Hearne: Midland Uses World Series as Excuse to Dump Ducats

“Sure I want half price Susan Boyle tickets, who wouldn’t?”

Let’s see, you’re sitting on a you-know-what load of soft ticket shows and you want to save face – what to do?

Well, there’s always the option of “papering the arena” as they say. Concert biz insiders are all too familiar with that term. In short, it’s when promoters and artists quietly flood the marketplace with freebie tickets to a show or event to try and save face. Because the last thing an artist and its management want is to play to a half empty (or worse) concert hall.

My first direct experience with the papering phenomena went down in the mid 1980s when Frank Sinatra played Kemper Arena. The smart money would have been for Old Blue Eyes to rock the Midland or Music Hall – venues that seat between 2,400 and 3,800 as opposed to 17,000 or more.

Never underestimate the power of greed though – or you know – over-optimism.

Sinatra could have easily sold out the smaller venues, put on a more intimate show and charged darn near whatever he wished. Instead he chose a venue that shortly before the show date appeared would be well under half full.

Frank Sinatra @ Kemper Arena 1985

I got a call from a local ticket company honcho who asked how many comp tickets to Sinatra I could use. A stockbroker at the time, I had plenty of friends and business associates to call upon and ended up giving away more than 200 comp tickets, including many in the ultra high priced “Circle of Gold” seating area.

I wasn’t the only one who got free Sinatra tix to give away and a good time was had by pretty much all of my freeloader friends. However the arena was still noticeably empty, just not as noticeably as it otherwise would have been.

The Kansas City Comets soccer team was notorious for “papering” Kemper.

The papering process continues to this day – I remember Star music writer Tim Finn giving away tickets several years back – along with some of the larger midtown music stores back when such dinosaurs still roamed the land.

Of course nowadays there are other outlets – like ticket brokers, websites and email blasts – upon which to unload cheap tickets, two-for-one deals, etc.

And now there’s a new one…

The Midland has announced that it will offer a two-for-one deals on tickets to – ahem – certain shows while the Royals are playing in the World Series.

All you have to do is dress up in lame Royals gear, go out in public and ramble down to the Midland box office.

Pretty cheesy, huh?

Now it would be one thing if the venue was just trying to unload tickets for shows that go down on World Series game nights. You know, over the course of the next week or so.

Susan Boyle This Thursday @ The Midland

Judas Priest tomorrow night certainly qualifies and it’s on the twofer list.

However In This Moment, Susan Boyle, The Company Men, John Cleese, Yo Gabba Gabba, Craig Ferguson, Martina McBride and several other shows that run from November into mid December are available for the Midland’s buy one, get one deal…long after the afterglow of the World Series has settled into the history books.

But don’t expect to get trick-or-treat, half off deals on hot selling shows like Straight No Chaser, Friday’s Freakers Ball, Bassnectar or The Buzz Halloweenie Roast. No need to paper those shows when people are actually paying for the tickets.

Wear what you wish when you try and buy tix for those shows cuz the Royals can’t help you – no phony World Series sale needed.