George Strait show moved from Carson to Honda Center
March 5th, 2008, 4:32 pm · 4 Comments · posted by Ben Wener
Country legend George Strait’s coming SoCal tour stop has been downsized - and O.C. fans are benefitting.
Strait’s show scheduled for March 29 at Home Depot Center in Carson has now been moved to Honda Center in Anaheim. Little Big Town and Sarah Johns are still opening, and the new venue will retain the in-the-round setup planned for the HDC.
Ticket-holders who got seats through Ticketmaster.com or by phone - you should be getting e-mail notification soon about a full refund and the opportunity to purchase comparable seats in advance of the general public on-sale. If you purchased tickets at the HDC box office or any Ticketmaster outlet - well, ya gotta go back to do the exchanging by March 12, when the general on-sale for Honda begins.
Incidentally, the press release points out that Strait still holds the all-time attendance record at Honda. Back when it was called the Pond, on May 15, 1994, he drew a facility-high 19,476 people. His coming gig will be his first appearance at the arena since 1995.
Also: Alicia Keys, Ne-Yo and Jordin Sparks hit Honda Center and Staples Center in May … The Police and Elvis Costello add second Hollywood Bowl show.
March 9th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Excited to see George Strait show.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I purchased tickets for the George Strait concert in February and as of Saturday had not received any official notification of the concert change. Through the Honda Center site and Ticketmaster I found out that tickets for current ticketholders would be on sale Saturday. Going to the website I needed a password — I had to call Ticketmaster by phone to find out what my password was! At that time they manually credited me for the previous concert tickets, but told me I would not be refunded their processing fee! It wasn’t MY fault it was changed!
Then I went back to the website with my new password and purchased my tickets at the new venue. The website will only let you purchase the same price tickets that you previously had bought. But my tickets at the Home De;pot Center were on the Club level — my tickets at the Honda Center are on the upper Terrace Level! How fair is this? I bought tickets to celebrate a friend’s birthday, told her we had good seats — now we are in the upper level! I was even willing to pay more for the lower seats — but the site wouldn’t let me and I didn’t want to risk waiting until the seats were open to the general public on Wednesday!
The guy at Ticketmaster said they didn’t even know how they were going to handle it — so how is the word really getting out to people? It’s Monday and I still haven’t received anything official — what about the rest of the ticketholders. Anyone else get notice?
And if the OC Register could help with this I would appreciate. I just don’t think that it is fair that not only do we not get the better seats that we had already purchased, we have to pay a second processing fee too!
Help!
March 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
Sherry, I had virtually the same problem. I had bought 2 tickets in advance through American Express, and had floor seating at Home Depot Center. It took several calls to ticketmaster to find out that the order # is the passcode. But since my tickets were $75 only upper level is available at that price. (upper upper) I called and talked to a supervisor at ticketmaster who told me to call by phone at 10:00 Wed. This would be more efficient than on-line. I called back yesterday to ask a representative exactly how to do this (explaining my whole story) He offered to sell me tickets right than as he felt sorry for what I had gone through. I got 2 tickets for $85 and am in section 224 row E. I did notice this morning (11:30 right now) that tickets can be purchased on-line in the 200’s. So I guess I am glad I did’nt settle for the upper level offerings of Saturday. My wife and me had to refund our tickets once for Neil Diamond as we were so high my wife was too dizzy. In the refund line we found others with the same concern. Lucky that day a scalper sold us 2 tickets right in that line for 8 rows back. I could have shook Neil Diamonds hand as he walked past us towards the stage.
March 14th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
My friends and I had purchased 6 tickets at $85 in February for the Carson show. One of our friends is a new fan and has never seen George live, so this would be her first concert with the King of Country - very exciting with her Birthday not to far after his show… Wow what a disappointment for her and us… Now we do not have any tickets for the show…
However, we were not notified by ticketmaster the show had been canceled and changed to Anaheim. We found out the show was changed to Anaheim via the radio station. Then the article in the OC register….
When contacting ticketmaster, regarding this news , we were told they would refund the purchase price, not the fees associated with ticket sales, which I find very offensive, however, we are not able to purchase like seats in the same area we purchased for the Carson show. The news and radio stations advertised that current ticket holders would have first option of like seating at the new venue, this simply in my opinion and understanding is a false statement. What was offered was the 400 section for same $85 charge. Our seats were on the floor level in the Carson venue. This in my opinion is not like seating…
I did not find ticketmaster associates, friendly to me and my friends also confirmed the lack of sympathy for our situation and certanly not helpful in obtaining like seats in the new venue. What I endountered was a take it or leave it attitude. This was after trying several times on line to buy tickets to the new venue to no avail.
I find this short change notice less than 2 weeks from the venue appearance very disturbing.
I also find that ticket scalping is plain wrong. The same seats for $85 on the floor are being scalped for $164 each and up…Does the artist receive the difference between the price with ticketmaster and the scalpers per ticket??? Artist have been suing people for what they believe is royalty infringement and peoples web sights without their perceived approval, even shutting down sites that appear to close to the their original sites, however, I do not see where they have a concern for their work product, being their show and tickets sold = revenue they obtain. Funny, there must be kick back.,…
It was my understanding that ticket scalping was illegal, what do I know…
I have been attending George’s shows for over 20 years. I have traveled out of State, when he has not been in So. California, just to make sure I could enjoy his show live, pick up my new tee shirts and have great evening. I have also taken my granddaughter to many of his concerts since she was 5 and she is now 14, In all this time, I have never encountered a change in venue. I have to ask why this venue was changed so last minute..
I do believe that George does not like Southern California and his fans here are short changed because of this dislike. In order to see George when he comes nowhere near So California, I have flown to other venue’s as far as Orlando Fla just to have a great concert every year…. This is extremely disappointing to me as a fan… even more it will be disappointing to let our friend who is new fan, that we were surprising her, celebrating her birthday and 1st time seeing George in concert, but we are not going to be able to attend.
When George graces his presence in So California, by the way that would be the LA and Orange County Area only ( other than Country Festival in the Desert last year). I have never seen him in concert in San Diego…. I drive over 2 hours one way to attend his concerts in LA and Orange County t even with traffic being night mare….
I do wish all attendees who were able to obtain tickets a great time at his concert….
Not sure if I will support any other concerts of his again.
Time will tell - very sad…