The city of Toronto is still celebrating the Raptors reaching the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. But music fans who thought they were getting a second chance to see 21 Pilots might not be so thrilled about the news.
It’s a story more about scheduling than malice, but the Raptors hosting the first two games of the NBA Finals has caused some commotion on the ScotiaBank Arena schedule. The band 21 Pilots has a show scheduled at the arena on Tuesday (May 28) and demand for tickets had the band add a second date to the schedule for Wednesday night.
But with Game 1 set for Thursday at ScotiaBank and plenty of work to be done to stage the event — extra media spaces, areas for players and even some seating changes — the venue was forced to cancel the second date and refund tickets for the May 29 show. The band tweeted about the scheduling issue, congratulating the Raptors but delivering bad news to fans.
congrats @Raptors on making the finals. this means we have to cancel night number two of our toronto shows for the @NBA to have arena access. @TicketmasterCA will be reaching out to night two ticket holders while we try to find more seats for night one.
— twenty one pilots (@twentyonepilots) May 26, 2019
The tweet cited “NBA access” to the arena, which makes sense given the work that needs to be done and that the NBA, not individual teams, controls the NBA Finals as an event.
“Due to the requirements needed by the league for the technical load-in and set up for the NBA Finals, the Twenty One Pilots concert on Wednesday, May 29 has been cancelled,” a Live Nation statement said according to Exclaim.
As Exclaim pointed out, those unlucky Pilots fans in the Greater Toronto Area can try to snag tickets for the first show, but otherwise they’ll be out of luck later this week.
