Klyde Warren Park will officially open October 27 with a Polyphonic Spree concert. The show is free, but you have to register to get tickets. Only 6,000 people will be admitted. Go ahead and pop over there now, if you wish, and submit to the process. When you return, I’ll share some thoughts about why this process will surely fail.
To register, you ask for the number of tickets you want. You provide your name and email address. You are then directed to a confirmation page, which you are instructed to print and bring to a Chase or Albertsons location, where you can pick up a wristband that gets you into the concert. Here’s the thing, though: that confirmation page includes no bar code or other identifying mark, and you can print it as many times as you wish. So you register for four tickets, and you print your confirmation three times. You make three trips to three Alberstons, and you pick up 12 wristbands for you and all your friends. There are only 6,000 wristbands (presumably), and they will run out quickly as you won’t be the only person running such a scheme. Then I show up at Albertsons with my confirmation and learn that it’s not really a confirmation at all, because the wristbands have run out.
So why, I ask, force us to go through the silly registration process? Simply to collect email addresses for marketing purposes? I’m sure it is. But even that process is flawed. You can provide a bogus email address and still print a confirmation.
Anyway, see you at the show. I hope.
UPDATE (11:01) — Thirty-five minutes ago, Klyde Warren Park tweeted that it had “sold out” of the wristbands. Well, yes and no. I took my confirmation for three wristbands to Chase headquarters, on Ross Avenue, where a nice woman told me they hadn’t gotten their wristbands yet. She took my name and number, and she asked how many wristbands I wanted. “You don’t want to see my confirmation?” I asked. Nope. If I were smart, I would have told her to put me down for 100 and then sold 97 of them on eBay. Instead, I told her I’d registered for three. She said she’d call me in 20 minutes. Developing.
UPDATE (1:46) — I talked to a KWP official who is working on the wristband situation. Thing is, they had no idea the response to the event would be as enthusiastic as it has been. They figured they’d have a couple days to go around and restock wristband locations as they were depleted. This official admitted that they “stubbed their toe” on this one but said they’re redoubling their efforts to give good customer service going forward to put on a great, free event October 27. “As long as we don’t have ice,” he said. Yes, indeed.
