Springsteen to Give 4 Shows in Coliseum

Rock star Bruce Springsteen will perform at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Sept. 26, 27, 29 and 30 at 6 p.m., it was announced Monday by Coliseum officials, promoters and ticket sales executives.

The $17.50 reserved seat tickets will go on sale today at 10 a.m. at more than 130 Ticketron and Ticketmaster outlets throughout Southern California and through telephone charge lines operated by the two ticket agencies.

However, Springsteen fans who arrive at the outlets at 10 a.m. may be disappointed, because priority numbers--attached to almost indestructible wristbands--were to be distributed throughout the night and up until 9 a.m. today on a first-come, first-served basis.

The priority numbers denote the place in line reserved for the potential ticket buyers, Coliseum assistant manager Glenn Mon explained Monday at a Coliseum press conference. He said the wristbands remove the need to camp out all night in the hope of obtaining a low-priority number. Instead, he said, fans who picked up their wristbands earlier can return this morning to purchase tickets.

“We feel the wristband system is an orderly and fair method of providing everybody with a chance of getting good seats for the shows,” Mon said in reply to a question regarding the disorder of previous Springsteen ticket sales elsewhere in the country. “It avoids the mass confusion of other ticket sales, not only here but across the country.”

Split Sales

Fred Rosen, chairman of Ticketmaster, said his company and Ticketron will split sales for the four shows “right down the middle.”

Ticketron will sell tickets to the first and third shows on Sept. 26 and 29, while Ticketmaster will offer seats to the second and fourth shows on Sept. 27 and 30.

Making allowances for the size of the stage and the fact that no seats will be sold behind it, the Coliseum will have a working capacity of approximately 85,000 for each of the Springsteen shows, which will feature both field and grandstand reserved seating, Mon said.

Tickets for the Springsteen shows will not be available through the Sports Arena-Coliseum box office, except for handicapped people, who must buy their tickets through the mail, Mon said.