An Open Letter To The Backstreet Boys

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Aug 17, 2099 Source: Lisa Fiorenze & Antonia Martinez Submitted By: This isn’t your usual fan letter, nor is it "hate mail." Instead, it is a letter from an adult appealing for your help. It’s 10:00 P.M. on August 14th, 1999. As you read this letter, you might be able to recall how you felt at this particular "moment in time." Your U.S. Millennium tour is a smashing success. Tickets to your concert went on sale this morning and within minutes, your dates were extended and sold out. I’m sure you celebrated and rightfully so. You’ve worked hard to achieve this recognition and all the perks that come with such accomplishments. Congratulations. My family lives in the New York area. Mine is a city of 22,000,000 people. But I know I could be an adult from any city tonight. Your fans were told tickets could only be purchased via TicketMaster at 10:00 A.M. So, at 9:50 A.M. this morning, a neighbor and I were in our office where we had access to five separate phone lines as well as a online hookup to TicketMaster. We continually dialed three different telephone numbers to the ticket outlet as well as logged on. Needless to say, by 10:50 A.M. we still had not made any connection and we heard the announcement that the concert was sold out. We found ourselves with six very disappointed children on our hands. In listening to the radio for further updates, we heard countless other children with tears in their voices begging DJs for tickets. No doubt, they had a tough day as well. But were all those tickets really sold out. It seemed not. They were instead in the hands of ticket brokers. Ticket brokers who this very evening quoted us prices for a minimum of $150.00 per seat for cities as far as 150 miles away to $500.00 a seat at an arena in our area. Do we blame you for their greed? Absolutely NOT. But PLEASE, if you are to appear in our city, and believe us we want you here, kindly book yourself in a venue and for a number of nights that allow us to make our children happy. In a city our size, even without the scavengers, it is no surprise that 72,000 seats sold out so quickly. Imagine your disappointment had only 72,000 copies of Millennium been released here. We KNOW your band isn’t receiving the proceeds of such exorbitant prices. We would be more accepting if you were. We do not want our children extorted. You see, we have a very hard time putting a price on their happiness. We KNOW it has become simply a matter of supply and demand. We ONLY ask that you make it the responsibility of yourselves and the people who handle your tours to ensure that supply is sufficient enough that our children, the children who support you, are NOT EXPLOITED. Perhaps your schedule is too busy to accommodate a city our size on this tour. If so, please, just skip us this time around. We will understand. It will be easier than having to explain to our children why, despite our best efforts, we have to disappoint them. It will be easier than trying to explain supply and demand to children under the age of 15. It will be easier than even attempting to reconcile in our mind spending $2,000.00 to accompany three young children to their first concert. You seem like a group of decent guys, down to earth--with a sense of values. Next time you arrange a tour, kindly keep this letter in mind and help us instill some of those same values in our children. Thanks. Lisa Fiorenze & Antonia Martinez Comment on this item. Next Item: Rhythming "fire" with "desire" Prev Item: Heart Broken Fan Needs Advice