My wife purchased tickets to the races online. We traveled an hour and a half to attend.
When we arrived, we were told that we would have to walk clear to the other side of the arena to get our will-call tickets. I have fibromyalgia and a bad knee, so this would have been a challenge at best. The man (who turned out to be the owner of the facility, Bob) called to the other side of the arena to verify that we had tickets, and gave us general admission tickets to be able to enter the arena. That is the only bright spot of the evening.
When we entered the seating area, we were unable to find seats. Any time we asked if a seat was taken, we were told it was reserved. The general admission seating was all full, and we were unable to find an area for three people to be able to sit together.
We decided to try the other side. In order to get there, we had to walk a dirt and gravel and grass path. Uneven and unstable for someone with my physical limitations.
When we got to the other side, the situation was the same. All of the seating was reserved. I asked the gal at the ticket booth if there was anywhere we could sit. She pointed to the other side, and the bleachers at the very top. We then made our way back, on the same path, to the other side.
When we got there, I asked the man sitting just inside the gate if we could sit anywhere, aside from the reserved seating down below. I gestured to the general admission seats and to the seating that the gal at the other ticket booth pointed out, and he told me "Yes".
So we made our way up the stairs, and looked for seating. Everywhere we looked, seats were taken or we were told that they were reserved. So we stood. For three hours. Towards the end of the evening, some folks had left. My wife and son and I went to sit down, and the man seated in front of us yelled at us, saying they were reserved. His adult son yelled at us, threatened to have us thrown out, and told us to shut up and "count our lucky stars" that we were being allowed to stand there.
I had had it at this point, I went down to the ticket booth and spoke to Bob. I explained to him the situation. I made it very clear to him that I wasn't asking for a refund, special accommodations, or anything like that. I let him know that I own a small business, and when customers bring any concern to me, it is dealt with swiftly and with no attitude. His response was "Why didn't you come to me three hours ago?", "What do you expect me to do?", and "Why didn't you reserve tickets online? That's the whole point of buying them online!" I let him know that we did buy the tickets online, and that I was just trying to point out that they sold more tickets than seats, and that these two guys had been extremely rude to us. His responses were smart-alecky, unhelpful, and uncalled for.
All-in-all, it was a horrible experience. We spent time and money to go there, bought from the concessions stands, and were very excited to go. Between the distant parking space, the standing, the walking all over the place, and the treatment from both patrons and staff, it was a huge disappointment. We had never been to this particular venue before, and we definitely will not be back. read more