The registration and public on-sale dates have come and gone for fans hoping to see Miley Cyrus perform on September 27 at the MGM Grand Theater at Foxwoods casino in Connecticut. By the end of the first day of sales on Wednesday, September 3, the Disney starlet’s one-night performance was sold out, and before the weekend hit, tickets were already appearing on secondary ticket sites.
After the supply-and-demand problems faced by fans hoping to see Cyrus during her 2007 tour, the MGM box-office implemented an online registration process and lottery system for purchasing tickets to the upcoming concert. The system was designed to prevent ticket reselling and “ensure a fair and equitable means for all of Miley’s fans to have a chance to buy tickets,” according to a statement on MGM Grand’s Web site. Terms and conditions for the sale stated that tickets could not be resold or the original transaction would be voided.
In a September 4 interview with The Day, Foxwoods Director of Tickets Bruce Flax was optimistic that resales for the show had been thwarted. “If you look on well known scalper Web sites…you can see 200 to 300 tickets for sale for Miley’s show in California,” Flax told the publication, “and none for our show.”
However, online readers responded to The Day’s article with incredulity. “I’m not sure which sites Bruce Flax is looking at, but all the well-known scalper sites have plenty of tickets available for those who can pay up,” one person commented on the story. Several readers pointed to online auction site ebay.com, which offered several listings for tickets to the September 27 show — some for thousands of dollars.
On the afternoon of September 5, the Foxwoods box-office sent out an e-mail to Miley Cyrus registrants in regards to the secondary sale of tickets to the event. “As promised, we have been policing the ticket reseller sites,” the e-mail stated. “We have identified a number of tickets offered for resale in direct violation of our policy. Therefore, these reservations have been canceled and available to those who registered (and have not yet purchased tickets).”
The voided transactions included tickets in the $150 and $250 range, and registrants unable to purchase tickets during the initial on-sale period were directed to the box-office Web site to claim the newly available seats. None of the venue’s $300 seats were affected or available in the box-office’s Friday sale.
According to a second, explanatory e-mail sent out by the box-office later in the afternoon, most individuals who purchased tickets during Wednesday’s initial sale were not affected. “Anyone who has completed the purchase process and not attempted to re-sell their tickets has no reason for concern,” the second e-mail read. “Those people who did have their orders cancelled due to attempted resale were contacted via phone.”
