The Police tour to play show for PBS

The Police tour has been extended but not with a new series of concerts. Instead of ending the trek on August 5 in Wantagh, NY, the trio will perform at Madison Square Garden on August 7 in a benefit for Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) stations in the metropolitan New York area, WNET and WLIW.

The Police claim that this will be their final concert, ever. On June 14, instead of the usual pledge drive give-aways of mugs, CDs, DVDs, books, tote bags and other items, viewers will have a chance to get tickets for the Garden concert: a $5,000 donation will provide VIP treatment with dinner, a party and sound check attendance, while a $150 pledge will secure a pair of tickets. It is not known how many tickets will be available in each category, but the pair of tickets will go fast since at $75 each is as cheap as a Police concert ticket costs regularly.

Lead singer and frontman Sting will be interviewed during the day-long pledge drive and concert footage will be screened.

“Our business manager and I were talking about the final show one day and how we could make it special,” said Kathryn Schenker, Sting’s manager, in the New York Times. “We talked about the environment, and then I think somehow, at that moment, public broadcasting came up.”

With the group's farewell concert booked for Jones Beach on August 5, she added, “That seemed like it would be anti-climactic. We felt it was important to do something significant for one last show.”

It should be noted that this is not a unique public television give-away as it has been done in the past with other artists.

The Police are also donating $2 from each ticket sold to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Million Trees initiative.