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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, August 3, 2006

Here's a 2nd chance to grab U2 tickets

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Pssst! Anybody wanna buy some previously owned U2 tickets, or give yours back?

Tickets go on sale Saturday for U2's rescheduled Aloha Stadium concert on Dec. 9, based on returns from the show's postponed April 8 date. And more seats may become available, as April 8 ticketholders can still return their tickets through next Thursday.

Returned tickets at all price levels — $165 and $95 for reserved seats and $49.50 for general admission to the field — will go on sale at 9 a.m. Saturday. Once again, the most efficient way to buy tickets is from Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster .com or by phone at (877) 750-4400.

U2 tickets also will be sold at the Aloha Stadium box office and all Ticketmaster outlets, but would-be buyers may want to note the experience of many fans who waited in line for hours hoping to purchase U2 tickets at brick-and-mortar outlets back in January, and went home empty-handed while online and phone customers scooped up prime tickets.

Promoter Live Nation would not comment on the number of tickets returned, but with Pearl Jam added to the new Aloha Stadium date — the final stop of U2's long and winding Vertigo tour — tickets are expected to sell quickly.

Since returns are still being accepted, it's possible that a few more tickets will become available before the winter show, but Live Nation did not release information on that prospect.

Tickets already in the hands of U2 fans will remain valid for assigned seats and general admission space on the stadium floor.

With Aloha Stadium reconfigured for football in December, views for some reserved seat ticketholders will change.

Seats in sections F through K, and FF through KK — facing directly toward the stage's front end in the baseball configuration previously planned for the April concert — will move closer to the stage, but will be angled differently.

Reserved seats in sections A through E and sections AA through EE will have the same view of and remain the same distance from the stage in the football configuration.

"The seating that faces the stage is (on) a fixed stand. And the stage will be in the same area. So it doesn't change the sightline or anything," said stadium box office manager Ainsley Paki, of sections A through E and sections AA through EE.

Paki didn't think the concert's promoters could sell additional general admission field tickets beyond Saturday's refunds because floor space becomes tighter in the football configuration.

With a change to football configuration, it would be possible to add at least six new reserved seating sections: L, M, N, LL, MM and NN. These are sections whose seats were not sold previously because with the baseball configuration, they would have been behind the stage.

Live Nation so far has no plans to offer reserved seats in these sections, but stadium officials were hopeful the promoter would.

"(The promoters) are still deciding that, and they haven't told us anything," said interim deputy stadium manager Scott Chan. "My hope is that's what they decide to do, because that will leave them some options."

Live Nation spokesman Greg Terlizzi said in an e-mail yesterday that only returned tickets will be sold on Saturday. He also said that there would be no changes made to the concert stage or the stage's position on the field because of the football configuration.

Terlizzi also wrote that the concert's start time would remain 7:30 p.m., even with Pearl Jam joining U2 and previously announced opener/U2 road crew band Rocco and the Devils. All the same, U2 will not shorten its usual Vertigo Tour live set to accommodate the addition of Pearl Jam.

The concert also must end at a set time. "Our curfew for the stadium is 11 p.m.," Paki said.

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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