Lucky Few Win Jackson Memorial Tickets

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - Some 1.6 million people registered online to get the 17,500 free tickets for Michael Jackson's Tuesday memorial tribute in downtown Los Angeles, according to a spokesperson for the Jackson family.     

Tricia Takasugi has the video report.

A computer randomly selected 8,750 people to receive two tickets each -- 11,000 for Staples Center, where the tribute will be held, and 7,500 for the adjacent Nokia Theatre, where the event will be simulcast, according to the Jackson family's representative, Sunshine, Sachs & Associates.     
   
Ticket winners who bucked the 183-1 odds of being picked were notified by e-mail tonight and told where to go Monday to get the tickets and wristbands that are meant to make it harder for scalpers to sell the tickets.     
   
However, sellers on eBay were already offering tickets with starting bids of $200 to $500.     
       
According to The Los Angeles Times, so many people tried to register for the tickets that the Staples Center Web site's server crashed for a time.     
   
Meantime, a coalition of youth and civil rights groups in Los Angeles urged the ticket winners to donate to charities and social causes that Michael Jackson supported during his life.     
   
Those without tickets are being urged to stay at home and watch the tribute on TV, but thousands of people are expected to show up anyway.     
   
A "massive" police presence will attempt to keep those without tickets at least a quarter-mile away from the venue, and there will be barricades and street closures in the area, police said.