Ticket issues with De La Hoya-Pacquiao

Manny Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, acknowledged Wednesday that a Filipino businessman whom he declined to identify deceived Arum by telling him he needed to buy "a couple hundred" tickets for Saturday's Pacquiao-Oscar De La Hoya fight at MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

The man, Arum said, had described himself as "someone affiliated with Manny," who needed the tickets to sell as part of travel packages for Filipinos who wanted to watch the fight in person.

Arum said he has since established the man's only motive was to scalp the tickets for higher prices on the secondary market, like eBay.

"They lied to me, and now they're paying for it," Arum said. "The economy went so south they're lucky to sell them at face prices, and most are going at below face. That was wrong, and they've complained to me about losing money. I told 'em, 'You win some, you lose some.' "

The situation illustrates flaws in how tickets to high-profile sporting events are distributed (or not) to the public. De La Hoya-Pacquiao is boxing's Super Bowl this year, and like the big game itself, a sizable percentage of tickets were set aside for promoters, sponsors, the fighters and others before the public ever had a chance to buy them.

The bout was declared a sellout in less than two hours, but Arum revealed Pacquiao himself bought "$500,000 to $600,000" in tickets to distribute to friends, family and political figures in the Philippines, where he once unsuccessfully ran for a national office.

And tickets in all price ranges remain for sale through the MGM Grand box office after HBO's reconfigured production control freed up "a couple hundred" seats, according to an MGM spokesman.

"People can be upset, they have the right to [swear] at [the Filipino businessman], but at least they are getting the tickets cheaper now," Arum said. "Thanks to the economy, he's made bargains for people who want to go to this fight."

--Lance Pugmire

Comments

[jp solo]

im a filipino but i think there's no way pacman can win. common let's be realistic. you know what's wrong with us filipinos is that we aspire so much without thinking of the implications it might bring. Dela hoya migth be old but he still a force in the square ring.

[Duke6]

Everything in this world is possible man.. Just a matter of will power, determination, hard-work, believe and faith.. The Pacman can win this upcoming fight.. He can and he will because i believe.. We believe

[XboX]

TO JP SOLO: WHO ARE YOU?NOSTRADAMUS? ARE YOU SURE ALSO THAT DELA HOYA WILL WEAR A RED POLKA DOTS UNDERWEAR ON DECEMBER 6?

[Gameli]

The worse thing will be when we all the boxing fans, discover is another fake fight like the fight between oscar and hopkins wich was a fake fight to make millions of dollars out of fans who paid PPV to see an sparring match and oscar pretend to be knok out, every thing was so fake, to the point looks ridiculous the bad acting from oscar.
Sorry oscar, we are smart enouht you are lier