The Great Garth Cancellation Fiasco

[Glennsallnighter]

I thought we had a thread for concerts we are going to other than Eagles ones bit I can't seem to find it!
However I do remember posting that I would be going to Garth Brooks at the end of this month. Garth Brooks fever hit Ireland when he announced in January that he would play 2 concerts in Ireland at the end of July. The venue would be Croke Park, our premier sports stadium and headquarters of the GAA, the 'main' Irish sporting body.

Tickets went on sale and even though I logged in before 9am, two hours later a third date was announced and I still could not get tickets on ticketmaster. Stubhub were already doing resales.

About a week later 'due to unprecedented demand' a fourth night was added, to be followed by a fifth when it sold out. Thankfully I managed to get tickets for the fourth night, Monday 28th July......

Now, Croke Park is in the middle of a residential area, being about 2 miles from the city. Immediately the residents in the neighbourhood started to complain that these 5 concerts should not go ahead. Apparently there was an agreement in place that only 3 concerts per year could take place there. Those 3 have already happened with 1-direction last May.

The promotors offered €500,000 to the residential development fund, and it's also well known that these residents get comp tickets for any concrete that do take place.

They were still not happy and took their case to Dublin City Council last week. the city manager refused licences for the two later gigs, meaning only the original three can take place.

Now here's the twist....

Garth Brooks has now put an 'All or Nothing' statement out. he says he has been contracted to do 5 concerts and he will pull out of them all if he is only granted 3.

So we have
Possibility of 400,000 people being disappointed by not having a concert to go to.
Refunds having to be offered to all of us.
People who bought tickets through third parties possibly NOT being refunded
Local hotels have taken bookings from here and abroad now face massive charges in cancelled bookings and refunds
Staff working in those hotels will lose wages etc.
Pubs, restaurants etc in the locality losing out and again having made orders and provision for these gigs.
People have booked to come to these concerts from Ireland, Europe, the USA and as far away as Afghanistan I believe. They will not be refunded their flights.
Overall massive loss to our economy, just as we have started to recover
Massive loss of credibility to our nation.

Numerous petitions and representations have been made to the city council over the last few days, but the manager is adamant, he will not revoke the licence ban.

Now I know from travelling abroad to see Glenn and the Eagles that I DO take a risk, but IMHO this is ludicrous. A small group of people have held the whole city up to ransom, and the feeling is that they did it assuming they would be compensated financially for being put out!

Current situation is that no gigs will take place unless there is a massive u-turn by the city council on Monday .

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I wondered what the full story was, I've seen bits and pieces here and there. I can see both sides, I know I'd be upset if I paid $$ for a house and then a concert arena was built next door. On the other hand, to hold it all back is stupid. I can see Garth's side of it, he negotiated these in good faith and probably had no idea the approvals weren't there. I can also see why he'd not cancel two of them and leave three. What a mess.

[Glennsallnighter]

The stadium has been there long before the houses or their current owners. I do sympathise at a level. But people buy in that area so they can see the Dublin team games from their back bedroom!

I think in the long run the only acceptable solution in the future is that a license has to be obtained before concerts are advertised. The promotors too were saying today that they are not insured and face financial ruin if this collapses.

It seems that all 5 dates were always in the pipeline and released as needed

[VAisForEagleLovers]

If the stadium was there first, then I agree, people shouldn't complain!

It sounds like there was plenty of blame to go around, which is a real shame that so many will lose from this, and to be honest, I don't see anyone gaining anything.

[DJ]

What a huge disappointment to his fans. I am so glad to have heard Paul McCartney is going on with his touring, he'll be here in August. YAH!

[zeldabjr]

omg I've heard none of this...what a mess...I agree with VA...if that arena was built before...the people have no right to complain...the city manager is already going against their policy by allowing any of Garth's concerts to go on, if I read you correctly...there have already been the allotted 3 concerts this year by One Direction...so how come it is ok to add 3 more but not 5 more?...don't get it...

[Freypower]

GA, for your information the Upcoming Shows thread is the Sticky thread at the top of this forum.

https://eaglesonlinecentral.com/foru...ead.php?t=5109

[Glennsallnighter]

thanks FP! Sometimes you can miss the obvious! I was looking at the threads, not the stickies! Should we move this?

[Glennsallnighter]

Zelda this is Ireland! You pay a backhander, give some comps to the residents and it's sorted. Usually. That's the way it works here. Just not this time.

The residents are now holding a march today to HAVE the concerts staged after all! They have suddenly decided they 'don't want to be killjoys'. Pity they didn't think about the repercussions last week!!!

In real terms they are a afraid of

Losing their comps
Being abused by certain sectors of society who feel it is ok to do this (I wouldn't )
Some have had threats of being burned out of their homes.

This is just crazy and our whole licensing policy needs to be looked at after this is sorted.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I think it's enough of a topic to have the dedicated thread, because it's more than going to a concert (or not). JMO.

Wow, threats and everything. I'm not surprised the residents did a turn-around on this. After all, if the concerts go away, the comps for them go away. I wonder how much they make on reselling the comps?

I really hope that the licensing is looked at. Why have a stadium or arena if you are going to limit the amount of events in the first place? Sounds like a good way to lose money.