Tickets have not gone on sale yet for the May 2nd Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs Manny Pacquiao fight, but brokers are already gearing up to do big business. If you can't secure a ticket through the box office you'll have to spend the kind of money that only big time entertainers and athletes have at their disposal.
Normal ticket prices will start at $1,000 and go as high as $5,000. Those will be gone in a matter of minutes once they're made available, bringing in an estimated $40 million gate for the 16,800-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena, according to Forbes. Unlike most sporting events none will be comped to stars.
Celebrities like Jack Nicholson, 50 Cent, Will Smith and Leo DiCaprio are used to getting comped tickets when they attend a big fight, but Bob Arum who runs Top Rank, which is co-promoting Mayweather-Pacquiao, says not this time. "Nobody is going to get these tickets without paying for them," Arum told ESPN 1100 in Las Vegas Monday. When he gets a celebrity call, Arum says he is routing them to the MGM which has the biggest block of tickets. Ringside seats will be even harder to come by. "Because of the price of the tickets, MGM, for example, will only give ringside tickets to its customers who have a $250,000 line of credit," said Arum. Gamblers are expected to use their $250K credit line that weekend and not sit on it either. The secondary brokers will then take over. Seat Geek for instance, is already listing section F floor seats for an astounding $29,334.
Forbes reports that the MGM Grand Hotel sold out in two minutes after the fight was announced.
Pay-Per-View price information is not yet available. You can expect those to be the highest ever for a boxing match.
The biggest question going into the 2015 NFL draft is which teams will pick quarterbacks Marcos Mariota and Jameis Winston.
It's very hard to predict which one will have a better pro career, but they both have the potential to be franchise leaders for the next decade.
Both are former Heisman Trophy winners. Winston won it in 2013 while playing for Florida State. Mariota won it at the University of Oregon in 2014.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hold the number 1 overall pick in the draft, followed by the Tennessee Titans at number 2. Both teams are in need of a quarterback. Most draft experts have Mariota and Winston going either 1 or 2.
Character issues and a recent report that his right shoulder is weak may prevent Winston from going 1st. However, he looked great at the NFL combine over the weekend and comes into the league already knowing how to run a pro-style offense.
The only question about Mariota is will he be able to successfully make the transition from running a college spread offense to commanding an NFL offense.
If you were an NFL general manager who would you pick?
LAS VEGAS (Associated Press) --The Fight is Finally on.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. will meet Manny Pacquiao on May 2 in a welterweight showdown that will be boxing's richest fight ever. Mayweather himself announced the bout Friday after months of negotiations, posting a picture of the signed contract online.
The long anticipated bout at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas will almost surely break every financial record ever, and make both boxers richer than ever. Mayweather could earn $120 million or more, while Pacquiao's split of the purse will likely be around $80 million.
The fight, which matches boxing's two biggest attractions in recent years, has been in the making for five years. It finally came together in recent months with both fighters putting aside past differences over various issues- including drug testing and television rights- to reach an agreement.
"I promised the fans we would get this done and we did," Mayweather said.
While the fight rivals the 2002 heavyweight title bout between Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson for interest, it comes more than five years after the first real effort to put the fighters together in their prime. Most boxing observers believe both have lost some of their skills, though Mayweather remains a master defensive fighter and Pacquiao showed in his last fight against Chris Algieri that he still has tremendous quickness in his hands.
Still, Pacquiao is 36 and has been through many wars in the ring. And while Mayweather has been largely untouched in his career, he turns 38 on Tuesday.
Pacquiao was sleeping in the Philippines when the fight was announced, but his camp issued a statement saying the fans deserve the long awaited fight.
"It's an honor to be part of this historic event," Pacquiao said. "I dedicate this fight to all the fans who willed this fight to happen and, as always, to bring glory to the Philippines and my fellow Filipinos around the world." As part of the agreement, Mayweather insisted on having the right to announce the bout. He also won concessions from the Pacquiao camp on who enters the ring first, what type of gloves are used, and a number of other issues, including a reported 60-40 split of the purse.
But it didn't take long for Pacquiao's camp to start talking either. Promoter Bob Arum expressed his elation in making the fight, while trainer Freddie Roach predicted a big win for his fighter.
"Floyd should enjoy being the A-side while he can because on May 2 Manny is going to put him on his backside," Roach said.
Arum, who has promoted some of the biggest fights in history, said this one would be bigger than them all.
"This boxing match will have the interest in the U.S. of a Super Bowl," Arum told The Associated Press. "I think it will set all kinds of pay-per-view records and gate records. It will be the biggest boxing event of all time."
Both fighters will bring 147-pound titles into the ring, but the fight is about far more than belts. Mayweather, who is unbeaten in 47 fights, wants to stake his claim as one of the greatest fighters ever, and remove any doubts about his legacy by fighting the boxer who is thought to be the greatest challenge of his career.
Oddsmakers have already posted their opinion on the bout, making Mayweather a 2 1/2-1 favorite in betting parlors in this gambling town. The fight is expected to draw record betting with tens of millions wagered in Nevada's legal sports books.
Another record which will almost surely be set will be the pay-per-view price to watch the fight at home. The fight will be televised as a joint venture between competing networks Showtime and HBO, which will share announcers with Jim Lampley and Al Bernstein along with Roy Jones Jr. reportedly handling the task at ringside.
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