Inaugural parade tickets snapped up

Yes they can.

Five thousand tickets to bleacher seats for the presidential inaugural parade went on sale on Ticketmaster for $25 each Friday and the Web site DCist said they sold out in less than a minute.

Someone offered four tickets for sale on Craigslist for $2,000 within 2 hours and 31 minutes after they were sold.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee announced early Friday that the seats for the parade from Capitol Hill to the White would be available on a first come, first serve basis at three Ticketmaster telephone numbers in Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland or online beginning at 1 p.m. EST. They were limited to four per person.

“In news that will shock literally no one, Tickmasters allotment of 5,000 inaugural parade tickets sold out in under a minute this was the image that greeted us at 1:01 p.m.,” DCist said.

A seller on Craigslist, the nationwide want ad for virtually anything, offered four tickets for sale, writing, “I am looking for $2,000 for the set or best offer and I can also split these tickets up. All reasonable offers are accepted. Witness and own a huge piece of history.”

A notice posted to the ticket announcement on the inaugural committees Web site said, “Update: All parade tickets sold out.”

“We are very pleased to make these tickets available to the public as part of our commitment to holding the most open and accessible inauguration in history,” the executive director of the inaugural committee, Emmett S. Beliveau, said in a statement.

“The inaugural parade is a celebration of America, and we are making sure that as many citizens as possible can take part in this historic tradition,” he said.

More than 13,000 people will escort the new president and vice president from the Capitol along a 1.7-mile parade route to the White House. More than 90 music, cultural and community groups will join representatives of the armed forces in the parade, which will conclude at the presidential reviewing stand.

Ticket holders must be in their bleacher seats no later than 1 p.m. EST Jan. 20. Tickets are not required to view the parade. There will be standing room along Pennsylvania Avenue on a first come, first serve basis.