Dave Matthews Band to Perform Two Free Concerts at US Military Academy at West Point
Dave Matthews Band will perform three more shows in 2007. The first is a normal ticketed show at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ. The concert capacity for the venue is 20,000.
The two other shows are semi-private events rewarding the cadets of the US Military Academy for winning the "World's Loudest Pep Rally." The WLPR was a contest for NCAA-sized schools to see who could best illustrate that they were the most qualified DMB fans to receive a free concert.
The contest and concerts are sponsored by a mult-national communications company. All advertising materials for the event are heavily laden with the company's logos. In order to vote or participate you were required to submit personal information to this company.
The WLPR shows will take place at the Eisenhower Hall Theatre which is located on the grounds of the US Military Academy. The Eisenhower Hall Theatre has a capacity of 4,433. Roughly 4,000 Cadets (undergraduates) attend the school, and according to a statement from DMB the second show was added to ensure all Cadets could attend.
If you split the 4000 students and assume the academy will fill the venue to capacity there will be roughly 2200 additional tickets available for each show. This explains why a lottery was opened up for Warehouse members to attend the show for free.
The band and management deserve praise for opening up the pair of shows for free to Warehouse club members. Although the process to request the free tickets on the Warehouse website requires a credit card verification, no attempt was made during the process to do a plus sale of another DMB product.
Choosing a winner for this contest was no doubt difficult as creativity was taken into account as was the size of the school competing. A big congratulations to all of the Cadets at West Point for winning the contest. Robert Randolph and the Family Band will open at all three shows.