When "American Idol" season seven came to a close, David Cook took home the top honors.

And the runner-up, David Archuleta of Murray, told EW.com last month that Cook deserved to win.

"I think Cook deserved to win more than anything because he proved every week why he was there and why he should be the American Idol," Archuleta said.

However, Cook probably isn't the reason why the 10,000 tickets for tonight's "American Idols Live" concert at the E Center sold out initially. A majority of the concertgoers would more than likely say they are there to see Archuleta.

E Center general manager Kevin Bruder was surprised at how quickly the tickets sold.

"The tickets were gone in 20 minutes — so fast that it became the fastest-selling concert we have ever had," he said.

So, the E Center added a second show for Tuesday. And, Bruder said, tickets were still available over the weekend.

As of Sunday there were still tickets available for the Tuesday concert, and scalpers, or ticket brokers, have been hard at work trying to capitalize on the hype.

A few online clicks found a plethora of tickets for today's and Tuesday's performances.

E-Bay's most expensive offers eight tickets for $399, but someone else is asking $95 for a set of two.

On stubhub.com, two upper-bowl tickets for tonight were going for $24 each, and floor tickets are available for $530 each as of Saturday. Tuesday's concert tickets on the site range from $35.99 each for two upper-bowl, row four seats to $459 each for two lower bowl, row eight. And the latter isn't even on the floor.

Ticketsnow.com's most expensive tickets for tonight's show were $482 apiece for front row on the floor. The least expensive is $22 each for upper-bowl, row two.

Tuesday's most expensive seat on ticketsnow.com is $198 for fourth-floor, row four, and the cheapest is $70 apiece for upper bowl.

To accommodate the crowds, the E Center has added parking and beefed up its security.

Bruder said the E Center policy prevents any comments on security, but he said that the 10,000 guests expected aren't a typical "rock-concert" audience.

"It's more family-oriented than you would expect at a Rob Zombie concert," Bruder said. "We will have ample security, but we don't expect major problems. This audience will be more pre-teens, teens and families."

"We do know that there will be a lot of people coming to see the show," he said. "And we will open the secondary parking lot located on 3100 South. We have roughly 4,000 parking spaces available."

If you go

What: American Idols Live

Where: E Center, 3200 W. Decker Lake Drive

When: Tonight and Tuesday, 7 p.m.

How much: $39.50-$68.50

Phone: 801-325-7328

Web: ticketmaster.com

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E-mail: scott@desnews.com