By Tom Grace
Cooperstown News Bureau
Tickets for Sugarland's Labor Day weekend concert in Cooperstown are selling briskly, according to Susan O'Handley, executive director of the village's Chamber of Commerce.
``There's a rumor going around that we've sold out,'' she said Thursday. ``That's not true, but in one week we've sold as many tickets for Sugarland as we did last year for Crosby, Stills & Nash."
That would be about 2,400 tickets sold to fans of the Grammy Award-winning country duo by the Chamber, in addition to tickets sold by Ticketmaster.
Tickets offered by the Chamber "" available on the Internet, by telephone at 547-5212 or at the Chamber's office at 31 Chestnut St. "" are $59, plus a $5 surcharge.
O'Handley said the Chamber's final price, $64, is the least expensive way to go to the show.
``There is tremendous excitement about this concert, and I think it's a great fit for the area,'' she said. ``We have a lot of country-music lovers around, and this band is very popular.''
Since 2004, Cooperstown has presented five concerts and only the first, a double bill with Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, sold out.
O'Handley said Sugarland might be the second act to draw more than 10,000 fans to historic Doubleday Field.
``We've had great concerts before, but this band is very popular right now,'' she noted.
Previous acts "" Nelson and Dylan, Paul Simon, Dylan a second time, and the Beach Boys and Herman's Hermits "" came to Cooperstown decades after first basking in the limelight.
This year's band, singer Jennifer Nettles and guitarist Kristian Bush, won two Grammy Awards in 2009: one for best country performance by a duo for ``Stay,'' and a second, best country song of the year, for Nettles as the sole songwriter of ``Stay.''
Stu Green of Magic City Productions in Endicott is promoting the concert, one of several where he is working with Sugarland.
``They put on a great show, and I'm glad they're coming to Cooperstown,'' he said Thursday.
Music columnist and Cooperstown Deputy Mayor Jeff Katz noted that Green brought Crosby, Stills & Nash to Cooperstown last year.
``We've stayed in touch since then, and in January, we got confirmation that Sugarland was available,'' he said.
Details were worked out, and the concert was announced March 8.
Katz said the village will be paid $10,000 for the use of Doubleday Field, will split the net profit on tickets sold by the Chamber and will receive $2 per ticket after the first 8,000 tickets are sold.
``That's a lot of tickets, of course, but with this band, we may sell out,'' he said.
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