Posted on 08/28/2009 3:18:50 AM PDT by kingattax
Ticket sales for Bill Clinton's speech Saturday at the CNE have been much slower than expected, forcing organizers to reconfigure the stadium layout and offer fairgoers $5 tickets at the door.
About 7,000 advance tickets are sold for the 4 p.m. event, a far cry from the 25,000 people expected when it was announced two weeks ago.
“I'm the eternal optimist. I thought we were just going to sell like crazy at the very beginning and it looks like we're going to sell more towards the end of this sales cycle,” said David Bednar, general manager of the Canadian National Exhibition. “I can almost guarantee that we will not sell out.”
The tickets, which include fair admission, sell for $20, $40 and $50. The $50 seats are gone, but there are thousands of the cheaper tickets available. Fairgoers who pay regular admission on Saturday will be able to buy a Clinton admission ticket at the stadium for as little as $5.
Mr. Bednar said a number of factors may have hurt ticket sales. Mr. Clinton's appearance, which is partly funded by a $3-million grant from Ottawa's tourism stimulus fund, was confirmed on Aug. 11, giving the Ex just two weeks to market it at a time when many people are away, he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theglobeandmail.com ...
*smiles* the first black President has lost what appeal he had.....
Yet Clinton receives big money from the lecture circuit.
Like Zer0 Clinton craves constant praise.
He keeps coming up here to Toronto for some reason and it ain’t for making speeches (nudge nudge wink wink). I could be wrong but I don’t recall the toon visiting the city once during his 8 years in office.
It’s at a fair, hmm? Have a carnival barker outside saying, “Step right up folks and see the freaks of the world. We’ve got Zippy, the pin-head man. We’ve got Erma, the woman with not one, not two, but five breasts. Also we’ve got the world’s oddest couple—Fanetta, the 9-foot woman and her husband Billy, who is an amazing 0.1 inches tall. Yes, Emma is married to a flea. Also, see their 39 children. Watch them jump over the state capital building. Yes, it’s all inside. Admission is only $5. Hey, you there young man! Don’t you want to see Erma naked? And who knows what other freaks you might meet if you enter this tent. Do you have the nerve or are you a chicken? Buk, buk, buh-guk! Step right up, tickets are going fast. We’ve only got 18,000 left!”
Canuck tax dollars are paying his $100K fee. Our stimulus monies were given to CNE organizers to bring in “interesting speakers”. As one person put it in a letter to the editor of the National Post - “let him speak about morals - I’d pay to hear that”
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