Unfortunately this happens for all big events

While I disagree with this, how different it this from ticket scalping, boxing fans always seem to end up paying more.

Ticket scalping has long been part of the culture of boxing. But for the most part, it has been limited to ringside seats and implemented largely through personal contacts. The magnitude of the scalping for Mayweather-Hatton was unparalleled in its scope and, in some instances, implemented in a far more sophisticated manner than in the past.

Richard Schaefer (the CEO of Golden Boy) says that the MGM Grand (which hosted the fight) wanted to buy 8,000 tickets but was limited to 5,000. Most of these were distributed within the MGM-Mirage empire and given to high-rollers.

Golden Boy (depending on whom one talks with) retained between 1,500 and 1,800 tickets, which were divided among sponsors, HBO, other business associates, and the like. Between 200 and 500 tickets went on direct sale to the public.

That leaves roughly 9,000 tickets. Schaefer says that these were divided evenly between the Mayweather and Hatton camps, which were entitled by contract to purchase 4,500 tickets each at face value. Nevada State Athletic Commission records show that, in addition to whatever other sum might have been paid by the Hatton camp to Golden Boy, $3,100,000 was deducted from Hatton’s purse for the purchase of tickets.

Bob Arum describes what happened next as “creative marketing that allowed certain people to sell thousand-dollar tickets to morons for ten thousand dollars.” Or phrased differently; large blocks of tickets were sold at a premium to brokers, who in turn resold them to the buying public.

The Hatton camp is believed to have sold many of its tickets at a 30 percent mark-up. The Mayweather camp is thought to have had a more sophisticated and more profitable resale operation.

Ken Sulkey of Las Vegas is vice president of the National Association of Ticket Brokers. “The difference between this and other fights,” says Sulkey, “was the British invasion. There were a few people with a lot of tickets who capitalized on the opportunity. Brokers paid between $3,000 and $5,000 for ringside seats depending on location. Generally, we work on a 25-to-30-percent mark-up, so a choice ringside seat might have sold to the public for as much as $6,500. I heard stories about tickets selling for $10,000,” Sulkey notes. “But I doubt that more than ten or twenty tickets sold in that price range.”

Ticket scalping with front-office complicity is common in sports. Brokers have arrangements with team personnel in each of the major sports leagues. The most-coveted and most feverishly-scalped tickets are for the Super Bowl.

However, let’s draw two distinctions between tickets for the Super Bowl and tickets for Mayweather-Hatton. First, scalping was the PRIMARY means of ticket distribution for Mayweather-Hatton. And second, the Super Bowl (unlike boxing’s big events) is available free of charge on television. Anyone who wants to can watch it. Fans who didn’t have tickets for Mayweather-Hatton had to pay a suggested retail price of $54.95 to see the action.


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