Some patrons peeved at Columbus Civic Center after Chris Stapleton concert

Several people took to social media following Thursday’s Chris Stapleton concert at the Columbus Civic Center. And they were not pleased.

Most agreed that Stapleton’s performance and that of the opening act, Maren Morris, were excellent. The complaints had more to do with the way the Civic Center handled the sellout crowd and with an apparent misunderstanding over tickets.

Several people said they could not get into the venue in time to see the entire performance because traffic was so backed up and because the Civic Center had only two doors unlocked to let the crowd in.

Several, too, said they had bought tickets under the impression they had reserved seats on the Civic Center floor. Their tickets had row and seat numbers printed on them, but there was no seating on the floor. It was standing room only, so to speak.

The complaints reached as high as Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who solicited an explanation from Civic Center Director Jon Dorman.

“I was at the Maren Morris/Chris Stapleton concert tonight, and while both shows were phenomenal, I’m severely disappointed in the venue,” Rebekah Martin wrote on the Civic Center’s Facebook page. “We arrived and hour early and waited in line for more than 45 minutes. There were only two doors open, and it caused us to miss all but two of Maren’s songs. My friend and I were just as excited about seeing her live as we were about the headliner, so to miss the vast majority of her show because of the venue’s unpreparedness is totally unacceptable.”

“We paid for first row seats the day tickets went on sale and ended up having to stand behind people two feet taller than me and got pushed around all night because there were NO SEATS on the floor,” Bekah King wrote, also on the Civic Center’s Facebook page. “The tickets were falsely advertised! Don’t get me wrong, Chris Stapleton was awesome but I couldn’t enjoy the concert like I wanted because I couldn’t even see half the time.”

“Traffic was absolutely awful getting in, lines just to get a beer were wrapped around the corner and the general flow of the crowd was just chaotic!” wrote Rebecca Shepeard. “If there had been a true emergency situation where people had to evacuate it would have been disastrous. The concert itself was fantastic but the facility needs to get it together if they are going to host an artist of this stature.”

“Paid for seats on the floor at Chris Stapleton concert. Some people paid more than me. Some paid less. I bought tickets for Row 2 Seats 23 and 24. No seats were set up. Mosh pit concert style,” wrote Brenda Holder. “People standing next to us paid $400 each for front row seats. Venue blamed it on Chris Stapleton. I don’t believe he’d treat his fans this way.”

One patron, Pat Jones, complained directly to Tomlinson’s Facebook page. “What a cluster the concert at the Civic Center was last night!” Jones wrote. “No wonder you will be 4.3 million short on your budget this year. Clearly the people in charge have no clue how to run things smoothly, efficiently and coherently. Does a ‘sold out’ concert not mean crowds are coming? I will think twice before considering to attend future events.”

Tomlinson responded with a explanatory note she said she’d solicited from Dorman.

Dorman wrote that he and his staff had coordinated extensively with Columbus Police Department about handling the traffic and the crowd. He also said he had done a multi-media campaign to get the word out that patrons should show up as early as possible.

“After the event started I spoke to the police captain who worked the traffic and he thought it went well and moved quicker than the previous concert,” Dorman wrote. “I’m sorry that some patrons got caught up in traffic, but with limited access points there’s only so much we can do.”

As for the limited access and long lines at the door, Dorman told Tomlinson he would work with his staff to improve that performance.

“We also had long lines at the door for a short time as we were asked to wand all coming in to the venue for weapons,” Dorman wrote. “This slows ingress and when we saw the lines backing up we did our best to speed up the searches.”

Concerning the ticket problem, people expecting seats when in was a general admission concert on the floor, Dorman said the misunderstanding was between patrons and third-party ticket vendors. He said the tickets were clearly marked GA (general admission) FLOOR, but also had row and seat numbers on them, “for accounting purposes.”

“Patrons who bought from scalpers or from sites like Stubhub, feel like they were misled as the information regarding the set-up was not relayed at the time of purchase,” Dorman wrote. “We are working with Ticketmaster as well as the promoter to assure future GA events are numbered in way so as not to suggest a chair when there’s not one.”

Finally, Dorman told Tomlinson that he and his staff would strive to improve, but that despite the problems, he thought the event was a success.

“We will continue to work with PD on incoming traffic flow, work with our employees to develop quicker wanding techniques, and will triple check how tickets appear so that they are less confusing, even if you bought them from a third party,” Dorman wrote. “Overall it was a fantastic night and (most) everyone had an amazing time. I want to let you know … we did our best to make the night go as smoothly as possible.”

This story was originally published April 7, 2017 at 1:54 PM with the headline "Some patrons peeved at Columbus Civic Center after Chris Stapleton concert."