Fast facts on Jackson memorial

JACKSON MEMORIAL: Today’s service for Michael Jackson will begin at 1 p.m. EDT in Los Angeles and will be televised by the major networks and selected cable channels.

TICKETING: Organizers made tickets available free of charge for 11,000 seats in the Staples Center and 6,500 seats in the adjacent Nokia Theatre.

More than 1.6 million fans requested tickets online; 8,750 names were chosen. Winners began exchanging vouchers for tickets and wristbands in a drive-through process yesterday at Dodger Stadium parking lot.

Each winner got two tickets and is free to give away the second ticket. Some people have admonished winners not to sell their extra tickets, but auctions went up almost immediately on eBay and Craigslist. Asking prices were in the thousands.

CROWDS: Although Los Angeles officials urged fans without tickets to stay away, Assistant Police Chief Earl Paysinger said anywhere from 250,000 to 700,000 people may try to reach the arena.

Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell would not say how many police would be on security duty, but he alluded to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and the recent NBA championship celebration for the Los Angeles Lakers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

COSTS: Los Angeles City Councilwoman Jan Perry called for the Jackson family to help defray some of the city’s expected costs, although no estimate was available.

Perry said the cost of police protection for “extraordinary” events is built into the police department’s budget, but she still solicited help for “incremental costs.“

Last month, donations covered about $850,000 of the city’s $1 million cost for the Lakers’ championship parade. Critics had blasted the idea of using city money when it is considering layoffs to close its budget gap.

JACKSON’S CAREER: Michael Jackson was 10 years old when he made his singing debut with his four older brothers.

Jackson sold an estimated 750 million records worldwide and released 13 No. 1 singles, according to Sony Music. “Thriller,“ released in 1982, is the biggest-selling original album in history with about 50 million copies sold worldwide. The Eagles’ “Greatest Hits” has more sales, but it’s a compilation.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, Jackson’s biggest-selling “physical single” since 1991 and the song with the most airplay since 1992 is “You Are Not Alone.“

Since Nielsen started tracking digital downloads in 2004, “Thriller” is Jackson’s biggest-selling digital song with 1.4 million downloads in the United States.

—From Staff and Wire Reports