It may be the most hyped fight of 2017. But the boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor is not moving tickets as well as people hoped.
At time of writing, there are still a hefty amount of tickets available for the event to be held in the 20,000-seater T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Official seller Ticketmaster is listing tickets for the dream matchup between the kings of MMA and boxing for as low as $3,152 (USD$2,500).
While that may seem like a lot of money (because it is), it’s nothing compared to the $5,044 (USD$4,000) you’d have to pay for the cheapest seats to the 2015’s Mayweather – Manny Pacquiao fight, arguably the last major fight of this magnitude. Although it should be noted that it had the benefit of involving two professional boxers, instead of just one.
It’s a huge shock considering the media circus, complete with a world-touring press junket, that has enveloped the fight since it was announced in June. Now, there’s a real possibility of an only-partially full arena this Saturday, 26th August. Which is surprising to everyone involved, including Ticketmaster, who rolled out experimental bot-stopping technology designed to thwart scalpers specifically for the bout.
In response, everyone from third-party promoters to scalpers (who are the only party who definitely deserve to fail in this) are now in a frenzy, slashing prices in an effort to quickly offload tickets prior to the event. On resale website TicketIQ, tickets can be found for as low as $2,074 (USD$1,645), a mere fraction of what many expected for the fight. Additionally, Mayweather himself has resorted to flogging tickets on Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BX84oRPAkor/?hl=en&taken-by=floydmayweather
Speaking with CNBC, founder of TicketIQ Jesse Lawrence that most people heading to Vegas for the fight won’t even consider going to event itself. Instead, they’re opting for cheaper alternatives, like private parties or theatre screenings, that can cost as little as $75 (USD$60) for general admission.
This option has become increasing popular with punters, especially as they often offer a non-televised closed circuit view of the match, rather than the controlled feed with commentary offered by pay per view channels. Lawrence notes that this was the viewing method of choice for the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight:
For Mayweather-Pacquiao, one week before the event, not only were all those tickets completely sold out, but there were over 1,000 tickets for sale on the secondary market — roughly three times as many tickets as were available for the fight itself.
That said, the fight is still expected to crush all past pay per view records. And really, if the only thing it gives us is this dude sneaking into McGregor’s entourage, it’d still be a win overall.
