The tickets for tonight's Floyd Mayweather vs Manny Pacquiao fight have been quite a story. The fact that they weren't even released until 10 days before the fight was a big deal, the fact that so few were made available to the public was a big deal, and the prices for the tickets were a big deal.
TMZ is reporting that secondary ticket brokers are getting killed on their investment in the fight. As an editorial note, I'd like to add, "which makes me laugh."
But it just ain't panning out -- with one broker blaming the high prices and the fact that tickets only went on sale 10 days before the fight -- and investors are losing their asses.
One company told us they initially bought 80 tickets ... but only moved 20 ... and now they're holding the bag on 60 high-priced stubs.
"It's an embarrassment. We lost a significant amount of money," one broker tells us.
Same story for another ticket broker -- who tells us things have gotten "desperate" and they're slashing prices like crazy.
At this point, we're told brokers are just trying to break even ... and anything more than that would be a huge victory at this point.
The fact that they can't move these tickets for absurd prices does, of course, have something to do with the fact that the tickets were delayed until 10 days ago, and does have something to do with face value being so high, but it's not the fight. And I hesitate to even blame the promoters and all their issues. First and foremost -- again, an editorial note, just my opinion, etc. -- this was a greedy, ugly money grab. And it failed, because they overplayed their hand.
I suppose there just weren't enough bigwigs who wanted to pay $80,000 for a ringside seat after all.
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