Remainder of CNY Regional Market concerts cancelled
| Last Update: 8/06/10 7:03 pm |
This comes 24 hours after a show featuring the Bret Michaels band was postponed. Concert promoter Mike Banks had a contract to do a full show but postponed the concert, without informing the band. Banks said ticket sales for the Regional Market were much lower than he had estimated.
Banks told NewsChannel 9 Friday he was working with various outlets to figure out how to coordinate refunds.
He said he would be issuing a news release later in the day with details.
Geno Elemos, who runs the CNY Regional Market, says he didn't even know Bret Michaels and Loverboy concerts were cancelled until he saw it on the news Wednesday night, and he runs the venue. The shows were cancelled because the bands weren't getting paid, and Elemos says the Regional Market doesn't want to be involved with that sort of business. "Still this guy has not said anything to Regional Market about it being cancelled," he said. "[Banks] totally ignored the Regional Market."
Bret Michaels also said they didn't know about the cancellation, so their tour busses pulled in Thursday morning and they were ready to rock. "You don't just go: 'Hey I don't feel like paying anybody.' I think with a guy like Mike, he bit off more than he could chew," he said.
Michaels says former Motley Crue front man Vince Neil gave him a warning about this stop. "Vince Neil had horrible experience here, horrible. He was here one month ago and we're friends and he said 'I had a horrible experience.'"
Elemos says that isn't the kind of reputation the Regional Market wants, especially when the business prides itself on never cancelling anything. "I waited for crowd to pretty much leave yesterday so I can tell Michael Banks: 'You're not coming back here again. The Regional Market doesn't want to be associated with someone like you. What you just pulled here.'"
Banks says he tried to postpone concert because of lackluster ticket sales. "I tried to postpone it to save embarrassment for Mr. Michaels."
Elemos says Banks is the one who caused the embarrassment. "It was nice of Bret Michaels to get off the bus. He didn't have to do that. You just embarrassed the guy, he came to put on a show and you embarrassed the guy."
"It doesn't matter if 5 or 55,000 people came," Michaels said. "They came to see a rock show and he took responsibility and now he has responsibility of paying it."
Banks says an investor fell through at the last minute, and he paid a portion of the deposit. "Unfortunately some of those funds had to be used for other expenses, rent security beverages."
Elemos, however, says he doesn't buy Banks' story. "What rent? He didn't even pay us for Bret Michaels yet. He still owes us money from last year."
Michaels says its normal for a concert like this to have tons of walk-ins, because there are no seats. Kellie Mista, however, bought her tickets online. She says to buy them online she was required to purchase five for $24 each, but they never arrived. "I got juggled between three people in the office and they assigned blame back to me," she said.
When asked if he would give refunds to customers like Mista who paid in advance, Banks responded, "That I'd have to check."
As a result, many customers are filing complaints through PayPal.
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