‘Mayweather-Pacquiao bout revenue over US$400m’
LAS VEGAS: Record-shattering revenue total s for Manny Pacquiao’s upcoming boxing showdown with unbeaten Floyd Mayweather could surpass US400 million, promoter Bob Arum told ESPN in a report Monday on the sports network’s website.
The wel te r wei gh t title unification fight May 2 in Las Vegas will generate US$ 74 million from just over 15,000 tickets at MGM Grand Garden Arena, Pacquiao promoter Arum told ESPN, f lattening the old mark of just over US$ 20 million for Mayweather’s 2013 fight with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in the same venue.
Promoters first aimed for US$ 40 million, then boosted the ticket prices from US$ 1,000 to US$ 1,500 at the low end and US$ 5,000 toUS$ 7,500 for the best seats due to huge demand for the ducats, Arum said.
But organisers have now shuff led the number of seats in various price ranges and boosted top seats to US$ 10,000 to raise the
It’s crazy, but it is what it is. It’s amazing. We’ll probably have a handful of tickets that will go on sale to the public next week. It’s mania.
live gate total from US$ 50 million to US$ 74 million.
“It’s crazy, but it is what it is,” Arum told ESPN. “It’s amazing.”
And few if any seats will be available for public sale, with promoters, telecasters HBO and Showtime, the fighters and the host venue each taking a share of the tickets.
“We’ll probably have a handful of tickets that will go on sale to the public next week,” Arum said. “It’s mania.”
There will be only about 1,100 seats at US$ 10,000, none of them for public sale, according to the report.
Boxing’s record for pay-per-view purchases is the 2.4 million buys from Mayweather’s 2007 splitdecision victory over Oscar de la Hoya, but with MayweatherPacquiao having taken more than five years to come together with the planet’s top pound-for-pound fighters, expectations of 3 million pay-per-view buys at about US$100 each could bring US$ 300 million in sales for US, Puerto Rican and Canadian markets alone.
“We wouldn’t have gotten a fraction of these numbers if we made the fight five years ago,” Arum said. “It turned out that we’re doing the fight at the right time, I guess, not that we’re geniuses for waiting this long.”
Global rights are expected to ring up another US$ 35 million, with a record US$ 10 mil lion already spent for rights in the Philippines, where Pacquiao is a Congressman as well as an iconic figure.
“Between the gate, the foreign television sales and the closed circuit, which we can’t even calculate yet, you’re looking at over US$ 120 million. And that’s before one pay- per- view has been sold in the US,” Arum told ESPN.
Arum said Tecate beer, a longtime Pacquiao sponsor, won title sponsor rights with a US$ 5.6 million bid, US$ 400,000 more than rival Corona, a long-time backer of Mayweather.
“We’ve never see anything like that on a beer sponsor,” Arum said.
“Both companies were after it. It’s a huge number.”
Mayweather’s camp receives 60 per cent of the revenue with Pacquiao’s side taking home 40 per cent.
Arum said the contract gives Pacquiao the choice of who sings his homeland’s national anthem before the bout while Mayweather decides who will sing “The Star Spangled Banner.” — AFP
Bob Arum, boxing promoter