This should end all criticism of our fine Coliseum, which apparently can fill itself to 3X capacity and still have room for more. "More than 70,000 people attended Sunday’s near-sellout [Grateful Dead] show." The N&R put the bogus stat in the subhed and text of the print edition, too.

Comments

[TL]

Simple explanation. Everyone got small before going inside.

[Roch101]

Sigh.... hire cub reporters from the sticks out of town and put them in the employ of slack editors, what do you expect? The reporter of this article also recently, and wrongly, reported that Guilford County Schools had cut their tech staff down to five. Greensboro deserves better.

[Ed Cone]

I view the error with more sadness than anger. It should have been caught by an editor, but the weekend staff has been pared to the bone, and today is an unpaid furlough for all employees.

Thnx to TL for the best line of the day.

[Don Moore]

I read that and wondered.... How can you fit 70,000 people in the coliseum to see the Dead and only get 23,000 to see the ACC?

Could it be that Matt Brown is really a Dead-Head and this ACC thing was only a ruse to get more Dead concerts.

70,000 is a NEAR sell-out for the Dead. 23,000 and you can't squeeze another soul in for basketball. Inquiring minds want to know.

[Jonathan Jones]

Roch, homegrown reporters make some mistakes too.

I think Ed hit the nail on the head. When the staff gets too thin, silly mistakes are more likely. Some of my most embarrassing errors came on weekends where I was the only reporter working, balancing a super fluffy feature story (such as the Dead show) with some hard news that really deserved more, if not all, of my attention (such as a teenager dying in a car wreck, and a man being murdered outside a nightclub).

That's not a justification for mistakes. It's just easy to understand when you've been there.

[Margaret Banks]

For an example of the best of what we provide to our readers (on a weekend, no less), please read Robert Bell's story on the ongoing investigation into Northern Guilford's athletics program.

[Ed Cone]

My guess is the reporter was told 17K but heard 70K.

Should he have stopped to consider that 70K is a football stadium number, not an arena number? Yes.

Should even a minimal editing process have caught the error? Yes.

Mistakes happen. Sometimes they're kind of funny, and sometimes they also tell you something about the state of the institution and its industry.

[eric]

Perhaps the reporter was just so stoned that it really looked like 70,000 people, man!

[RecycleBill]

70,000 people! Wow, I hate I missed the show.

[Margaret Banks]

They multiplied like loaves and fishes. True Easter miracle.

[Spag]

I remember when only 2500 people turned out for the Sarah Palin rally in Elon- or so we were told.

[Roch101]

"Roch, homegrown reporters make some mistakes too."

Of course, Jonathan, I don't mean to convey a preference that we become provincial in our media hiring practices. What I am trying to say is that, when you hire people from out of town who are also not very experienced, they are not going to recognize when something doesn't sound right, whether it is the size of the coliseum, the size of the GCS tech staff, or that certain documents are known to exist.

In short, the combination of inexperience and lack of familiarity with the area will lead to more mistakes. That is where editors should be exercising a little more oversight. I don't really blame the reporters too much, they are on a learning curve, but editors should be doing more than assigning stories and returning to a reporter's desk to tap their foot and remind them there are only twenty minutes until deadline.

[Roger Greene]

"70,000 is a NEAR sell-out for the Dead. 23,000 and you can't squeeze another soul in for basketball. Inquiring minds want to know."

Well Don Moore, it proves what we've all suspected all along. The ACC is overrated except for UNC and the Greatful Dead aren't.

[sgoode]

Perhaps the reporter was estimating the crowd based on the number of deadheads hanging around on Shakedown Street that never made it inside the coliseum.

Seriously, the show was great. Warren Haynes did an amazing job. Phil Lesh is pretty remarkable as well, considering he is 69 and played a 3 hour show. Bobby was the 'good' Bobby. All in all, a great night. The coliseum staff, security and local LEOs were pleasant and professional. I believe overnight 'camping' was allowed in the coliseum parking lot. Smart move. Not sure if that is SOP but still a good call. As for the coliseum being a non-smoking venue - not last night!

[Tony Wilkins]

You beat me to it Spag. The ticket count for that one was never corrected here either although the information was plainly made available.

[Ed Cone]

"The ticket count for that one was never corrected here."

Not that it has anything to do with the Coliseum's seating capacity, but it was discussed here ad nauseum, Tony.

Damn, I'd managed to repress my memories of the whole Killian-lied thing, now I've got to go wash my eyes out with lye.

[Tony Wilkins]

You can be quite the comedian.
No nausea or eye lye required. I thought the relevance may be a ridiculous crowd estimate for both stories.
Sorry for the queasiness caused by the reminder that your "Republican insider" gave you a 6000 ticket count when the actual figure was 11,000 and you chose not to correct.
After all, it is your blog. I'm just a visitor.
Carry on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pw6_VXPwm6U

[Spag]

Tony, don't expect a correction. That advice only applies to Joe Guarino.

[cheripickr]

Warren Haynes is probably the most tireless live electric guitar soloist in the world.

[cm]

"I believe overnight 'camping' was allowed in the coliseum parking lot."

overnight camping happens every night, all up and down the lee street/high point road corridor.

[Alan Bulluck]

Today's review by Parke Putterbaugh is flawed as well. Born Cross-Eyed wasn't played. New Potato Caboose came out of Cosmic Charlie. If you're going to include the setlist in your review, you might as well get it right. Setlists were updated song by song on many fan websites, including dead.net.