[bigboydan]

Now wouldn't you have thought they would have learned from that Led Zeppelin mess a few weeks ago. Now all these people are complaining up a storm, and I can't say I blame them one bit.

Sports leagues need to learn from this mistake and go back to the old way of selling playoff tickets, even despite the scalper issues that always seem to occur.

Rockies suspend World Series ticket sales after computer crash

DENVER (AP) -- The Colorado Rockies suspended World Series ticket sales Monday after overwhelming demand crashed their computer system.

"Right now we're shutting the system down," club spokesman Jay Alves announced outside Coors Field, drawing boos from fans. "We expect to be online at some point."


"We're as frustrated and disappointed as they are," Alves said.

Alves had said last week that the Rockies were prepared for any computer problems.

On Monday, there were 8.5 million attempts to connect with the computers in the first 90 minutes after sales started, he said, and only several hundred tickets had been sold before the system had to be shut down.

The Rockies put as many as 60,000 tickets up for sale online only, and team officials said their computers were ready to handle the expected crush. But two hours after tickets went on sale, many fans reported they could not get access to the ticket-sales Web site.

Officials with the Rockies and Major League Baseball did not immediately return calls.

Irvine, Calif.-based Paciolan Inc., which is running the computers for the Rockies' World Series ticket sales, said the crash affected the company's entire North American system.

Paciolan CEO Dave Butler said he did not yet know whether demand for Rockies tickets caused the crash.

"This is not the Rockies' fault in anyway whatsoever," Butler said. "We are working hard to address it."

About 20 people lined up in near-freezing temperatures outside the Denver Public Library before it opened in hopes of using public-access computers to score tickets.

"If you can't get tickets here, you're going to have to pay $200, $300 above face value," said Clayton McLeod, a 26-year-old heavy-machine operator who took the day off to try to get seats.

McLeod said he has Internet access from his apartment building but thought the library's computers might be faster. His mother, father, uncle and girlfriend were trying to buy tickets from other computers, he said.

His boss, also a Rockies fan, agreed to give him the day off and asked McLeod to get tickets for him, too.

"We'll see how many I'll get," McLeod said.

The Rockies limited sales to four per person per game.

The Series opens in Boston with games on Wednesday and Thursday. Games 3 and 4 will be on Saturday and Sunday in Denver. If there is a Game 5, it will be played Monday in Denver.

Coors Field seats more than 50,000, but about 30,000 spots per game are allotted to season-ticket holders, the two teams and Major League Baseball.

Season-ticket holders got a chance to buy their tickets last weekend. Prices range from $65 to $250.

Tickets originally were to be sold at Coors Field and Rockies' Dugout Stores in the Denver area, as well as online. The team announced Wednesday all sales would be online, saying that would be more fair.

[r2d2]

here was my response to the issue. i emailed this to 9, 4, & 7 news denver. also to rockies owner Monfart. I mean monfort. and picolian of course. friggin rookies.




Dear Paciolan & Colorado Rockies Ownership,

You guys do realize this is the WORLD SERIES right? Not Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo? WORLD SERIES. The Fall Classic. October. The stuff legends are made of. The Entire City of Chicago feels they are cursed because their team hasn’t won this event since 1908. The Rockies are making history before the Nations eyes, and have rallied an entire city’s support on their push through the playoffs. Baseball is the NATIONAL Pastime. It is as much apart of Americana (If not more) than Chevy & Apple Pie. People are trying to go from all around the country, and yes, you guessed it, from all around the WORLD to see the WORLD SERIES.


Who would have thought that a few baseball games at the end of October would yield this kind of ticket demand? Huh, go figure.

I noticed some of your impressive client list on your website, http://www.paciolan.com/public_clients.htm, that has in no doubt prepared you to broker tickets for this type of event include such big names as the:

Cincinnati Arts Association
Toronto Symphony Orchestra
Museum of Fine Arts Boston
National Aquarium in Baltimore
Stanford University

And My Favorite, which I am sure has prepared Paciolan and their computer servers the best for the ticket demand/web traffic that is the WORLD SERIES, the ever popular,

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo. ( I am guessing you guys sell more tickets at one time for this monster than the last 30 World Series combined. Attendance must be in the millions.)

And no, this is not entirely Paciolan’s fault to be fair. The Rockies greedy ownership/management, the Monforts and others, certainly should shoulder part of the blame since they should have gone with a lottery system (like every other team who has been there before, i.e. Red Sox and Indians did this year. Note to Rockies Ownership, pssst, act like you have been there before even if you haven’t and take the lead from people who have. No need to recreate the wheel here, piss off your fans, and create a PR Nightmare over a really, really, really bad decision.)

