Boxers Manny Pacquiao (R) from the Philippines and Floyd Mayweather from the US pose during a press conference on March 11, 2015 in Los Angeles, California, to launch the countdown to their May 2, 2015 super-fight in Las Vegas. AFP PHOTO/ FREDERIC J. BROWN
MANILA, Philippines—Looking for some tickets in boxing’s most valuable match? Prepare to dish out serious money.
Even Top Rank CEO Bob Arum is having some hard time wrapping his head around the ticket situation.
“Let me tell you, this whole thing is mind-boggling,” Arum told ESPN of the ticket demand, as well as the increase in the prices of hotel rooms in Las Vegas.
After years of on-off negotiations, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will finally trade punches, and not words, on May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
READ: IN PHOTOS: Pacquiao, Mayweather face off in presscon, shoot commercial
“You can’t get a room for under $1,000 a night. We have a show [on May 1] at the Cosmopolitan and we don’t know where we’re going to put the fighters.”
Arum initially priced tickets at $5,000, $3,000, $2,000 and $1,00 last February, and with the Hollywood-hype that the fight garnered after its press conference in Los Angeles Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) there was no way the ticket prices will stay put.
READ: Priciest Mayweather-Pacquiao ticket worth P2.8M
With such heavy demand for tickets, the only thing left to do was to jack it up like crazy.
Arum told ESPN that new prices $7,500, $5,000, $3,000 and $1,500 and that’s at face value.
Also, good luck finding tickets at face value.
There are brokers asking 10 times for those tickets even though they don’t have the tickets yet.
Arum backed up the increase in ticket prices in the most Bob Arum of ways.
“We decided to boost it up because it’s better off to generate that money and put it in the gate than have the scalpers make the difference,” Arum told ESPN. “The demand was so heavy this was a no-brainer.”
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerve and Todd duBoef, Top Rank President and Arum’s stepson, worked out the new price range which Arum said could reach $50 million in total.
Boxing’s most expensive fight was at $20,003,150 between Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez and was fought at MGM.
READ: Mayweather dominates Alvarez for easy decision win
“It’s crazy and it’s not crazy,” Arum said. “People go crazy for the Super Bowl and the tickets go crazy. But this is a once-in-a-lifetime event. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“But it was really good because people realize that any talk that boxing is in decline or boxing is dead is bull—-. That is white sports editors have lost track of boxing. The rest of the public loves boxing.”
“It’s not a volleyball contest, not a basketball game, it’s a f—ing boxing match. It’s a really big boxing match.”