Ellerbe: We Have Over $60 Million in the Box Office
Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe, unlike fans and member of the media isn’t dwelling on the ticket sales for the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor fight on August 26th.
With pre-sales for the fight reaching the $60 million mark. he expects will easily surpass Mayweather’s previous box-office record of $72 million.
With some tickets near six figures for the 12 round fight two Saturdays from now on the secondary market and over 13,000 on the first run retailer, and some within the industry doubting that fight fans will want to pay that amount for UFC lightweight champion McGregor’s cross over to fight the undefeated Floyd Mayweather at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“I’m actually tired of hearing that question because right now we have over $60 million in the box office,” he told MMAjunkie during Thursday’s Mayweather media day and workout in Las Vegas. “Now, you tell me what part of that that remotely looks like ticket sales are slow.”
“This isn’t the damn Rolling Stones concert. That’s the only thing that sells out in seconds.”
Ellerbe preached patience when tickets cost as much as a used car. He said “every major CEO from every major company” is interested, and it takes business executives like them some time to plan out their trips and buy their seats.
“The fact of that matter is that we have $60 million – over $60 million – in the box office right now,” he said. “Which is double more than any other live gate that’s ever been done.”
In fact, he pointed to the next major boxing event when middleweights Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and Canelo “Canelo” Alvarez face off in September, also T-Mobile Arena.
“Our fight right now, we’ve got more in the box office right now – double – that what they will have,” he said.
When asked about the box office, Mayweather claimed that the sky is in fact not falling.
“Our fight is doing unbelievable numbers,” Mayweather said. “When I say unbelievable, we’re up high in the numbers. The pay-per-view numbers will be unbelievable, and we will have a sold-out crowd. I’m not worried about that, at all.”
With language similar to our current President, who was invited to the fight by Mayweather, one has to wonder if the case made by the CEO and face of Mayweather promotions is on point and that it will be a sold out affair, or will there be a price correction and a potential drop in the secondary market to draw bodies to one of the biggest hyped events, since the 2016 Presidential election.
Original Story: MMAJunkie