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SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands packed into the newly renovated Vivint Arena Wednesday night for the Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert, but some who bought their tickets a year ago discovered their seats no longer existed.
The Vivint Arena recently underwent a $125 million renovation, which actually lowered the capacity of seating, according to Frank Zang, vice president of communications at Larry H. Miller Group of Companies. The McGraw-Hill concert quickly sold out when tickets went on sale last October before renovation plans were finalized, Zang said.
“We tried to contact all the people who had sold seats in these areas way in advance so that they could make an exchange of tickets,” he said, adding that they sent out emails over the last several days asking concertgoers to arrive early. “But if those tickets had moved on to another person, we didn’t have the contact information necessary in order to reach them to let them know that there had been some changes.”
Julie Levvitt said she got tickets for her family of six last October from Flashseats but when they arrived, they quickly learned the section where their seats were was gone. An usher told her that their seats were removed to make room for box seats. Levvitt said she was not notified beforehand.
“You knew what the plan was going to be so why didn’t you just let people know?” Levvitt said.
Their family was not offered vouchers either, she added.
“We certainly apologize to anyone who was inconvenienced last night during the concert,” Zang said. “Fortunately, our guest services staff were able to relocate people to other seats so they could enjoy the show.”
If anyone has questions about their tickets to upcoming shows and events, they can contact the arena box office at 801-325-2000.
“We will do our best to relocate them to an equal-value seat or a better seat,” Zang said.
Going forward, ticket purchases should match up with the new floor plan and they’ll have a new ticketing system October. 1.
Contributing: Caitlin Burchill, KSL
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a better phone number to reach the arena box office.
