Leonard Ellerbe defends underwhelming ticket sales for Floyd Mayweather vs Conor McGregor fight
The CEO of Mayweather Promotions has robustly defended ticket sales so far, insisting the fight 'isn't a damn Rolling Stones concert'
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Leonard Ellerbe, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions, has robustly defended ticket sales for Floyd Mayweather's upcoming Las Vegas fight with Conor McGregor.
The fight was widely expected to sell out in minutes when tickets initially went on sale last month. But it appears that fight fans have been put off by the high price of tickets, with a number of seats at the T-Mobile Arena still available to buy.
Ellerbe was in a good mood while addressing the media at Mayweather Boxing Club this week, but his smile quickly disappeared when one journalist questioned about slow ticket sales for the upcoming fight on August 26.
“I'm actually tired of hearing that question,” Ellerbe said, as the smile disappeared. “Right now, we have over 60 million dollars in the box office. What part of that remotely looks like ticket sales are slow?
“This isn't a damn Rolling Stones concert. That's the only thing that sells out in seconds. We're talking about tickets that go from $500 to $10,000. That's an expensive ticket.”
As of Thursday evening, a general search for two tickets on Ticketmaster's website showed 536 pairs available, ranging anywhere between $1,682.50 to $35,010.09 per ticket.
And with thousands of seats still available, and the fight two weeks out, some believe the next sporting event that will sell out in that venue will be a Vegas Golden Knights game, when the newest NHL expansion team opens the 2017-18 season. Critics also believe with some second-tier seats carrying a five-figure price tag, the pay-per-view fee of $99.95 seems like a bargain.
“We're going to blow past our own record of $72 million; this fight is massive,” Ellerbe said.
Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao's “fight of the century” saw live gate receipts produce more than $71 million in revenue at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, easily surpassing the previous live gate record of $20 million, for Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez.
Mayweather reiterated Ellerbe's thoughts.
“We're doing crazy numbers, forget what you all (are) hearing. We're doing crazy numbers,” Mayweather said. “Our fight is doing unbelievable numbers. The pay-per-view numbers are going to be unbelievable and we will have a sold-out crowd. I'm not worried about that.”
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