Wednesday, March 4, 2015

So About that Grateful Dead Reunion Show (Part 2)....

Remember when we said that this Grateful Dead reunion show was a big "get" for the city and soldier field?  Well if our earlier post wasn't strong enough for you, maybe some of the recent news about the concert's tickets sales will do the trick (via Chicago Tribune):
The good news for die-hard Deadheads who got shut out of the Grateful Dead's reunion concerts July 3-5 at Soldier Field when tickets went on sale over the weekend: Tickets are showing up in droves on the secondary market.  
The bad news: They don't cost the list price of $59.50 and $199.50 (plus service fees) anymore. 
According to online ticket aggregator tiqiq.com, tickets are going for as high as $8,660 for a front-row seat. The average price for a seat is more than $2,000, and three-day passes are selling for an average of more than $4,000. Other sources have reported three-day tickets selling for as high as $15,000.  
#WeNeedAMiracle!
The Ticketmaster sale Saturday was moved up to meet demand, apparently before many fans who had requested tickets via mail had been notified by the Grateful Dead ticket office whether their order would be filled. The Dead's website reported that it had received 60,000 envelopes requesting hundreds of thousands of tickets for the reunion shows. Soldier Field capacity is about 60,000. The online sale Saturday briefly crashed Ticketmaster's site, and tickets sold out within minutes.

We unfortunately recently got a letter in the mail notifying us that we didn't get tickets (which wasn't super surprising - clearly).

And if ticket demand isn't indicative of the affects on the city, try to get a hotel room that weekend:
A search of popular travel search engines Expedia and Travelocity for the Dead dates, focusing on the Loop, found that 83 of 85 hotels were sold out.  
The only two options on Monday afternoon were $589 a night for a room at the Holiday Inn Express Chicago-Magnificent Mile, and $689 for a room at a hotel in the Chicago Athletic Association building.
So it seems like there is an opportunity for us Sloopers.  Either stay in the neighborhood and partake in some partying or sign up for airbnb and rent your place out and make some cash.

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