The 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is back in Cleveland this year, and once again tickets were made available to the public. The Rock Hall gave their paying members first crack at tickets on Friday, December 16th, then opened it up to the general public the next day. The tickets sold out quickly on both days (in 8 minutes the first day, in about 15 minutes the second day), leaving many Rock Hall members furious they didn’t get tickets and wondering why they didn’t get the preferential treatment they thought they paid for.

Bear from Cleveland Rock and Roll took the Hall of Fame to task for botching an opportunity to give something back to their biggest supporters.

I used to think about the administration of the Rock Hall as people with good intentions that at times just didn’t seem to get it and they would always seem to come up with an excuse for a mistake or failure but “we are going to make it better.”

Now I look at the Rock Hall as an organization that treats its membership as cattle.

…[snip]…

Okay Rock Hall, I’m going to give you some free advice. This is how you take care of your membership. This is how you grow. No matter what the event you have, offer the tickets to your membership first. If it sells out before it gets to the general public, oh well. Wow so simple!!!! Also make it that tickets are available in chronological order based on how long you have had your membership. Again so simple!!! If I lost out on something to the people who have been members for 15, 20, 25 years how could I be pissed off at them, they have been supporting the hall for years. They should get the first crack. Again a simple solution that would work. It goes back to my original question “Don’t get it or don’t care”, which one is it?