Croke Park offers three U2 gigs

(Sunday Business Post) -- Croke Park has written to more than 10,000 premium ticket holders telling them that U2 will be playing at the stadium on three nights in June, despite the fact that promoter MCD insisted last week that the band would play only two gigs.

The stadium's management company sent the letters last Tuesday offering the ticket holders the first option to buy tickets for any of the three gigs.

Attached to the letter was a booking form asking patrons to signal which of the dates - June 24, 25 and 26 - they wished to attend.

However, MCD has strenuously denied that U2 will be performing in Croke Park on June 26.

An MCD spokesman said there were 'only two dates', and that there was 'no chance of a third'.

The spokesman said he could not explain why Croke Park had sent out the letter during the week.

He confirmed that MCD had booked the stadium for the three dates but said this was a preliminary measure and did not mean a third date would be added.

'At the time of booking the stadium, we did not know if they would be playing their two gigs on Friday and Saturday or on Saturday and Sunday. So we simply booked Croke Park for all three dates, he said.

The Croke Park letter - seen by The Sunday Business Post - says that the recipient may 'be aware the band U2 have announced that they will play three nights in Croke Park in June 2005 on their upcoming Vertigo Tour'. It is signed by the stadium's corporate services administrator.

Last Friday, U2 smashed Irish box office records when they sold more than 150,000 tickets for the two gigs in 50 minutes.

By Ian Kehoe