[EXCLUSIVE] Basing On Ticket Demand And Prices, Mayweather-Pacquiao Super Fight Is Bigger Than The Super Bowl
The Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao super fight is pegged as potentially the biggest fight in the history of the sport. Some involved in the ticket sales business for the bout agree and admit this once-in-a-lifetime event could even be bigger than the Super Bowl in the United States.
With the two top pound-for-pound fighters of their generation finally exchanging gloves on May 2, 2015, the hype and anticipation—the fight was discussed since 2009, or forever in the sport of boxing where primes come and go as fast as Pacquiao’s hand speed—is at an all-time high.
With the undefeated American and eight-division Filipino champion finally meeting on top of the squared ring, future revenues are expected to hit through the roof—so apt since the fight involves a fighter who is popularly known as “Money.” It’s a simple matter of the law of supply and demand; with only a few thousand tickets available for sale, it’s expected that prices for the said tickets will hit record highs.
Jackson Riso, the director of marketing for tickpick.com, an online ticket marketplace, confirmed in an exclusive email to International Business Times Australia that, indeed, the tickets for Mayweather-Pacquiao are more than comparable and even more expensive than previous Super Bowl events in the National Football League.
“Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter said that Mayweather-Pacquiao will be like 5 or 6 Super Bowls wrapped into one night. That’s a bold statement, but looking at the way prices are going, he may not be totally off base,” Jackson Riso said.
“At a similar point before the event, the current average Mayweather-Pacquiao ticket price is $5,064. That’s almost $1,000 more expensive than the average price of $4,077 for the past six Super Bowls. The current get-in price is $4,180. By comparison, the get-in price for Super Bowl XLIX this far out from the game was $2,200. That’s nearly 200% more expensive.”
TickPick’s figures were taken roughly two months before the Mayweather-Pacquiao super fight. As with any event, in sports or entertainment, there will be a considerable rise—sometimes exponential for premium seats—as the day of the event nears.
Of course, there is one advantage Super Bowl XLIX has over the Mayweather-Pacquiao event: the size of the venue. The last NFL championship game was held at the University of Phoenix Stadium in Arizona with a seating capacity of roughy 63,400 while the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada can only host about 16,800.
The latter only has 26.5 percent the capacity of the former but that’s not stopping the prices for the boxing match from rising. “The difference in venue size is putting inordinate amounts of pressure on the best tickets,” Riso added. “While the get-in price for Mayweather-Pacquiao is double that of Super Bowl XLIX, the average price of the best seats, or five-star, lower level seats, was $8,403 at Super Bowl XLIX and is currently $29,198 at Mayweather-Pacquiao. That’s a difference of 347%!”
The record for highest live gate attendance revenue for boxing was set by the Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez fight in 2013 when it earned about $20 million. At the current average price across the board of the Mayweather-Pacquiao tickets, this record could be easily shattered come May 2.
Riso also provided IBT Australia information showing the average ticket prices for the last six Super Bowls in the days leading up to event. The most notable is Super Bowl XLIX’s ticket prices in an incremental rise 20 days out up to the championship game; average price was just below $5,000 three weeks before Super Bowl and reached a high $9,000 plus by game day.
The Mayweather-Pacquiao fight is roughly 60 days away. But the average ticket price is already at $5,000-plus.
Arum, who has handled Pacquiao for most of his boxing career, said in an interview with ESPN that he has received offers of $100,000 for a premium seat in the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. The long-time promoter also stated that ticket demand is the greatest by far in his storied history of promoting fights and has never seen anything like it.
Less than two months away from the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout, the “Fight of the Century” is shaping up to be indeed just that. This is confirmed by the high demand and the still-rising prices of the tickets.
To contact author of this article, email j.quizon@IBTimes.com.au.