Texas televangelist Joel Osteen has canceled a September stop at SunTrust Park where he and his wife Victoria were set to lead a group prayer and worship service.
Officials with the Braves and Osteen’s ministry confirmed Wednesday that the pastor did cancel the event.
"We have been forced to postpone" the Sept. 30 event "due to unforeseen technical issues," according to a letter Osteen's ministry sent to a Smyrna resident who'd purchased four tickets.
A Braves spokesman referred questions about technical issues to the church.
Andrea Davis, a spokeswoman with Osteen’s church, did not know what went wrong technically, but said there were also “logistical issues with stadium.”
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The July 18 letter, which was shared with The Atlanta Journal-Costitution and sent to all ticket buyers for the SunTrust Park event, goes on to say full refunds of the $15 tickets (and $3 facility fee) were issued on the credit cards used. Folks will be notified by mail when they are able to buy tickets to the rescheduled show.
Davis, who didn’t know how many tickets were purchased, said the ministry is looking at dates in spring for a rescheduled event.
The SunTrust Park show has since been scrubbed from the ministry's website and is listed as "canceled" on Ticketmaster.
The Osteens lead Lakewood Church in Houston, which boasts 50,000 weekly attendees, according to information from the church in May. Their weekly television broadcast reaches 13 million people in the U.S.
The event was part of their national “America’s Night of Hope” stadium tour that had them appearing in Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, San Francisco, Detroit and Washington, D.C.
The ministry says programs usually last 2 or 2½ hours and feature worship music, words from Joel and Victoria and time for group prayer.
Organizers had expected a capacity 40,000-person crowd inside SunTrust Park.
