Las Vegas Weekly

March 13, 2009 · 5:59 AM

Michael Jackson reaches 1 million ticket sales in five hours

By Robin Leach

Michael Jackson appears in London to announce his final concerts in the British capital in March 2009.

Photo: The Associated Press

By the time everybody is awake to read this story, resurging King of Pop Michael Jackson may have set a world record that might never be beaten!

With thousands of people waiting -- actually camped out -- at 02 Arena in London to buy general admission tickets and disappointed fans complaining about how the Internet and phone reservations systems broke down because of the unusually high demand for tickets, Michael has added even more concerts.

He’s set a 1 million seat sales target for today and will now play some 50 concerts in the 20,000-seat arena. The original 10 concerts were extended throughout this past week, as we reported yesterday, and now the increase has ended, with the final concert Feb. 24. Click HERE for our most recent story as we kept track of the sales phenomenon.

A total of 360,000 pre-sale tickets have already been sold in the fastest time ever. The AEG/Concerts West promoters believe that by 10 a.m. our time, the remaining 640,000 general admission tickets will have been snapped up.

“It’s the fastest-selling appearances in history,” Randy Phillips, president of AEG in London, told BBC-TV. “Michael is thrilled with the response. Not only are these concerts unparalleled, these records will never be broken. We knew this was show business history, but this has become a cultural phenomenon.”

The pre-sale tickets with passwords for the first 10 dates announced by Michael sold out almost instantly on the first day (Tuesday), even though thousands of fans complained of technical problems trying to register online. Ticketmaster officials confirmed the demand was "unprecedented" and caused the ticketing systems to collapse.

The British site of eBay already has a re-sale section up for Michael’s concerts. Incredibly, one set of tickets is being offered at $15,000!

UPDATE @7:37 A.M.: It took exactly five hours to sell the remaining Michael Jackson show tickets in London this morning, so he reached his 1 million seat sales goal by noon British time. Michael will perform the 50 concerts -- one for each year of his life -- starting July 8 and ending in February next year. Through his concert promoters AEG, Michael has now promised that he will release a brand new single in advance of the premiere show in July and follow with a new album!

Vegas DeLuxe will reveal the first secrets of the staged spectacular next week.

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