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DCPA Denies System Crash During 'Book Of Mormon' Ticket Sale

DENVER (CBS4) - Theater lovers are very excited because the "Book of Mormon" is opening its national tour in Denver in August.

Some people camped out at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts box office overnight in hopes of buying tickets.

The tickets are so hot they're already being sold for hundreds of dollars above face value. After 4 hours, 25,000 single tickets that went on sale Sunday were sold.

"We have not ever sold a show out this quickly, so that was very exciting," said Jeff Hovorka, Denver Center for Performing Arts Marketing Director.

There was a long line up to the ticket counter. Some tried to buy tickets over the phone at they stood on line. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts says if people hung up due to heavy call volume, that was a mistake.

Others tried to buy tickets through a computer sale but were frustrated by the heavy volume of ticket buyers. The Denver Center for the Performing Arts denied their computer system crashed but said the huge volume of users bogged it down.

"We logged on to try and get a couple of tickets for the 'Book of Mormon.' We were on the server and through the payment screen and then it locked up and threw us out and we couldn't get back on the server; kept getting server busy," Ron Fernandez from Denver said. "(It) doesn't surprise me. It disappoints me."

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts called the sale unprecedented. They're also saying buyer beware because second party vendors may try to sell fake tickets.

"I've already heard there were a couple of tickets on eBay, a couple of mezzanine tickets I believe selling for over $2,000," Hovorka said.

The Denver Center for the Performing Arts is so concerned about ticket scalping they did not allow people to print their own tickets at home. They also limited ticket sales to six, based on the buyer's name, credit card number and billing address.

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