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Issues Over Tickets, Credentials, Hotel Rooms Resolved For Mayweather-Pacquiao Bout

A dispute "over allocation of tickets, credentials and hotel rooms," among other things, had been holding up the signed contract for the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao bout, but Top Rank Chair Bob Arum said that a conference call yesterday "resolved all outstanding issues," according to Kevin Iole of YAHOO SPORTS. There "hadn't been a contract" signed between Top Rank, Mayweather Promotions and MGM Grand Garden Arena, "despite the fact that the fighters had signed to face each other in February." Arum said that he and Top Rank President Todd duBoef met with CBS President & CEO Les Moonves and Mayweather adviser Al Haymon and "nothing now stands in the way of the fight going forward." Iole noted tickets for the fight "are priced at $10,000, $7,500, $5,000, $3,500, $2,500 and $1,500." However, none of the $10,000 seats "will be available for public purchase." Tickets for the fight "go on sale" today at 3:00pm ET. The "closed circuit tickets, which will be shown only at MGM properties in Las Vegas, go on sale" today at 6:00pm. There will be "between 35,000 and 50,000 closed circuit seats available in Las Vegas, with the figure closer to the higher end." However, the sale of tickets to the live event "will be extremely small and likely only to be around 500" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 4/23). In Las Vegas, Steve Carp notes Moonves, who was "instrumental in making the fight a reality, got both sides on the phone and worked out the remaining legal issues." duBoef said, "He was able to fairly communicate with everyone. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know that we would have gotten this done. He has been instrumental from the very beginning to make this fight happen.” Meanwhile, Carp notes plans "still are being finalized for selling tickets to the May 1 weigh-in." Tickets, priced at $10, are "expected to go on sale" tomorrow or Saturday, with the proceeds being donated to charity (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/23).

TICKET EXCHANGE: The AP's Tim Dahlberg noted most of the tickets to the 16,500-seat MGM Grand Garden Arena "are controlled by the two fight camps, with the remainder reserved by the MGM for its own customers." But they had been unavailable because the two sides were "feuding over who got what tickets and where they were located." Tickets have "been an issue since the fight was announced because the MGM's arena is far too small to meet the demand for seats." Two of the $10,000 seats were listed on Seatgeek.com yesterday "for a total of $100,983 (AP, 4/22). ESPN.com's Dan Rafael noted the MGM Grand Garden Arena is "scaled to generate" approximately $74M in ticket sales, "more than three times the gate record" (ESPN.com, 4/22).

NOT ABOUT THE FANS: In Las Vegas, Ed Graney writes it took the "supposed biggest night" in boxing's history to "confirm what we already knew: It's not about the fans. It was never about the fans. It never will be about the fans." But neither Top Rank nor Mayweather Promotions was "directly harmed by the fact that 11 days from the fight the world has been waiting years to see, a contract had not been signed for the MGM to host the event and public tickets had not been put up for sale." Instead, "the fans were" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 4/23).

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