Garth's still got it: Brooks' Vegas shows sell out
Oct. 24, 2009, 6:09 PM EST

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Garth Brooks mused that the public may have moved on when he announced he was coming out of retirement.

Was he ever wrong.

Tickets for Brooks' first 20 shows at the Wynn Las Vegas resort sold out in less than five hours. The resort says in a statement released Saturday afternoon that the resort reached its maximum capacity for callers at 141,934 and those who called in after got busy signals.

Officials say the ticket Web site had more than 5.4 million page views with 40,000 waiting to buy tickets online at one point.

Brooks announced a five-year deal with casino owner Steve Wynn last week that will include 15 weeks of shows in the Encore theater, which seats about 1,500. All tickets were $125 plus fees.

The best-selling solo act in history will play shows Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays of select weeks beginning Dec. 11

I would have lost a bet on that one. I thought that it would sell out in minutes...or the webserver and phone bank would crash from being overcrowded.

Just for giggles, I logged in to buy tickets one minute after they went on sale, which was 0800 my time. To my surprise, the website was up and running. It gave me a holding screen that said the online ticket booth was full and to please wait, and it gave me a countdown clock to when it would try again. The countdown clock varied between about 50 seconds to about 120 seconds. When it timed out, it would try to get into the ticketing area, and if unsuccessful would start another countdown. I watched it about 4 times and switched to another screen on my computer at work. I came back to the screen later and I was in the ticket area. At about 0820 I tried random dates and qtys of tickets. The first night was sold out, but all of the other dates always showed available. To my surprise, even Feb 14 was open for the max number of tix one could buy, which was 6.
Something came up and I had to switch screens. An hour later when I came back, I was still in the ticket area and still had access to buy tickets. Again, only the first night did not allow me to purchase anything.

I never did buy anything. It might help to know that when you try to buy on-line, when it finds tickets for you, it doesn't tell you which seats they are. I never proceeded past the point of credit card requests. It might give you a seat assignment after you pay...but I just don't know. Strong rumors say it's first come, first served, but it doesn't say whether it's first to make a reservation or first to pick up the tickets on the day of the show at the box office.

It's my understanding that announced dates and ticket sales will be announced quarterly. I think this will be a surprisingly good show because it will not be with a band. Just Garth, his guitar, a little bit of Miss Trisha, and maybe sometimes a special friend or two. It won't be the type of Garth Brooks concerts some may be familiar with at stadiums, areanas, and TV.

I forget where I read this but while Mr Wynn and Mr Brooks were in initial discussions. Mr Brooks insisted that ticket prices could not exceed $35 but Mr Wynn convinced him otherwise.

Personally I am amazed that any singer can sell tickets at those hight prices when you can hear him/her just as well (or better) on a $10 CD.

I think that singers should be heard and not seen and always regret it when I pay over $10 to hear the latest singing star or starlette.

Old school, I guess!

Even at $135, if you do the math, that wont pay for the jet.

You would need to be a Garth Brooks fan or less "old school" than yourself for this. He has pretty much promised that it won't be anything like his CDs.

$10 for a CD, better check walmart next time you go, top selling cd's are rarely 10 bucks. Even downloading on the internet costs more then that in general!

i don't think the people know that they are going to get garth on stage with guitar and that's it.not a lot of bang for the buck.i like garth,his music,his wife,but not 135 bucks worth.i don't think steve is buying him a jet,just a wynn jet to fly him home on sunday nite.

What I heard on the news is that when G Brooks finishes his five year deal, he gets the jet. What I read somewhere is that Mr. Wynn already owns the jet...........or has the jet. I think ticket prices are a bit steep, too, and I'm really disappointed as I am a fan.........it seems that in the past, GB was more "little people" oriented, and I doubt that many of his regular fans can afford a couple of tickets to that show....I know we don't want to pay those prices.