Colorado Rockies suspend World Series ticket sales after "malicious attack"

DENVER - Colorado Rockies officials said Monday night their computer system for online-only World Series ticket sales was the target of an "external malicious attack" that required a temporary suspension of ticket sales.

The team said it had a backup plan that will allow online ticket sales to resume at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

Jay Alves couldn't immediately provide details of the attack, but said the Rockies ticket website would be back up. He said nearly 18,000 tickets were available for each of the three games scheduled for Denver - Games 3, 4, and 5 - which will take place Saturday and Sunday and, if necessary, Monday night.

"We absolutely have backup plans in place," Alves said without elaborating, referring questions about the attack to Irvine, Calif.-based Paciolan Inc., which runs the computers for the Rockies' World Series ticket sales.

Company representatives did not immediately return phone messages.

"Throughout the day we've evaluated all of our options, and we continue to believe that the only sales approach is the most fair and equitable method to distribute the tickets," Rockies' team president Keli McGregor said in a statement.

On Monday, there were 8.5 million attempts to connect with the computers in the first 90 minutes after sales started, he said, and only several hundred tickets had been sold before the system had to be shut down.

Rockies officials said their computers were ready to handle the expected crush. But two hours after tickets went on sale, many fans reported they could not get access to the ticket-sales website.

Officials with Major League Baseball did not immediately return calls.

Paciolan CEO Dave Butler earlier in the day said the crash affected the company's entire North American system.

"This is not the Rockies' fault in any way whatsoever," Butler said. "We are working hard to address it."

About 20 people lined up in near-freezing temperatures outside the Denver Public Library before it opened in hopes of using public-access computers to score tickets.

"If you can't get tickets here, you're going to have to pay $200, $300 above face value," said Clayton McLeod, a 26-year-old heavy-machine operator who took the day off to try to get seats.

McLeod said he has Internet access from his apartment building but thought the library's computers might be faster. His mother, father, uncle and girlfriend were trying to buy tickets from other computers, he said.

His boss, also a Rockies fan, agreed to give him the day off and asked McLeod to get tickets for him, too.

"We'll see how many I'll get," McLeod said.

The Rockies limited sales to four per person per game.

The Series opens in Boston with games on Wednesday and Thursday.

Coors Field seats more than 50,000, but about 30,000 spots per game are allotted to season-ticket holders, the two teams and Major League Baseball.

Season-ticket holders got a chance to buy their tickets last weekend. Prices range from US$65 to $250.

Tickets originally were to be sold at Coors Field and Rockies' Dugout Stores in the Denver area, as well as online. The team announced Wednesday all sales would be online, saying that would be more fair.

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