Garth Brooks Celebrates 5 Million Tickets Sold on World Tour
Garth Brooks marked a major career milestone on Friday night (Feb. 24) at a gig in Canada. The superstar's wife and tour mate, Trisha Yearwood, interrupted her set to mark the fact that the Garth Brooks World Tour has now officially sold its five millionth ticket.
Yearwood invited Jared Smith, President of Ticketmaster and Michael Evans, President of Arenas for Live Nation, onstage during her set at Rogers Place in Edmonton, AB. They presented Brooks with a commemorative plaque to mark the five million tickets he sold in 100 cities during his 1996-1998 world tour, but that wasn't all. They proceeded to present the country mega-star with a second plaque honoring the five millionth ticket sold on his current tour, noting that while it took 100 cities to sell that many tickets previously, this time around it took just 60 cities to reach that mark.
When Brooks tried to leave to let his wife continue, Yearwood stopped him and invited up Bob Nicholson, Oilers Entertainment Group CEO & Vice Chair and Susan Darrington, General Manager of Rogers Place. They unveiled a banner hanging from the rafters that celebrated the five millionth ticket sold, as well as nine sold-out concerts at the new Rogers Place in Edmonton. The banner will henceforth hang alongside the championship banners of the Edmonton Oilers and Edmonton Oil Kings.
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That still wasn't the end of the evening's surprises. When Brooks again tried to leave the stage, Yearwood stopped him one more time for a specially-recorded video message from Wayne Gretzky that played on the big screen in the arena, after which the crowd erupted into cheers.
Brooks turned to social media to express his appreciation to the fans who stuck by him through a self-imposed period of retirement while he raised his daughters, then came back out to support him in such amazing numbers when he embarked on the comeback tour.
"Thank you for getting us where we're at," he said in a video he posted to Facebook. "Thank you for this celebration ... I never thought we'd be here again. And the coolest thing is, every day after this, we're re-writing history."
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