A DAY OF HIGHS AND LOWS: KANSAS CITY ON-SALE HALTED AS SEATTLE SETS RECORDS

Two cities. Two on-sales. Two dramatically different outcomes.

Friday, Oct. 23, brought Garth Brooks one of the most frustrating moments of his “Blame It All on My Roots” Arena Tour in Kansas City — and, just hours later, a record-setting response in Seattle.

In Kansas City, Brooks’ attempt to get more tickets into fans’ hands went sideways when bots flooded the on-sale for a newly added Saturday matinee at T-Mobile Center. The problem became significant enough that they shut down the on-sale.

“Because of social media posts and our history with Kansas City, I felt we left people unable to get tickets on the original on-sale,” Brooks said. “I was the one who suggested we put a lower bowl Saturday matinee up for sale.”

When tickets went on sale that morning, more than 90,000 people were in the queue. Most of that number turned out to be bots. The bots flooded the on-sale, holding tickets throughout the floor and lower bowl, creating a scenario that limited access to floor or lower bowl tickets.

AXS and the team at T-Mobile Center acted quickly to shut down the on-sale.

There will be no Saturday matinee performance in Kansas City.

Those who actually were able to buy tickets to the matinee will be automatically refunded to the original method of payment used for purchase.  

However, more than 2,000 miles away, fans in Seattle made history in a different way on Friday.

Seattle fans showed up early and in record numbers. Within minutes, three shows sold out. With well over 30,000 people still in the queue, Brooks added a fourth show — a new opening night.

The Seattle on-sale set records for Brooks’ fastest sellouts and largest queue, and the city pushed him well beyond the 500,000-ticket mark for the year.

For Brooks, the dramatically different outcomes in Kansas City and Seattle came back to the same priority.

“It was a day of highs and lows, all for the same reason,” Brooks said. “It's all about taking care of those people who love the music.”