Deal reached on Mayweather-Pacquiao ticket problems

By Boxing News - 04/22/2015 - Comments

Mayweather vs Pacquiao SUPERFIGHTBy Chris Williams: A deal has reportedly been made on the Floyd Mayweather Jr – Manny Pacquiao ticket problems, according to Dan Rafael. The contract still hasn’t been signed yet, but hopefully it gets done soon. There will be 37,000 closed circuit seats available for boxing fans to purchase for the May 2nd fight, according to Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter.

On Tuesday, it was reportedly that Arum wasn’t going to sign the contract for the fight due him believing the contract was different from the term sheet that he previously saw a couple of months ago.

Les Moonves, the president and CEO of CBS, helped iron out the disagreement between Top Rank and the MGM Grand, according to Yahoo Sports News.

Arum believed that his company would be one of the signatories on the contract. When he didn’t see that in the final contract he said he wouldn’t sign. Without Arum’s signature, the tickets can’t be sold.

“We resolved all the issues and now we’re waiting for the paperwork,” Arum said via Yahoo Sports. “I said on the call that if what we agreed upon is in the paperwork we receive, we will sign it and the tickets will be released.”

The boxing public won’t have access to many tickets, as there’s only going to be a small number of them will be available for the general public. The tickets will be on sale today.

The MGM, Top Rank and Mayweather Promotions will split the ticket sales with the MGM getting the major portion, according to ESPN.

By holding out and refusing to sign the contract, Arum has got them where he wants them. He’s got a lot of leverage if he’s willing to go the nuclear option and not sign the contract. That’s why Mayweather Promotions and the MGM should have had the contract signed before the fight was announced in order to prevent things like this happening.

“Looks like there is a deal in place on the Mayweather-Pacquiao ticket mess I was just told. We’ll see if the paper actually gets signed,” Dan Rafael said on his twitter. “If/when the paperwork for the MGM deal for Mayweather-Pacquiao gets signed and tix are announced, closed circuit part of it too.”

It would be a pity if Arum continued to refuse to sign the contract and the tickets either didn’t get sold or ended up getting sold at the last second. It would be a buyers’ market if they wait too long to sell the tickets, especially with the 37,000 closed circuit seats.

“Arum says that 37,000 closed-circuit seats will be available in Las Vegas for May 2nd,” Steve Kim said on his twitter. “Is part of the ticket deal being ironed out boxing. Arum, ’I think everybody now realizes that they gotta quit f’n around.” #boxing #TicketGate2015 #ForTheFans.”

It’s so incredible that it’s taken this long for them to finally agree to the ticket problems. There’s less than two weeks to go before the fight, and it’s pretty sad the way this was allowed to drag on this long without a resolution.



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