Ringside VIP Boxing Auction: James Toney – Sam Peter

ByBoxing Press

Ticket Buyers Select Their Own Price for Auction of Best Seats and the Complete “World Championship Boxing Experience’

Getting a crack at the best tickets and one-of-a-kind VIP hospitality packages and fan experiences at a historic fight at STAPLES Center just got easier. Both boxing and marketing precedents will be set when a limited number of the best, front row, ringside seats for STAPLES Center’s upcoming September 2nd heavyweight title elimination bout featuring James “Lights Out” Toney taking on Sam “The Nigerian Nightmare” Peter are auctioned online to the public through the “Ringside VIP Auction” operated by Ticketmaster.

Beginning Thursday, July 13 at 10:00 AM PDT, boxing fans may bid on a limited number of special ticket packages consisting of four (4) front row, ringside seats, four (4) passes for STAPLES Center’s (ringside) Bank of America Chairman’s Room, one (1) autographed boxing glove, VIP parking and a photo of your group in the boxing ring at the conclusion of the Main Event.

Three additional VIP auction packages, which include seats among rows 2-5, VIP hospitality passes, parking, limousine service to STAPLES Center and an “exclusive” pre-fight meet-and-greet with boxing promoters Don King and Dan Goossen will also be available to fans through the Ticketmaster Auction program.

For more information or to participate in the auction, guests can log on to:
http://www.ticketmaster.com/staplesboxing

“We believe that fight fans are interested in paying a premium price for premium location tickets. Offering these exciting hospitality packages via Ticketmaster online auction is the most effective way to ensure that the tickets are made available to fans at the market value price that the fans themselves determine. Patrons who win these “Ringside VIP Auction” packages will watch the fight from the best seats in the house making their total fight night experience a one of a kind,” said Timothy J. Leiweke, President STAPLES Center and parent company AEG. “With these auctions, we’re helping to curb the large number of tickets that end up in the hands of scalpers. Unauthorized ticket resellers are exploiting consumers and their profit is a direct result of event pricing inefficiencies. This highlights the challenge for event promoters to establish prices for live events closer to what consumers in each market ultimately would choose to pay for a valid ticket in a location of their choice. Open to the general public, online auction through Ticketmaster help to establish a fair price for the best tickets and allow the market to determine the price.”

“Ticketmaster has developed a safe, authenticated, legitimate method of auctioning live event tickets in order to provide consumers with fair, equal access to premium seats. Ticketmaster’s participation will ensure that consumers won’t walk away questioning the validity of their tickets or the integrity of their purchase.” Leiweke added. “The Ringside VIP Auction offers the only guaranteed ticket in the online auction marketplace.”

Tickets sold via Ticketmaster Auction feature unique barcode technology that identifies the ticket buyer for security and access control to the event. Ringside VIP Auction tickets are backed by Ticketmaster’s safe, secure, easy-to-use service that includes TicketFast online delivery.

“The Ringside VIP Auction enables boxing fans to be the ultimate arbitrators of the ticket price for this coveted event,” said Terry Barnes, Chairman and CEO of Ticketmaster. With these auctions, Ticketmaster, AEG and STAPLES Center are offering the general public a completely transparent purchase process. Consumers are purchasing from the event’s authorized ticketing company. They know who they’re dealing with; they can see the specific seat locations that they are bidding on; they know where they stand in the bidding process. We take great pride in working with our clients to offer fans equal access to tickets and event information via Ticketmaster Auction.”

Throughout the auction process, bidders will receive notification when they are outbid and they will be able to monitor where their bid stands for seats in each of the eight ringside rows available through the Ringside VIP Auction. Bids for the all-inclusive package including four ringside seats can be raised at any time during the auction in $50.00 increments. Participants can bid on multiple packages and will be notified of their success via e-mail at the conclusion of the auction.