COUNTRY MUSIC SELLS OUT SHOW ME CENTER

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Country music sells out Show Me Center

Brooks & Dunn is the second straight country music concert to sell out the Show Me Center.

Alan Jackson filled the venue last October, drawing 6,414 fans. One year earlier, Reba McEntire sold 6,836 seats.

Brooks & Dunn drew a crowd of 6,149 on Friday.

The number of people the Show Me Center can hold for a given show depends on the size of the stage, its height and what is stacked on it -- all of which affect sight lines. The type of video screens used also is a factor.

"Sometimes a sellout here will vary 700 seats," says Will Lofdahl, events coordinator for the Show Me Center.

Between the Jackson and Brooks & Dunn concerts, none of the events at the Show Me Center have sold out. They include the Wolfman Jack oldies show, comedian Jeff Foxworthy, the Saint Louis Ballet (a near sellout), the Harlem Globetrotters, a rodeo and the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar."

Friday's big turnout caused traffic problems. "Traffic was blocked from Morgan Oak and Sprigg Street to the Show Me Center from 10 til 7 until quarter after 8," said Officer Carl Pease of the Cape Girardeau Police Department.

"A lot of motorists got upset about having to sit in traffic so long," Pease said.

Lofdahl said the problem was twofold. "A lot of people seemed to come towards the end. They kind of all came at one big surge and the traffic backed up a bit."

The Show Me Center's limited number of entrances also slows the procedure when the crowd is big, he added.

"We hope to sit down and put our heads together and alleviate the problem," Lofdahl said. "We certainly are trying to see what we can do to keep that from happening."