THE troubled new £125 million entertainment centre on the Clyde, The Hydro, has launched a debenture-style scheme that will guarantee tickets for gigs to customers who pay a lump sum.
Fans who participate in the scheme at the Glasgow venue will pay sums starting from £3600, or £3000 plus VAT.
Signing up to the scheme guarantees the right to the best seats at about 140 events to be held annually. It will give participants the right to buy seats at potential sell-out concerts such as Rod Stewart's opening show in September.
Organisers will hold back tickets specifically for these customers from the main sales.
The scheme, known as the Hydro Club, has been welcomed by firms and individuals and it is understood about 80 packages have been sold so far.
The venue has already secured top acts including Fleetwood Mac, Depeche Mode and Peter Gabriel to perform.
It was recently forced to deny construction work on the building, which sits alongside and is owned by the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), was behind schedule.
There were also fears the venue's launch could be delayed by as much as two months after wranglings with main contractor Land Lease.
However, the SECC has insisted the issues are now resolved.
Earlier this month a blaze broke out in the building's roof space, sparking further doubts that it would be able to open on time.
The fire, which happened on June 8, was thought to have been caused by sparks from welding on the roof.
The SECC has assured its customers the venue will open on time on September 30, but admitted the fire may have an impact on the building work.
About 125 membership packages are available. It costs about £1800 for club membership but these will only be sold in pairs, meaning the minimum spend is £3600.
The licence is valid for 12 months, after which it has to be renewed.
Members will be able to enter an exclusive bar area and restaurant before shows.
Other perks include a seven-day window from each event on-sale date and a dedicated account manager to assist with event requirements.
Ross Easton, head of hospitality sales at the SECC, said the scheme had attracted a lot of interest, adding: "The packages are going really well. We have had a lot of interest from several businesses, from larger firms to local firms.
"We've also had interest from regular music fans. They want to know they are guaranteed to get a ticket for their favourite artist or gig and they find this package is perfect for doing that."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article