About 30,000 tickets for the first 20 Garth Brooks' shows at the Wynn Las Vegas' 1,500-seat Encore Theater sold out within five hours this morning, Brooks’ representatives announced this afternoon. The Wynn reported receiving more than 5.4 million page views on its website when tickets for the first five weekends of shows were put on sale at 8 a.m.

As many as 40,000 people were waiting online at any given time, Brooks’ spokeswoman said in a statement.  Wynn representatives also issued a warning to ticket brokers who may have bought tickets, stating that any sold for more than the face value of $143 ($125 ticket price plus fees) would be subject to cancellation at the hotel’s discretion.

Owner Steve Wynn said at a recent press conference that he and his staff would be taking stringent measures to prevent scalping of tickets to the smaller-scale shows.  Brooks recently announced the end of his self-imposed retirement, a decision he had made in order to stay home in Oklahoma and raise his children.

The deal with Wynn allows him to play four shows over a given weekend and still be able to take his three daughters to and from school each day. The plan calls for 15 such weekend appearances per year if Brooks and Wynn are satisfied with the way the engagement plays out.

The initial round of shows are Dec. 11 to 13, Jan. 1 to 3 and 22 to 24, and Feb. 12 to 14 and 26 to 28. Brooks said he planned to schedule the year's performances roughly a quarter at a time so he could plan them around his children’s extracurricular activities.

-- Randy Lewis