Los Angeles police and city officials will be scrambling through the weekend to prepare for a memorial for Michael Jackson on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent the scenes of chaos and confusion that have marked the eight days since his death.With the family finally settled on a Tuesday morning event at the Staples Centre in downtown LA, the city now is now bracing itself for the gathering of what is expected to be an enormous crowd of Jackson fans. The Staples Centre has a capacity for up to 20,000 at most, which most involved in the organisation agree is wildly inadequate.The event will be opened to the public, with 11,000 tickets distributed free and the remaining 9,000 seats presumably being offered to friends of the family and music industry representatives.But that will still leave a massive over-spill. Dennis Zine, an LA city council representative, said: "If you can imagine 100,000 people show up and you have 20,000 capacity, there is not sufficient room. Now you have a crowd-control problem."
Los Angeles police and city officials will be scrambling through the weekend to prepare for a memorial for Michael Jackson on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent the scenes of chaos and confusion that have marked the eight days since his death.
With the family finally settled on a Tuesday morning event at the Staples Centre in downtown LA, the city now is now bracing itself for the gathering of what is expected to be an enormous crowd of Jackson fans. The Staples Centre has a capacity for up to 20,000 at most, which most involved in the organisation agree is wildly inadequate.
The event will be opened to the public, with 11,000 tickets distributed free and the remaining 9,000 seats presumably being offered to friends of the family and music industry representatives.
But that will still leave a massive over-spill. Dennis Zine, an LA city council representative, said: "If you can imagine 100,000 people show up and you have 20,000 capacity, there is not sufficient room. Now you have a crowd-control problem."
The singer, wearing a stage costume, will be laid to rest in a gold-plated coffin, along with tokens from his life in music, including one of the white gloves he loved to wear.But, according to US media reports quoting a friend of the family, the Jacksons want the coffin entombed in concrete immediately after the funeral - which is expected to be held in secret before Tuesday's public memorial service - because of fears that a crazed fan could try to dig it up.
The singer, wearing a stage costume, will be laid to rest in a gold-plated coffin, along with tokens from his life in music, including one of the white gloves he loved to wear.
But, according to US media reports quoting a friend of the family, the Jacksons want the coffin entombed in concrete immediately after the funeral - which is expected to be held in secret before Tuesday's public memorial service - because of fears that a crazed fan could try to dig it up.
