PPV Price For Pacquiao-Mayweather Fight Expected to be Record $99

Only a month remains until the most anticipated boxing match of the year. Floyd Mayweather (47-0, 26 KOs) will finally step into the ring with the only eight-division boxing champion in history, Manny Pacquiao (57-5-2, :8 KOs) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in what is being billed as the “Fight of the Century.” Since the big fight was announced in late February, slowly but surely more details have been coming out of the promotion. According to the Wall Street Journal, the principals involved in the promotion of this fight and the pay television distributors are closing in on a deal in what will be a record priced ever for a pay-per-view bout.

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The pay-per-view is also expected generate a record in revenue and pay-per-view buys, as the fight is looking to be sold for $99 in a high-definition feed and $89 in a standard definition feed, both record prices.

According to reports, the fight is generating staggering numbers with ticket expected to generate over $72 million with 16,200 tickets available, shattering the previous record by more than three and half times. In fact, between the live gate, sponsors, closed circuit, and foreign television sales the fight, which haven’t been calculated yet, the event is looking at over $120 million before even one pay-per-view has been sold in the US.

According to people close to the negotiations between HBO, Showtime, and the TV distributors, the principals are expected to hammer out a deal in the next couple of days that will be less favorable to the pay television distributors, but a much better deal compared to the initial 30% offer of revenue by the networks. In the agreement, the financial split will be determined by the amount of marketing and promotion with the distributors having the potential to get as much as 40% of the revenue in pay-per-view sales.

Both networks involved in the fight are dealing with iN Demand, who negotiates on the behalf of Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., other large cable companies, and Direct TV. The other TV distributors that HBO and Showtime have to come to an agreement with are Dish Network and Vibiquity, who negotiate on behalf of AT&T Inc.

According to Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, a public sale of less than a 1,000 tickets will be available soon to the general public. The promoter is hopeful they will be on sale at the end of next week with ticket prices ranging from $1,500 to $10,000. On TicketIQ, Mayweather vs Pacquiao tickets on the secondary market are going for an average price of $5,3337.16 with a get in price of $4,642 with just 129 tickets currently listed.