They're Not Free Tickets. Live Nation's Just Paying Back the City, Silly.

No wonder that logo looks like it's shooting the city the bird. Doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to see where this is headed: The Dallas Morning News is reporting this afternoon that after an exhaustive review of documents and e-mail exchanges between city council members and Live Nation staffers, it...

By Robert Wilonsky

June 17, 2008

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18855504",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17105533",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105532",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105535",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

No wonder that logo looks like it's shooting the city the bird.

Doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to see where this is headed: The Dallas Morning News is reporting this afternoon that after an exhaustive review of documents and e-mail exchanges between city council members and Live Nation staffers, it has determined that council members and their friends and families received hundreds of gratis tickets to Smirnoff Music Centre events (of course, now it's the Superpages.com Center). At the top of the list: Pauline Medrano (66 freebies), with Steve Salazar coming in a close second. Also raking up the goodies: former council members Gary Griffith, James Fantroy, Don Hill and Leo Chaney.

Course, this comes about a month after the City Auditor's Office revealed that Live Nation owes the city $842,970 for lease payments dating from 2001 to 2006. And it comes a week after the council amended the Code of Ethics to "provide further guidance to City Councilmembers regarding the solicitation and acceptance of gifts, tickets, meals, travel, lodging, entertainment and honoraria." Awesome timing, people. Awesome. --Robert Wilonsky

Become A Member

BEFORE YOU GO...
Can you help us continue to share our stories? Since the beginning, Dallas Observer has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas — and we'd like to keep it that way. Our members allow us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls.