14 DAY TRIAL // Grieving Michael Jackson fans who are not lucky enough to win a ticket for the memorial service held at Los Angeles’ Staples Center on Tuesday are strongly urged to stay at home to avoid crowding and other incidents. Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell spoke out today on the issue, asking all fans whose name won’t be drawn as the winner of one ticket not to come to Staples Center, where a first public homage will be paid to the King of Pop in a memorial ceremony, TMZ informs.
Following the tragic and sudden death of the singer a little over a week ago, the Jackson family quickly realized fans too should be included in the grieving process, which is why the idea of the memorial at the Staples Center came to become real. Tickets are free of charge and fans from all across the world have had the opportunity to register for the chance to get one – winners will be drawn randomly by a computer program and then announced publicly. Since US airlines are already reporting an increasing wave of interest in flights to LA, the LAPD used this opportunity to warn that those who did not have tickets would not be granted access to the venue; therefore, their presence there is useless.
“The Michael Jackson memorial in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday is expected to draw a huge crowd, but the LAPD is trying to talk people who don’t have tickets out of coming. Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell addressed the press today and reiterated time and time again that people who aren’t lucky enough to win the drawing for tickets to the memorial should just stay home and watch it on TV. The LAPD will also block off several square blocks around Staples Center but may expand the area based on the size of the crowd.” TMZ says.
According to McDonnell and Times Online, a crowd of over 70,000 fans is expected despite all the pleas and public entreaties. Since over 1.6 million fans from all over the world applied for only 17,500 tickets made available (of which 1,500 are reserved to the media), police and organizers strongly believe that grieving fans will ignore all warnings and still come to Staples. Because of this, LAPD is deploying there most of its forces for crowd control.
Those who don’t win a ticket for the memorial should not lose all hope, organizers point out as cited by Times Online, since a later tribute concert is a clear possibility at this point. “Details of the service remain sketchy but the producer said that it would not have ‘all bells and whistles’ and that a later tribute concert was possible. ‘We want to keep it low-key,’ Ken Ehrlich, producer of the Grammy Awards, told the New York Daily News. ‘People who are watching it can expect to see people who have played a role in his life, who will be reminiscing about him and speaking to the impact he’s made’.” Times Online writes.
Before the memorial ceremony at Staples, the Jackson family will hold a private funeral at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills, the same publication informs. It is believed Michael’s body is also held there right now, but no details regarding this have been yet made public.