Fans still waiting for Michael Jackson ticket lottery e-mails

By Alan Duke
CNN

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) - Michael Jackson fans hoping for free memorial tickets used Twitter postings to express confusion Sunday afternoon because no one has come forward to boast that they were chosen in the ticket lottery.

Shawn Sachs, a Jackson family spokesman, said Sunday afternoon that "nothing has changed" and that the e-mails began going out as planned at 11 a.m. Sunday. The notification process would be completed by 8 p.m. (11 p.m. ET), she said.

But messages posted on Twitter.com at 4 p.m. reflected frustration.

"Come on and let me know, Staples ... did I win tickets to
Michael Jackson's memorial?" read one tweet.

One woman wrote that she "is checking her e-mail anxiously to see if she got tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial at the Staples Center."

"I keep checking my e-mail to see if I got the tickets to Michael Jackson memorial service," another woman tweeted.

"Has anyone been notified yet if they 'won' tickets to Michael Jackson's memorial service?" another asked.

A Twitter search at 4 p.m. found no one tweeting that they had been notified that they were chosen.

Organizers said a computer would choose 8,750 names from 1.6 million who registered online since Friday for a chance for the tickets. Each winner would get two tickets, bringing the number awarded in the lottery to 17,500. Just 11,000 of those are for seats inside the Staples Center, while the other 6,500 would be for viewing the memorial telecast across the street at the Nokia Theater.

The Jackson family set aside 9,000 Staples Center seats to give out to people they choose, according to organizers.

Some people were seen picking up those "friends and family" tickets at Dodger Stadium Sunday afternoon. Two wristbands - one blue and one gold - were give out with each ticket. Ticketholders were instructed that they must wear the wristbands to validate their tickets.

Fans who beat the long odds - just one of every 182 will be chosen - will have to meet other requirements "in order to avoid the reselling of tickets," according to a news release from the Jackson family.

The notification will give them a secret code and instructions to appear at a yet-to-be disclosed location in Los Angeles Monday to claim their tickets.

Along with their tickets, they will get the wristbands "one of which will be placed on their wrist at that time," the family statement said. Although the statement did not make it clear, it implied that the user of the second ticket would also have to be there. There was no response to phone calls and e-mails asking for clarification.

"Fans attending the memorial service must have both a valid ticket AND a wristband," the Jackson family statement said. "Wristbands that have been ripped, taped or otherwise mutilated will be void."

Police have said no one will be allowed near the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles without tickets - or media credentials.