MJ's family should pay LA for service: Officials

Los Angeles: Los Angeles City councilwoman Jan Perry said she’d “love it” if the Jackson family helped defray some of the city’s expected costs associated with Tuesday’s memorial, but that officials hadn’t heard from the family.

Perry said the city didn’t immediately have an estimate of those costs. Though more than 1.6 million fans registered online for a chance to attend the Staples Centre ceremony, only 8,750 names were chosen.

Los Angeles officials are concerned about other fans clogging city streets.

Rev Al Sharpton, a family friend, also made no mention of whether the Jacksons would help the city with some of the costs, on ABC television.

“The city is trying to do what it should do to secure people,” said Sharpton.

“That’s what cities do. Clearly, no one in the family is happy that the city is incurring any expense at all. You’re talking about an historic figure that will have an historic celebration, probably one that we would not see again in this generation.”

Lucky fans celebrated when they got an e-mail saying they had scored the hottest ticket in town.

Each selected person gets a pair of free tickets, with the odds of being chosen about one in 183.

Dozens of police officers and a fire truck were parked outside Dodger Stadium on Monday, where ticket winners could start picking up their coveted passes.

Nancy Kothari, 31, drove from Arizona to be at the stadium before the gates opened. “I grew up with Michael Jackson, with his music,” Kothari said.

Ticket winners were to show up at Dodger Stadium with a unique code and instructions, and have a wristband on each person’s wrist.

Organisers would check IDs to make sure those picking up wristbands are the same original applicants, according to Staples Centre spokesman Michael Roth.

The memorial service will be broadcast live on five television networks.

The tickets will admit 11000 people to the Staples Centre plus 6500 in the Nokia Theatre overflow section next door.

Jackson’s family was said to be planning a private ceremony at the Forest Lawn cemetery in the Hollywood Hills.