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The wait is on … after public registration for tickets to attend the public memorial service of Michael Jackson, which will take place at the Staples Center and Nokia Theater in downtown Los Angeles, CA on Tuesday July 7, went online Friday morning at around 10:30AM PT over one million people submitted requests to attend the event. Because only 11,000 seats inside the Staples Center and 6,500 seats inside the Nokia Theater are being made available to the public, 8,750 sets of tickets will be made available to those who successfully registered for tickets. At 11AM PT today, the lucky folks who “win” tickets will begin receiving emails giving them information on how to pick up their tickets for the event. Preparations have already gotten underway at the Staples Center for the service, which will take place in just 2 days time now. A large white sign has been put up in front of the venue were people have been writing messages to the late King of Pop:

1.6 million people signed up to be eligible to win tickets to attend Tuesday’s highly anticipated public memorial service for late music icon Michael Jackson, according to MyFoxLA. The Staples Center’s website caved under the pressure of the hits several times since the lottery was announced and until the cut off time last night at 6 p.m. local time. Initially the registry was open only to US residents, but soon expanded to allow anyone around the world to sign up for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the event, about which few details are known, save that there will be no funeral procession, and that it will cost the City of Los Angeles a pretty penny to host. 8,750 names will be selected at random, which will distribute “11,000 people to the Staples Center plus 6,500 in the Nokia Theater overflow section next door.” The drawing was rescheduled from today until tomorrow, according to KFWB. Fans who do not receive passes are being urged to stay home and watch the service on television or the internet; there will be no big screen broadcast on the plaza of LA Live, and the LAPD have already begun to close down streets around the venue. A Jackson family rep explained they are carefully checking the entries in the lottery to eliminate duplicates and automated “go-bot” entries, and will be vigilant about checking wristbands and regulating potential scalpers. Early predictions indicate hundreds of thousands of people will attempt to flood the area on Tuesday regardless of their ticket status, which means our LAPD will be working overtime to keep things in order. Yesterday, City Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Jan Perry asked the public to consider making donations to help defray the cost of the memorial, much like how L.A. afforded to host last month’s Lakers NBA Championship parade. This morning will find Rev. Al Sharpton also making a plea; he’ll be at the First A.M.E. Church in South L.A. calling for a National Day of Mourning, and for the US Postal Service to issue a Michael Jackson stamp–something done traditionally at least 5 years following a person’s death.

Nothing about these numbers should be surprising to anyone. What bothers me, tho, is that by making the ticket distribution process a lottery the organizers essentially invalidated countless numbers of tickets that may go unused. It seems to me that a considerable portion of the 1.6 million people who registered (from all around the country and the world) will not actually fly to LA to attend the service … what will happen to those tickets? Will they go unused? I’m not sure what would’ve been a better system for ticket distribution but this idea seems flawed. Perhaps if they “sold” the tickets for $1 each with all proceeds going to a charity, a proper accounting of who might actually attend could be determined. But all of this is moot anyways … the deed is done and now 1.6 million people wait to learn if they will be allowed to attend the public memorial service of Michael Jackson.

[Photo credit: Splash News; Source]