The final gate figures pretty much told you not to trust promoters of boxing or MMA. The Nevada commission confirmed the actual figures were 13,094 tickets sold and 137 comps, or 13,231 total for a gate of $55,414,865.79. There were 4,467 seats that weren’t sold, far more than the 3,000 tickets left that was said after tickets were first put on sale and didn’t sell out. There were large segments of the building tarped off like it was a WWE event.
Weeks before the event, promoters said the gate had topped $60 million, and Dana White said $70 million two days before the fight, while Floyd Mayweather said $80 million after the fight.
It fell far short of the immediate sellout of the smaller MGM Grand Garden Arena of 16,219 tickets (no comps) for $72,198,500 for Mayweather vs. Pacquiao.
Even at $55,414,865.79, it would be easily the second biggest live gate in the history of combat sports. Only one other event, the Mayweather vs. Canelo Alvarez fight in 2013, topped $20 million and barely hit that number. The Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin fight on 9/16 is said to be sold out with a $30 million gate in Las Vegas.
The moral of the story is they overpriced tickets if they had an event that big and had 4,467 unsold seats, all of which were priced at more than $3,500. Clearly the empty seats were due to people feeling the attraction wasn’t worth the ticket price, and at $3,500 for a seat, you can make that decision. If those same seats were priced at $500 they would have been gone instantly. Ticket brokers also didn’t do well, expecting huge over prices charged demand, when the opposite ws the case. Most knew, based on the rules, the outcome was almost assured, and while millions would pay $100 for that, not that many were willing to pay $3,500.