Record-shattering revenue totals for Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming boxing showdown with unbeaten Floyd Mayweather could surpass $400 million, promoter Bob Arum claims.
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The welterweight title unification fight on May 2 in Las Vegas will generate $74m from just over 15,000 tickets at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Pacquiao’s promoter Arum told ESPN, flattening the old mark of $20m for Mayweather’s 2013 fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the same venue.
The original ticketing forecast was for $40m, but the prices were put up from $1,000 to $1,500 at the low end and $5,000 to $7,500 for the best seats due to huge demand, Arum said.
And organisers have now shuffled the number of seats in various price ranges and boosted top seats to $10,000 to raise the live gate total from $50m to $74m.
Tecate is the official beer of Mayweather-Pacquiao. Bob Arum said brand paid $5.6M for that right (H/T @danrafaelespn)
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 24, 2015
Few seats are expected to be available for public sale, with promoters, telecasters HBO and Showtime, the fighters and the host venue each taking a share of the tickets.
“It’s crazy, but it is what it is,” Arum said. “It’s amazing. We’ll probably have a handful of tickets that will go on sale to the public next week. It’s mania.”
That means a lot of people watching at home. Boxing’s record for pay-perview purchases is the 2.4 million buys from Mayweather’s 2007 split-decision victory over Oscar De La Hoya, but over 3 million buys at $100 each are expected for this and could bring $300m in sales for US, Puerto Rican and Canadian markets alone.
Global rights are expected to ring up another $35m, with a record $10m already spent for rights in Pacquiao’s native Philippines.
“Between the gate, the foreign television sales and the closed circuit, which we can’t even calculate yet, you’re looking at over $120 million. And that’s before one pay-per-view has been sold in the US,” Arum added.
Title sponsorship rights have also been bought for a record $5.6 million.
“We wouldn’t have gotten a fraction of these numbers if we made the fight five years ago,” Arum said, referring to the original negotiations in late 2009 and early 2010 that failed and led to years of on-and-off talks.
Mayweather’s camp receives 60 per cent of the revenue with Pacquiao’s side taking home 40 per cent.
