Billy Joel And Elton John Tickets On Sale

By Jeffrey Smith, News On 6

TULSA, OK -- Hundreds of fans lined up outside the BOK Center Saturday morning to get first-dibs on Billy Joel and Elton John Tickets.

The box office opened at 10 a.m., but some websites already had tickets for sale.

A News On 6 viewer from Tulsa was asking how can there already be seats secured by other websites.

Websites that offer you early seats are doing it on speculation and no matter how big the city or small the arena, managers say there's no way to stop it.

Cindy Buckmaster waited in line for the clock to strike 10 a.m. That's when she finally got her tickets to Billy Joel and Elton John.

She waited in line for 11 hours. She says trying to get them online is too much trouble.

"I've been that way, the cheap seats would have been gone. And I've been waiting 10, 15, 20 before I could even get online. Because the server gets jammed," said Buckmaster.

About 200 people waited all morning for the doors to open. So how come sites like Stub-Hub and Tickets-Now say they already have tickets for sale?

The truth is they don't.

"They'll actually put up Billy Joel, Elton John tickets in the 5th row. They don't have those tickets in hand. We have not released any tickets from the box office. So what they're doing is speculating. So buyer beware," said BOK Assistant Manager Jerry Goldman.

Many fans say buying directly is the best option.

Arena officials say there's truth to that, but that can be time-consuming.

"The big thing about coming here is you don't pay any service charges, you just pay the face value of the ticket," said Goldman.

Penny Morris says she never gets through on the official website, Tickets.com. And she's ponying up almost 200 bucks for the best seats she can get.

"It's Billy Joel and Elton John, you can't beat it. I don't care if it was 250 or a thousand, I'd still be here," said Morris.

After getting her tickets, Buckmaster was one happy woman. She says it's a once-in-a-lifetime concert, was worth the wait.

The only official pre-sale was through Billy Joel and Elton John's official fan clubs. But Goldman says they only reserve a small section of tickets.

The News On 6 was told the event isn't sold out, but the tickets that are left are mostly scattered singles throughout the floor level, but there still are couples and triples available.