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Ticketmaster Goofs Inaugural Ball Tickets Sales

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In Washington, inaugural tickets are about as hot as tickets to the Oscars in Los Angeles. So it's understandable how thrilled some people were when they received an email from Ticketmaster on Sunday saying that tickets to the inaugural ball and parade had gone on sale.

Soon thereafter, however, Ticketmaster sent out other emails, apologizing for a mistake. Officials with the company say they had been testing their system, and the alert only went out due to a glitch in the system, and that tickets would actually go on sale Monday.

The company admits that some lucky people may have purchased tickets on Sunday, before that window of unexpected opportunity slammed shut.

Ticketmaster says its website was overwhelmed by those seeking to buy tickets and that it takes full responsibility for the mistake. Ticketmaster is not saying how many tickets were sold, or to which events.

A statement from the Presidential Inaugural Committee says that despite the early email, the sales are consistent with the committee's announcement that a limited number of public tickets would be available on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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