Received an email from the Grand Ole Opry this morning:
"Psssst. We have a little secret just for you. As a past Opry at the Ryman customer, we are giving you the chance to take advantage of our 24-Hour Buy One Opry at the Ryman Ticket, Get One Free Sale before anyone else knows about it. But you'll need to act fast because everyone will be in on the secret tomorrow afternoon."
Yes folks, the Opry is offering a free ticket for each one you buy, up to 8, for shows at the Ryman Auditorium through the end of the year. Oh, buy the way, it is not valid on Saturday November 14, when Carrie Underwood is on the schedule. I guess they don't have a problem selling tickets that night. And, this offer is not valid for price level 1. Seriously, if you are in the area and would like to see the Opry at the Ryman, this is a great deal and there are some fine artists scheduled in December, such as Ronnie Milsap, Emmylou Harris, Josh Turner, Marty Stuart, Ralph Stanley, Charley Pride, Ricky Skaggs, and many others. A great opportunity to see some fine Opry shows at a reasonable price. On a final serious note, the Ryman seats less than 3,000. With the Christmas season and many of the Opry stars in town for the holidays, if tickets are moving this slow that management feels the need to give tickets away, it could be a tough winter for the Opry. Usually the crowds are good at the Ryman. It reminds me of the days in the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s, when I would attend Opry shows at the Grand Ole Opry House in January and February, and there would only be 400-500 people in the 4,400 seat auditorium. I know it makes it tough on the performers when they see that many empty seats.
Grant Turner used to talk about how attendance always was down in the winter, and how that was the best time to come to the Opry because the stars who toured all summer would be around to make their required number of appearances.
ReplyDeleteI remember going to the Friday Night Opry in November of 1982 and the Opry House was packed. We got our tickets late and had to sit on the back row.
ReplyDeleteLast time I went was in June of 2007 and the place wasn't close to being sold out. The first time I ever saw the Opry was in 1979 and I remember when we wrote for tickets, they sent us a chart that showed what shows were not sold out yet.
Did attendance to start to really drop off in the late 1980s?