OR they could have always hired a REAL company, as much as I hate to say it, like TICKETMASTER, to handle the ticket sales for these 3 home games for the Colorado Rockies. Tickets would have gone on sale at 10AM MST, and would have been all sold, distributed, and incurred no problems by 10:05AM MST. Even if you were not fortunate enough to get a ticket, at least you would have found out within 5 minutes vs the entire day. But, Mr. Dick & Charlie Monfort & Company couldn’t stand the thought of not getting their greedy paws on every last cent that they could, so they cut a “rebate” deal (fancy word for kickback. The Politically correct word) with Paciolan. Another note to Rockies Ownership/Management: Charge me $20 bucks more a ticket and do either 1) A lottery or 2)Use Ticketmaster and pay them the fees. You still get all of your revenue projections, the fans are happy because they just paid $20 bucks more for convenience instead of wasting several, several hours of their time. Proverbial Win, Win Situation.

OR they could have had a Plan B in place considering they had a week to prepare for this worst case scenario. And PLAN B by the way should address a specific time & date. PLAN B should not include the words “Later Today” as the brilliant Mr. Jay Alves so eloquently put it with a mere 2 ˝ hours to prepare for the ill fated press conference. If you call one microphone in front of Coors Field a “Press Conference”.

I searched for the appropriate word to Title this email with, and I kept coming back to “debacle”. This situation with the Ticket Sales for the 2007 World Series is a debacle in the truest since of the word.
Webster’s defines “Debacle” as:

De – ba – cle
1) A sudden, disastrous collapse, downfall, or defeat; a rout.
2) A total, often ludicrous failure.
I am partial to definition #2. It seems particularly fitting in this situation.



Now that’s good planning. I don’t care who you are.

I just hope I am fortunate enough to get tickets against all odds and fighting poor planning to boot. Congratulations to the PLAYERS of the Rockies squad, they are true professionals that the fine folks at Paciolan and the brain trust that is Rockies Ownership should take a tip or two from on the subjects of success and winning.

Cheers to hopefully being privileged enough to be drinking really bad, overpriced coors beer in rock pile seats next Saturday!

[tacomax]

Now wouldn't you have thought they would have learned from that Led Zeppelin mess a few weeks ago. Now all these people are complaining up a storm, and I can't say I blame them one bit.

Sports leagues need to learn from this mistake and go back to the old way of selling playoff tickets, even despite the scalper issues that always seem to occur.

Wasn't it the case that some of the Rockies/Dbacks games were far from being sold out? I thought I heard about the poor attendance. I mean the playoffs aren't exactly the World Series but I'd expect just about anyone to sell those seats.

[tacomax]

here was my response to the issue. i emailed this to 9, 4, & 7 news denver. also to rockies owner Monfart. I mean monfort. and picolian of course. friggin rookies.

Nice post.

[r2d2]

Nice post.

thx. they are going to try the same recipe for disaster tommorow at noon i guess. i am assuming MST, so 2PM for us east coasters. wow. this better go down quick and easy, or they are facing the series starting wednesday with no tickets sold for the weekend. brilliant. monfort and crew should be the next subject for those guiness commecials i love so much. here is how it could go:

charlie monfort to dick monfort : "selling 60,000 world series tickets online through a company that brokers tickets tickets for the omaha zoo?"

"BRILLIANT"!!!!

please drink guiness beer responsibly

[Skidcom]

Taking a long lunch and trying again today at 12 MST

[Skidcom]

Awesome letter...a good read and it clearly and intelligently captures the emotions of many of us! Thank you for the clear voice

[r2d2]

Taking a long lunch and trying again today at 12 MST

me too. hopefully not tooooooo long of a lunch like yesterday good luck to both of us getting tix!

[swifty]

Yeah, So the Red Sox fans can buy them and then it only going 4 games, GO BOSTON RED SOX

[jon13009]

I can imagine how much the tickets are going for on Ebay or the other on-line scalpers.

Go Sox!

[bigboydan]

I can imagine how much the tickets are going for on Ebay or the other on-line scalpers.

Go Sox!

I have to wonder if the D.A. might interfere, and make people show there ID's before they can claim their tickets. I know thats the big thing thats happening with Hana Montana or whatever that kiddie stuff is called.