By Jim McCarthy Feb 20, 2009 0 comments

Swapping in Chicago

This is a two-for-one special post, because there are two interesting stories happening here.

First, Chicagoist reports that Wrigley Field will continue its newish tradition of having a live concert there during the summer, which in recent years has had Jimmy Buffett, The Police and other provide the entertainment.

This year, Elton John and Billy Joel were performing together (forever muddling those out there that for some reason get these two guys mixed up) and added a second show.  No sooner had that show been added than Rascal Flatts got booked in for a date too.  So triple the number of live shows during the time that the Cubs are idle for the All-Star break.  Also, Rascal Flatts appearance is the first instance, as far as I know, of a non-boomer band taking the stage for the summer concert.  Kinda refreshing to see that music didn’t stop in 1982, isn’t it?

The second part of the story is in this tidbit from the Live Nation press release:

“Due to the fact that there was no previous intention for multiple performances, purchasers of the July 21st concert who would prefer to attend Thursday, July 16th have the opportunity to swap their tickets for the added concert date. The tickets will be exchanged for comparable locations only and cannot be used for upgrades. Please visit http://www.eltonandbillychicagoticketswap.com to the deadline of 5 pm on Saturday February 21st to participate in this special offer.”

This is a great idea, but traditionally, this has either been impossible or just not allowed.  This kind of flexibility, especially in these kinds of circumstances, should be a standard practice.

The fact is that where it’s not a standard practice, it’s usually because allowing swaps or other changes like this creates work for the seller.

Hey, that’s legitimate to a point, but it really is imperative that if your systems are manual enough that this is a meaningful effort, you should employ some new technology.  Really, this should be easy at this point.

If it’s not, consider it your job to make it easy in your operation!

(BTW, here’s a totally different perspective on these summer concerts from a local.  It’s considerably grumpier than you’d expect, which makes it fun to read.)

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