‘Rockstar’ Bergoglio...
On
Tuesday, bus tickets to the Papal Mass in September in Philadelphia sold out in
one hour.
The
Diocese of Harrisburg, which began to sell the tickets Tuesday morning,
suspended the sale one hour later as demands for the tickets reached - perhaps
even surpassed - capacity.
The
diocese, which has chartered 30 buses, was offering 1,700 sets on the buses,
each going for $30.
"We
knew there would be a lot of interest in this," said diocese spokesman Joe
Aponick. "I think we thought the tickets would go within a day but to have
them go within an hour was a little bit of a surprise."
An
estimated 2 million people are expected in Philadelphia in September when
Francis caps his first trip to the U.S. with a two-day stop there.
Francis is
scheduled to make stops in Washington, D.C. and New York. He will be in
Philadelphia on Sept. 26-27 and will celebrate Mass that Sunday on the Benjamin
Franklin Parkway outside the Philadelphia Art Museum.
Francis
has already had an impact in the housing rental market. Rental properties in
the Philadelphia region are, in some cases, going for thousands of dollars.
Organizers expect hotel rooms to sell out, as well.
Aponick
said the diocese, which is tallying sales by the web, phone and e-mail, would
assess the demand for tickets but it was unlikely it would add any more buses
to its fleet of 30 already chartered.
"I think it's going to be difficult to add any
more buses," he said. He did not rule it out, though.
The
$30-per-seat tickets provide only round-trip transportation to the event, and
does not include meals.
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