City releases information about Elton John tickets

Citizens who tried to buy tickets to last year's Elton John concert did not have access to 19.2 per cent of the seats, according to information released by the city June 25 

The information about tickets withheld by the promoter and not made available for public sale was released following a ruling received by the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario.

Another Sudbury media outlet requested full disclosure over who got special access to tickets to the high profile concert in early March 2008.

Citizens were outraged when they found out that city councillors and arena staff were able to purchase tickets ahead of the general public.

The city released information in the spring of 2008 about how many tickets city councillors and staff were able to buy in advance.

But they withheld information about special access to tickets by several other groups at the request of the promoter, Live Nation.

The records show that a total of 764 tickets were held by the promoter. The ticket breakdown is as follows:

- 268 for the artist
- 30 for promotional purposes
- 150 for fan club members
- Eight for the media
- 60 for the record company
- 150 for the promoter
- 98 for technical holds (e.g. seats where stage would not be visible or required for technical reasons such as lighting). This number was originally 479, but additional seats were made available before the tickets went on sale.

The record also shows that there were a further 463 tickets held by the promoter for advance purchase. These numbers, as follow, were previously disclosed:

- 120 for the mayor and councillors
- 120 for arena staff
- 192 for club suites
- 31 for Club Seats

Of the 6,386 seats available at the Sudbury Arena, a total of 5,159 were available for public sale, with 1,227 held by the promoter for other parties as listed above.

As previously disclosed, a further two tickets were purchased for the city's United Way draw.

To read the full text of the IPC ruling online, visit http://www.ipc.on.ca/images/Findings/MO-2423.pdf.

The full text of the records released is available at

http://www.greatersudbury.ca/content/dept_cd/documents/Sudbury_Arena_record.pdf