Local Aerosmith fans have filed a class-action lawsuit against the rock band for its canceled Sept. 26 concert on Maui.

In a complaint filed in Maui Circuit Court yesterday, attorney Brandee Faria alleged that Aerosmith bailed out of the sold-out Maui concert in favor of a larger concert in Chicago and "a lucrative, private concert for Toyota car dealers" that same week at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's Les Murakami Stadium.

The cancellation cost ticket buyers anywhere between $500,000 and $3 million for travel costs, handling fees and other nonrefunded costs, the suit said. Buyers received refunds for the face value of the tickets but did not get their money back for fees and other costs associated with the event, the suit said.

"They came and played for car dealers and they blew off their performance for their fans," said Faria.

Representatives of Aerosmith's Los Angeles-based management company, HK Management, could not be reached for comment yesterday. The band's publicist, Mitch Schneider Organization, also did not respond to an e-mail inquiry about the suit.

Although customers received refunds for the price of tickets they purchased, many bought advance tickets by joining Aerosmith's fan club or by paying a membership fee to the Maui Arts & Culture Center.

The membership fees — which ranged between $40 and $70 for the Maui Arts & Culture Center and $29.99 and about $40 for the group's fan club — were not refunded, the suit said.

The Maui concert was supposed to be the final stop on Aerosmith's 11-city North America tour, but the event was shelved after the band had to reschedule a larger Chicago concert for Sept. 24.

Aerosmith said the new Chicago date made it logistically impossible to go on with the Maui concert two days later, even though the band would play several days after the planned Sept. 26 Maui concert in a private gig for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. Inc. corporate meeting at UH.

According to the suit, Aerosmith sold at least 9,000 tickets for the show at Maui War Memorial Stadium, whereas the Chicago concert sold 18,500 tickets.

The complaint estimated that the band also received more than $1 million for the Toyota corporate gathering, which attracted about 6,000 dealers and company employees.

Faria said about a dozen ticket buyers have joined the class-action suit. One of them, Honolulu resident Lisa Sanchez, spent $155 on two tickets and spent an additional $114.50 for air fare and other travel costs, according to the lawsuit.

The suit said Sanchez received a refund for the amount of about $130 two weeks after the concert was canceled. She didn't receive a refund for $25 in "handling fees" nor was she compensated for her travel expenses, the complaint said.

The Aerosmith concert was among several high-profile acts planned for Hawai'i that had to be canceled or rescheduled. The Rolling Stones canceled an Aloha Stadium concert set for last Thanksgiving while a U2 concert set for April 2006 was pushed back to December 2006 due to an illness in U2's guitarist's family.

Reach Rick Daysog at rdaysog@honoluluadvertiser.com.