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ADA ticket frustration

HeartdogHeartdog Posts: 28
edited October 2009 in Given To Fly (live)
OK, this is frustrating. I've called Live Nation and Ticketmaster about this, to no avail. I was at LA1, having obtained a regular ticket from a friend. I was put in a LOGE wheelchair section, after much hassle that night, and had a super hard time seeing. The hassle was dismaying, because there were about six sections, and only one other wheelchair patron in them! I looked down in the pit, and it seemed there was spaces available there, too. But there was no way anyone was going to let me go down there, despite this.

Ticketmaster says that they only have a limited amount of tickets, and it's the promoters who have the most. So they probably have those seats available, yet there's no apparent way of getting to them. I guess you have to know someone? I wonder if there's anything 10c can do...

Not only am I in a wheelchair, I'm really short, too. I was finally able to see a little bit when I positioned myself at the top of an aisle. Though people stood in the middle of that, too. (Yet I got hassled). That was my first PJ show. I would give anything to be able to be closer for another show. It hurt to pay that much to not see anything, as I'm on a limited income.

It's hard to find anyone to talk to about this at that venue, because it's so closed off. That's the only way I've gotten help before, is through talking to tour folks. I guess in the future, I'll have to try and just get non ADA pit tickets, and see if they'll put me in a wheelchair spot down there.

I guess I should try to get what I can get at San Diego, and see how that goes. Gibson is great for sound, and small, just so frustrating to not see!
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • HeartdogHeartdog Posts: 28
    OK, the plot thickens. I finally reached someone higher up at Ticketmaster. Found out that the ADA wheelchair seats in the pit were never available to them on their screen. The supervisor was puzzled to find there was actually handicapped seating in the pit! And quite a bit of it, too. So no matter how hard I tried, those tickets were not available to buy, through TM.

    Now, I guess maybe they were available through 10C? Though I wasn't able to afford buying two tickets, as it's just me going. If that's the case, why then were there empty wheelchair spaces at the Gibson? Maybe those are held back for the band's friends only? I don't get it. There were just so many empty wheelchair spots!
  • pray for mojopray for mojo Posts: 117
    Heartdog, sorry to hear, that is devastating to read. Honestly. I was just going to write, I saw a lot of people in wheelchairs, in the pit, for night 1. Maybe they were Live Nation tickets? Or Ten Club. I know Live Nation usually gets a LARGE amount of ticktes set a side for each show at venues they work with and/or own.
    Irvine 92,Indio 93,San Fran 95,San Diego 95x2,San Diego 98,LA 98x2,San Diego 00,San Bern 00,Irvine 03,San Diego 03,Las Vegas 03,Santa Barbara 03,Vancouver 05,LA 06x2,Santa Barbara 06,Cincy 06,Leeds 06,Reading 06,Portland 09,LA 09x3,San Diego 09,NYC 10x2, PHX 13, SD 13, LAx2 13, Cincy 14, Ft Lauderdale 16, Miami 16, Dana Point 21x2, Vegas 24, LAx2 24, Dana Point 24
  • cincybearcatcincybearcat Posts: 16,587
    would you have been able to see in the wheelchair pit section?

    Good luck to you at your future shows...hearing is better than seeing, but both is better yet!
    hippiemom = goodness
  • HeartdogHeartdog Posts: 28
    Yes I would be able to see in the pit. That's so weird with live nation cuz the claimed they don't get many tickets. Ticketmasters passes the buck, too. It does suck to be doubly hard to get a good seat. Might not be til next tour.
  • acutejamacutejam Posts: 1,433
    Hmm. Very curious about this as well -- I am not taking a wheelchair bound mate to SD just because I didn't get ADA seats for it. I gave about 3 days thought to seeing what would happen if I showed up at a show with a person in a wheelchair holding non-ADA seats. Decided against it.

    I mean -- if I pulled lotto first row, they would HAVE to have a way to get a wheelchair down to the floor no? There's a wheelchair section down there anyways most likely. But I also think about the safety aspect -- in a dire emergency, earthquake say, and we needed to get out -- I'd want to be near a clear ADA area with fast exit access, not in normal seats.

    I DO KNOW all the 10C Pre-Sale FanClub Tix messages say: Contact us for ADA Fan Club Seating -- so 10C definitely has the ability to procure those for us. And I will definitely be trying that out on the next tour.

    I can not express how exceedingly frustrating it is for folks in wheelchairs -- specifically, who are wheelchair bound -- to attend concerts. It sucks to be short at shows, but not even having the option to stand up and peer this way or that around someone is agonizing. And then there's the abuse of the ADA seats -- bring a cane pretend to be handicap! Bring your significant other and friends, ace out other ADA folks from those seats.

    The Greek Theater in Berkeley is the absoloute worst -- I got only one companion spot (our two other friends got nosebleeds -- yes, noted above, I say that because we saw OTHER groups of 4 in the ADA sections, 3 healthy, one ADA) and then we had like spot A1 and A2, but it was really first come first serve, so we're like in the second row of wheelchairs and folding chairs for companions. And then when folks stand in the first section, you can't see from the ADA section. AND THEN, we had a companion, a person THERE with someone in a wheelchair, stand up in front of my mate -- who can not stand -- and proceed to hippie dance through Plant/Krauss. Did I say she was from that fount of compassion -- BERKELEY!?!?!? F'n A!

    Oakland Arena has been a godsend for ADA seating -- killer sideviews, elevated over the crowd. Perfect.
    [sic] happens
  • redrockredrock Posts: 18,341
    Your best bet is to get the ADA tix from the venue itself. Forget about Ticketmaster or Livenation.
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