APRIL 30 (Reuters) — Tickets for the mega fight between Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao hit the market last week and unless your name is Warren Buffet or Madonna you will probably have to watch the May 2 bout on pay-per-view.
After weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations between the fighters’ camps and much speculation, the coveted tickets went on sale and, as expected, they were not cheap.
Prices on Ticketmaster ranged between $1,500 to $7,500 and those tickets were snapped up in a matter of seconds.
The MGM Grand in Las Vegas is expected to pack in close to 16,500 for the fight but estimates had only 500 to 1,000 tickets going on sale to the public with the rest earmarked for the two fighters, the casino, sponsors and promoters.
Within minutes of the tickets going public, the market place shifted to resale sites like StubHub, which posted knockout prices upwards of $350,000 for ringside seats, putting them beyond the reach of everyone but the world’s most rich and famous.
“Very, very big event,” said StubHub senior coordinator Jason Rohloff.
“In fact it could end up being one of the biggest in our 15-year history.”
Stubhub, owned by eBay and the largest online ticket resale site in the United States, expects to see plenty of activity around the bout, leading right up to May 2.
Normally the market around a sporting event will see a drop in prices during the lead-up but Rohloff does not believe this will be the case for the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout.
“The lowest tickets we have on site are about $3,400 each and we have tickets that range up to and over $100,000,” he said.
“Everybody has been waiting for this fight. Not a lot of tickets are available because it’s a small venue, it’s not like the Super Bowl in Phoenix where there’s 80,000 tickets to sell, so there’s significantly fewer tickets out there and they only released tickets about a week ago. So getting tickets listed on StubHub was sort of a last minute deal.”
Another secondary site, TickPick, was offering floor seats for $15,000.
Fans in Las Vegas were still able to buy tickets at the MGM Grand’s ticket booth.
“The tickets that we got, I mean, we’ll probably double our money, max, you know,” said Chad Miller, who bought his tickets for the sole purpose of reselling them.
“I’ve been watching the prices and the prices have actually come down as tickets have become more available, but I think closer to the fight, I think you’re going to start seeing tickets climb up again.”
“You can make 40, 50 percent easy,” said Mike Thomas, who was reselling his ticket.
“So, we’ll see. Like I said it’s a win-win for me.”
“$2,700 a piece for some high seating,” said David Lytle, who was excited about going to the match.
“I want to bring some Kleenex, get the blood out of my nose, but we’re going to be alright. Looking forward to it. It’s going to be good. Pacquiao is going to win and I’m going to collect a ton of money because nobody saw that coming.”
“They’re expensive but it’s not as hard as everyone has made out to get a ticket,” said Leo Defaro.
“It’s often $350,000 for the $1,500 face value tickets. It’s obviously expensive to watch the fight but money well spent.”
The welterweight showdown between the undefeated Mayweather and the aggressive Pacquiao, the two best fighters of their generation, is expected to become the top-grossing prize fight of all time, pulling in close to $500 million in pay-per-view.
For those wanting to get in on the Las Vegas buzz around the fight, many casinos will hold closed-circuit viewing parties and part of that experience will also include high-end tickets that will run in the $150 range. (Las Vegas, Nevada, USA)
