VanillaIceCream2 said: "Regardless of the producers’ intent when they eliminated rush - which likely was about safety concerns - I think this new policy will backfire. Because they are still offering the 14ish standing room spots, people are still going to camp out at the theater, probably arriving even earlier because there are fewer tickets available."
Exactly!! As long as they are keeping the SRO line the same, then the "safety concerns" logic completely crumbles. Because the logistics and safety concerns can only remain the same, or get worse for the reason you mentioned. Fewer tickets = higher demand = people lining up earlier to try to maximize their chances.
Also, as I said before - from this thread it seemed like the new policy was mostly successful at getting people to stop lining up overnight. It seemed like most of the time the line would begin in the morning, except on matinee days when the line would indeed begin overnight. But if it's only happening on matinee days, why not get rid of rush just for matinees?
magictodo123 said: "People were being (for lack of better word, I guess) greedy with wanting to see the show and completely ignored the consequences of their actions to others who wanted to rush in the future."
It's virtually impossible to put a rule in place that prevents people from lining up before a given time. I've seen several Off-Broadway theatres attempt policies like that, and it never works. And it's not because people are greedy - it's because the theatres are naive. When a show is in high demand, and they tell everyone that they can't begin lining up until, let's say noon for example (I don't know what the actual time was in this case) - the best case scenario is that a dozen or more people will all arrive exactly at noon, which will result in a mad-dash, and heated arguments over who actually got there first that will be difficult to resolve because everyone got there at the time they were supposed to. Which is a much worse scenario than people respectfully forming an "unofficial" line before noon.
