Garth Brooks Tickets: Going, Going …

So apparently Garth Brooks really, really likes Chicago – and Windy City fans like him right back. The first stop of his world tour turned into a residency today with tickets snatched up almost as quickly as additional gigs were added.

After keeping a promise to a fan named Andy that he’d be the first to know the first city of his comeback tour, last week Brooks told the rest of the world the date and venue – Sept. 4 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Ill. He also revealed July 15 that the world tour will feature his wife and fellow country singer, Trisha Yearwood.

Photo: AP Photo

"We Are One: Opening Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial," Washington, D.C.

Like the rest of the world, we’ve been (not so patiently) waiting for more gigs. While we’re still waiting on more cities, today we got more dates at the Allstate Arena. Three more shows were initially added – Sept. 5 and 6 at 6 p.m. and Sept. 11 at 7:30 p.m. – around 9:15 a.m., according to CMT.com. Brooks didn’t give fans a heck of a lot of notice for the onsale, with tickets available at 10 a.m. CDT for the three new gigs, as well as the original Sept. 4 show.

Between 10:35 a.m. and 12:40 p.m., another six gigs were added, with dates announced one and two at a time – just to keep fans and bloggers on their toes!

For now, the residency consists of 10 shows total scheduled Sept. 4-6 and 11-14. Brooks will pull double duty Sept. 6, 12 and 13 with early performances at 6 p.m. and late gigs at 10:30 p.m. Tickets for all 10 shows went on sale today.

CMT.com reports that Brooks sold an estimated 180,000 tickets in less than three hours, based on the venue’s seating capacity of approximately 18,000 per show.

Although it’s no doubt that fans quickly got out their wallets for the residency shows, it appears that Brooks probably hasn’t sold all 180,000 tickets just yet. At least as of 4 p.m. PDT on Friday.

While most Garth Brooks dates on Ticketmaster say “tickets not available online,” as of the time of this post you could still buy tickets for Sept. 12’s 10:30 p.m. show, as well as Sept. 13’s 10:30 p.m. show. We were able to search for six adjacent seats on both nights – the maximum tickets you can purchase per person.

During Brooks’ July 10 press conference he responded to a question about ticket prices on the world tour by saying, “I gotta tell you, I’m very proud of the ticket price.” All Allstate Arena tickets are priced at $56.94 plus $2.56 tax and $6 in service charges for a total of $65.50. Tickets are only available at Ticketmaster.com or 1-800-745-3000.

His return to the Chicago market will be Brooks’ first in the area in 17 years.