LAS VEGAS — When boxing promoter Bob Arum said last week that sales for the upcoming fight was “phenomenal” it was clear that he wasn’t joking.
Ticket sales, as a matter of fact, have been more than phenomenal in that those priced at $500 are now being sold at the Internet for as much as $3,000 or at least P150,000.
With only four days before the Manny Pacquiao-Erik Morales showdown at the Thomas and Mack Center here,tickets are getting harder and harder to find — unless of course you’re willing to go the extra mile.
The fight venue can actually house as many as 19,000. And no one would be surprised if as many fight fanscome over to watch the action, like what they did when the two boxers slugged it out last March at the MGM Grand.
Posted at a boxing website were “tickets for sale and ready to be shipped.” They include two first-row tickets for $3,000 each, five fifth-row tickets at $2,500 each and an eighth-row ticket for $2,000.
There are cheaper ones, of course, but they only look cheap when you’re a good dollar earner. Balcony seats are being sold for $200, center ringside and row eight at $1,300 each, and at fifth row $2,500 each.
No wonder Pacquiao got a lot of calls and a lot of requests from Filipino friends coming over to watch the fight, and from even those already based here in the US.
A lot of callers have been declined the last couple of days.
“There’s nothing more to give,” said a Pacquiao confidante.
Pacquiao has given away close to a hundred tickets, including a bunch worth $500 each. But he doesn’t mind at all spending thousands and thousands of dollars for give-away tickets.
“They’re all my friends, you know,” he said.
