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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Do The Rolling Stones Discriminate Against Seniors? You Be The Judge
Written by D.L. McCracken
Sunday, 30 July 2006
Halifaxlive.com
What would you think if I told you that the Rolling Stones are practicing blatant discrimination against an entire segment of society? How would you react if I told you the segment of society in question is the same demographic in which the Stones themselves belong?
The Rolling Stones are of course at a chronological age where they are considered to be senior citizens. I use the word "chronological" because The Stones are also excellent examples of senior citizens who have maintained a more youthful exuberance for life despite the fact that the oldest member, Charlie Watts is 65 years old. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards are 63 and according to all accounts The Stones can rock the house far better than many rock bands a quarter their age.
Although I have never considered myself an ardent Stones' fan, it was exciting to learn that Mick and the 'boys' are rolling their Bigger Bang tour into Halifax on September 23rd with every intention of giving this fair city a concert experience, the likes of which have never before been witnessed. And even better, a rumour is now circulating that one of the opening acts will be none other than Alice Cooper.
With the announcement last week that tickets would go on sale for the general population on Monday July 31, I decided to take a quick look at the Ticket Atlantic website where fans could purchase tickets online. One of the first bits of information that jumped out at me was the fact that student discounts were being offered. Which is great. Students usually have limited funds available so they deserve a bit of a discount.
But then it dawned on me that there was another group of people who deserved the same sort of discount - seniors. Afterall The Stones are themselves seniors so it would be natural to assume that a senior discount was being offered to die-hard fans over the age of 60. How very wrong I was in that assumption. Nowhere could I find a pricing section and discount for seniors so I decided to send Ticket Atlantic an email of inquiry because surely this was merely an oversight on their part.
Ticket Atlantic to give them credit, responded the next day. Their exact words were: "No, they are only offering the discount to students. Thank you." Short, sweet and concise. But not satisfactory because at that point I wanted to know why.
Let's put this into perspective shall we? Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Charlie Watts are in their 60s which makes them seniors. The Rolling Stones debuted way back in 1962 and began to amass a fan base comprised of teens and young adults. A 16 year-old fan in 1962 would be 60 years old today which means she would be a senior as well.
The potential is high that this 60 year-old fan is still rocking if one can believe the new adage that 60 is the new 50. And she wants more than anything to attend the concert in September. But there's a slight problem - she has been living on a fixed income for the last five years and a ticket purchase would mean that she would have to forego her trip to the grocery store for at least one week. The only way she can attend this concert is with a senior discount. Ironically her grandson who is a first-year university student will be able to purchase a ticket for himself by taking advantage of the student discount.
Because of the irony of this issue and the discriminatory manner in which The Stones and their organizers set ticket prices along with offering certain discounts based on demographics, I set out to find an answer to my question: why are senior rock stars discriminating against senior fans?
I don't have an answer because the very people who could respond to my question are impossible to contact via email. Donald K. Donald who is promoting the concert offers an email but I discovered the address to be invalid. Try contacting Mick Jagger. Not gonna happen. So I can only come to one conclusion: senior citizens are being discriminated against by The Rolling Stones and their organizers.
Actually it's not that surprising considering the attitude of many non-seniors. I belong to a local online discussion board where I began a discussion on this very topic. Most of the responses were quite disconcerting to me simply because the people behind those responses were snickering at my suggestion that seniors deserve a discount to the concert. One went so far as to suggest that if seniors were offered a discount, the city would be required to offer "handicap" parking. I can only conclude that agism is still alive and well in the 21st century. How very sad.
And finally a personal note to The Rolling Stones and Donald K. Donald:
It's too late for the Halifax concert. Please, do the right thing for your next venue - give your senior fans a discount if for no other reason than for following your career for 40 years!
D.L. McCracken can be reached via email at [email protected] email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it
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| Jumping Jack |
DIFTK & DIFTS
I want my senior discount!!! |
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