Elton John fans turned away from Indy concert rescheduled 3 times
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — After years of delays waiting to attend an Elton John concert, part of his Farewell Yellow Brick Road Tour, people were turned away Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
Jonathan Enos, of Greenwood, had bought tickets in 2018 for the show. They were a Christmas present for his wife and mother-in-law.
“My mother-in-law, she’s been waiting to see Elton John for 30 years, and this is his farewell tour, so she thought she was finally going to get to see him,” Enos said.
Danny Lopez, vice president of external relations and corporate communications for Pacers Sports & Entertainment, told News 8 in an email, “While we did all we could to anticipate and address the issues that arose on show night, we apologize to the fans who were delayed entering the show.”
The musician known for “Bennie and The Jets” and “Philadelphia Freedom” had originally sold tickets in spring 2018 to an Oct. 25, 2019, show. The Indianapolis show was moved to Oct. 26, 2019, after Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena had a scheduling conflict for an NBA game.
John canceled the Oct. 26, 2019, show because he was “extremely unwell,” he said in an announcement on social media. He wrote, “The date will be rearranged for March 26th 2020, and I promise I will deliver the show you deserve. Thank you so much for your support and understanding.”
Then came the coronavirus. Gainbridge Fieldhouse, then still known as Bankers Life Fieldhouse, was shut down. The show was again postponed until Friday night; fans had noted the irony that it’s April Fools’ Day.
In the years since the show was originally scheduled, Gainbridge Fieldhouse was remodeled. That meant many of the seats sold to the show no longer existed, and some fans learned at the box office they’d be sitting somewhere else.
Lopez says, since the original tickets were sold, the lower bowl and mezzanine levels have been reconfigured in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, so some fans had to be moved to different locations for the Friday night show. “We have regularly communicated with ticket holders, with a focus on those who were impacted by seat reconfiguration, and we have brought additional staffing to the box office and in our Guest Services in anticipation of a high volume of issues,” told News 8 by email on Friday night.
Unfortunately for Enos, he’d bought his tickets for his Christmas gift from a resale vendor that was unable to help him. People at the box office at Gainbridge Fieldhouse told him to reupload his TicketMaster tickets. That didn’t work, so he was told to call TicketMaster.
He called TicketMaster and was told they are overwhelmed with calls, and he would have send them an email to get his problem resolved later — which meant his wife and mother-in-law didn’t get to see Elton John.
Melissa Yates and her group drove 2½ hours from New Weston, Ohio, to see John on Friday night.
When trying to use their tickets, Yates and her group were told to go to the box office, where she says hundreds of people were in line.
She’d bought her ticket through TicketMaster when they went on sale in 2018, but they would not scan properly because, she was told, someone else was already sitting in her seats. She and her group were offered an alternative for their $325 tickets about 9 p.m. Friday, an hour after the show had started, but they declined.
“I’ve went to a lot of things in that Fieldhouse, and that’s the first time I’ve ever been scammed with a ticket,” she said.
Yates said a Gainbridge security guard told her that emails had been sent to ticket buyers about the Fieldhouse reconfiguration, but she said she’s never seen any communications.
“It’s maddening is what it is,” Yates said. “We had people standing in line who were crying. I think Elton John is going to care about it when he finds out so many of his fans were staying in line and couldn’t get into his show.
Gainbridge Fieldhouse tweeted at 10:09 p.m. Friday that guests affected can reach out to their original point of purchase, or the Fieldhouse at boxoffice@pacers.com.