LA braces for horde of Michael Jackson mourners

City officials are scrambling over the holiday weekend to try to figure out how to accommodate a public memorial service for Michael Jackson at a venue that can hold no more than 20,000 people.

The event has been set for 10 a.m. Tuesday at the downtown Staples Center, according to a statement from the Jackson family’s publicist. The service is expected to draw tens of thousands of spectators wanting to pay their respects to the King of Pop, who died June 25. How city officials will handle the massive crowd remains to be settled.

Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, which owns the Staples Center and was Jackson’s promoter, said tickets would be free. He was not sure how they would be distributed. A press conference to announce further details was planned for Friday.

Los Angeles City Councilman Dennis Zine said plans for the memorial are clearly moving forward, but he wished there had been more time to work out the logistics.