But that's exactly what Bruce Springsteen is doing.

        He wants festival seating on the floor of the U.S. Bank Arena for his Nov. 12 concert. And the city intends to set a precedent by giving him what he wants.

        In another life, the arena was Riverfront Coliseum. That's where 11 concertgoers died during a rush for the doors before a Dec. 3, 1979, Who concert.

        After that tragedy, the city wisely banned festival seating.

        By requesting festival seating, Bruce Springsteen is trading his fans' safety for some cheap thrills.

        The thrills won't be that cheap. A festival seating ticket costs $75.

        That's what 1,800 fans will pay for the right to stand on the jam-packed floor of the old hockey arena, be close to The Boss and put their lives at risk. Just like the bad old days.

Steep price

        “Festival seating creates the most dangerous rock concert environment where the most people are killed or injured,” said Paul Wertheimer.

        He's the founder of Crowd Management Strategies, a concert safety consulting firm. He backs up his comments with 50 years of data collected from reports of injuries suffered at places where music is performed.

        His reports start with rock's birth at Cleveland's 1952 Moondog Coronation Ball and go to the present. A recent entry notes Eminem's May 24, 2002, show at Washington, D.C.'s RFK Stadium. At least 32 people were injured, two critically, when the crowd surged toward the stage. The event featured festival seating.

        His files also contain the task force report on the events leading to Cincinnati's Who concert. As the task force's chief of staff, he wrote the report that led to the festival-seating ban.

Poor excuses

        Excuses given for having festival seating at Bruce Springsteen's show are as a flimsy as a bootleg concert T-shirt.

        The Boss hates scalpers running up the price of front-row seats. Such reasoning plays right into scalpers' greedy mitts. Instead of, say, 50-100 front-row seats, there are now 1,800 tickets with that potential.

        Other arenas with festival seating are getting shows that skip Cincinnati, making it difficult for the U.S. Bank Arena to compete.

        “I heard that before the Who when I worked in the city manager's office and sat in on safety committee meetings,” Mr. Wertheimer said.

        “It's the same thing all over again. It's all about money.”

        And not enough about crowd safety.

        Cincinnati Police Lt. Kurt Byrd has said the department considered The Boss' audience in granting the exemption to the festival-seating ban.

        “They're not a crowd likely to get rowdy and cause trouble,” he said.

        It's a shame when guardians of the city's safety lose sight of the problem.

        The crowd didn't create the factors that led to the fatal stampede at the Who concert.

        The people in charge, the ones running the show in the arena, on stage and at City Hall, initiated and contributed to the existence of policies that resulted in the tragic loss of life on Dec. 3, 1979.

        Eleven people that night arrived, not as trouble-makers, but as concertgoers. When the night was over, they were victims who paid with their lives.

        Cincinnati has forgotten the lesson it learned.

        The problem is not the fans. It rests with festival seating and the decision makers.

        For the Nov. 12 show, the man making decisions is known as The Boss.

        Bruce Springsteen is powerful enough to demand and get festival seating. He should also be wise enough to see the error of his ways and change his mind. Before someone gets hurt.

        Call Cliff Radel at 768-8379; or e-mail: cradel@enquirer.com.

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