Orange County Register

I got a call this morning from Jeannie Cose, a pleasant retiree from Seal Beach.

“Normally I’m not a complainer,” Cose said, and there’s nothing in her sunny British accent that would make you disbelieve her. “But I just had to say something.”

What got Jeannie in a dither was last Friday’s Sarah Brightman concert at Anaheim’s Honda Center — not the diva herself, but the seats, for which Cose paid $50 each.

“I figured they’d be good enough given the price,” Cose said. But she didn’t read the fine print. A Grant barely got you in the door — tickets started at $50 and topped out at $250.

To her dismay, Cose discovered her seats were at the very top of the Honda Center’s highest tier — the nosebleed section, as it’s known to sports fans. I’ve been up there during Ducks games and let me tell you, even Chris Pronger looks like a stick figure from that altitude.

Cose, her husband and their guests couldn’t see much from the heights; worse, her older sister started getting a little nervous about their location. “She’s in her 80s,” Cose explained. “She was worried about walking back down all those steps, and so were we.”

Cose and her group decided to leave during intermission. The walk down to the concourse was daunting, and they couldn’t imagine trouping back up to their seats for a second time.

“I wish they could have warned us, at least. I thought for sure they’d have big screens so you could see the show, but there was nothing. We were all so disappointed.”

So are we, Jeannie. And miffed. Ticketmaster or the Honda Center box office should warn people that it’s a long walk to the $50 seats and the view from up there is iffy at best. These days, who can afford to shell our $50 for mediocrity?

Anyone else have bad-seat complaints about the Brightman concert or any other? Let me know.

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