LET’S GET IT ON – How much does a megafight ticket cost?

by Neil Bravo
The countdown to the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather superfight is on. That’s exactly seven weeks. Yes buddies, seven weeks to heaven.
This fight needs no hype. It can even do away with a promotional tour. Even a presscon. Just the same, they did one on Wednesday and I can only guess the main photos of practically all major dailies in the Philippines and in America today.
The media interest on this fight was reflected in the 600 media people who attended Wednesday’s Los Angeles press conference between the two boxers—biggest crowd ever in a sporting presscon.
If you dream to watch the fight live, you have to start fattening that bank account now and save extra unless you have plenty to spare.
How much does a ticket to the fight?
Oh, brace yourselves for this.
Tickets to the superfight is estimated to cost between $1,500 and $7,500, organizers said, but no assurance how many will go on sale to the public. Meaning, grabbing a ticket is like racing with a herd of raging bulls.
From what I heard, the cheapest could be $4,000. That’s around P180,000. This early, Manny had made it clear. No free tickets. Sorry, but buy your own this time.
Given that cost, looks like seats at the May 2 bout in Las Vegas are going to be one of the hottest tickets of the sporting decade. For the record, the MGM Grand capacity is limited to only 16,800 people.
So where does the first wave of tickets go? Oh definitely not to the ordinary buyers. Many tickets are expected to be distributed to high-rollers of the gambling capital and the A-list celebrities wanting to be seen at a fight billed hyperbolically as the biggest ever in boxing history. Even bigger than the Ali-Frazier or the Tyson-Holyfield fights.
This means too that the number of tickets going to the general sale is going to be relatively few.
Now, with the cost of the seats and the rarity of tickets available for general admission, I can anticipate how much would the pay-per-view cost in local television carriers would be.
I am pretty sure that’s not gonna come cheap. Even the Live Viewing would be more expensive this time—whether there’s food to go or none. I don’t know if we will have free public viewing too if the cost will be too high.
That’s the expected downside. But we hope there is something we can share about and that’s free public viewing for the millions of Pinoy fight fans.
In the US, cable networks are expected to charge around $100 per household for access to the bout. That’s around P4,500 for a pay per view. We usually shell out P400 to P1,000. This time, it should fetch more.
Ken Hershman of HBO Sports gave the fight a very apt description calling it as the “single largest boxing event of all time.” That, I couldn’t question.
Veteran fight promoter Bob Arum couldn’t have said it any better than this.
“I would say that Joe Frazier is turning over in his grave, and Muhammad Ali is looking on in disbelief.”
I am starting to drool over this one. A seat at MGM Grand in a dream coverage of a lifetime. This dream chair of mine costs no ticket at least.
Notes: Listen to “Let’s Get It On with Neil Bravo” at 105.9 Balita FM every Saturday 8 am to 10 am. You may write the author at bravoneil@rocketmail.com.