’ll have to show a government-issued ID, plus the actual credit card you used to make the purchase. The others in your group only have to show a government-issued ID. This means you can’t give two tickets to your parents as an anniversary gift, because unless you go with them to show your credit card, they can’t go .
And while Wynn says Garth Brooks concerts are open to children five years and older, how many five year olds have government-issued IDs?
I’m a Garth Brooks fan. I also think the Wynn Las Vegas and its sister hotel Encore are beautiful hotels with excellent management. But these ticket buying rules are ridiculously restrictive. What do you think?
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