MGM Resorts' Richard Sturm, discussing big fights coming to T-Mobile Arena later this year, said that he "intends to avoid the ticket calamity that befell" Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao in '15 at the MGM Grand, according to Lance Pugmire of the L.A. TIMES. The MGM Resorts Entertainment & Sports President & COO is expecting a crush of celebs at both the Gennady Golovkin-Canelo Alvarez fight on Sept. 16 and the Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight on Aug. 26, and for the "existing live-gate record at T-Mobile Arena to be shattered by both." Only a "limited number of tickets were made available to the public" Mayweather-Pacquiao, and "even those weren’t distributed until the 11th hour." Sturm: "We want a good amount of tickets to be accessible to the public." Pugmire notes MSG in seeking Golovkin-Alvarez was said to have "placed its most substantial bid yet for a boxing match," and AT&T Stadium and Dodger Stadium also "sought the bout." AEG, which operates T-Mobile Arena, also "promised to promote" the Golovkin-Alvarez PPV in each of its venues worldwide. Sturm said that there are "reasons arenas are the best choices for fights." Sturm said, "When you’re in a stadium, you can’t charge [$5,000 for ringside seats]. Exciting as it is for 80,000 in a building, we create a spectacle. In a stadium, the people in the ring look like ants" (L.A. TIMES, 6/27).
FAKE NEWS: YAHOO SPORTS' Kevin Iole noted a "quick search of the internet shows that there are plenty of tickets" available for Mayweather-McGregor. EventsTicketsCenter.com is "showing tickets starting at $2,153." The only problem is, tickets for the event are "not actually for sale yet and this site and others like it can't sell you what they don't have." The ticket prices also "haven't been announced" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/23).
