WHEN tickets went on sale for Michael Jackson's London concerts in March, they were billed as the "hottest-selling ticket on the planet", snapped up at a rate of 40,000 an hour. But in death, it seems, the King of Pop just got even hotter.
In an unprecedented scramble, more than 1.6 million people have applied for just 8,750 free tickets to attend the star's memorial service, to be held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles tomorrow, and for the further 6,500 passes allowing entry to th
e adjoining Nokia Theatre, where the proceedings will be broadcast live.
That represents a registration rate of 50,000 people an hour – or almost 200 fans for every ticket. Another 2,500 tickets will go to family and friends.
"I wish he could have seen some of this response when he was alive – that he was so welcome," said civil rights leader and family friend Reverend Jesse Jackson.
With or without tickets, civic officials estimate that up to 750,000 fans could converge on the area, bringing gridlock to streets and a windfall for the tourist trade.
Hotels in the area said all rooms were sold out and, with a horde of fans making the pilgrimage from the UK, British Airways reported a "huge influx" of reservations, with almost every seat on direct and indirect flights snapped up.
Yet there will be no glitzy show and no public parade of the gold-plated coffin. It remained unclear yesterday whether Jackson's body would even be brought into the memorial service, or confined solely to a private family funeral to be held beforehand, while reports swirled that his relatives remained divided over aspects of his funeral and interment.
So intense is the financial burden expected to be on the city of Los Angeles, whose civic council is already struggling with a $500 million budget deficit, that it has appealed to private donors to help offset some of the policing costs associated with the memorial service.
Neither the Jackson family nor AEG – the entertainment company behind the comeback concerts – had so far made a financial contribution, city councillor Dennis Zine said.
The gigs had been due to take place in London this month and stand to earn tens of millions from video footage of his final rehearsals. "The bottom line is public safety, but there's a cost," said Mr Zine.
"If the Jackson family's going to spend $25,000 on a gold casket, I would think that AEG and the Jackson family could help defray the costs so it's a safe and secure environment for mourners that want to come."
As hysteria mounted, black community leader Al Sharpton, a friend and adviser to the Jackson family, was set to use his Sunday sermon at the First AME Church in Los Angeles to call for the singer – who in 2005 went on trial for child sex abuse – to be honoured with a national day of mourning and a postage stamp.
Meanwhile, as police continued their investigation into Jackson's doctors and entourage – seeking to establish how he got access to the powerful prescription drugs thought to have killed him – the singer's mysterious business manager, Dr Tohme Tohme, broke his silence to talk about the pair's friendship.
Yet his interview raised more questions than answers, including how he could have been so close to Jackson without, as he claims, witnessing any evidence of his descent into drug abuse.
