I am writing in reference to the recent 3-minute sellout of Kenny Chesney tickets. I am one of the many thousand who was ready to submit my two-ticket request at exactly 10 a.m. and by 10:03 had submitted three times and received "unavailable" and "sold out" responses.

I continued to try for almost an hour, hoping to get tickets from those whose credit cards did not work, but to no avail.

I do realize tickets are now through Ticketmaster and not the Coliseum itself. That is why ticket brokers - same as scalpers to me - all around the United States already had tickets for sale, at the going rate of three to seven times the original price, but people in Bloomington-Normal could not get a ticket.

I have also spoken with many people who "acquired" their tickets through resources that get their choice before public sales. Rumor has it that at 10 a.m. there actually were less than 1,000 of 8,000 tickets available.

I think it is sad that "you" the people chose to build the Coliseum and want "we" the people to support it, but "we" the people can't get a ticket - at least not at the original price.

This is not the first time I have encountered this situation, but it may be the last. Needless to say, I am not going to the concert and find it difficult - not all by choice - to continue supporting the Coliseum.

Diane Swanson

Norma