Fight To Generate Hundreds of Millions of Dollars in Revenues

In what is being billed the "Fight of the Century", Floyd Mayweather, Jr. will be taking on Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on Saturday evening. Even if you won't watch the fight yourself, I can guarantee that you know somebody who will.

The amount of money that this single fight is going to generate is going to be mind-boggling.

First off, the PPV (Pay-Per-View) is going to cost either $90 or $100, depending on whether or not you want the high definition feed. The biggest boxing PPV in history was Mayweather/De La Hoya in 2007, but Mayweather/Pacquiao is expected to trash that record convincingly. According to reports, the base line for PPV buys is expected to be 3 million buys, with some private estimates pegging the number at over 3.8 million. So, right off the top, you have between $300 and $400 million in revenues being generated from the PPV buys alone.

The tickets to watch the fight at the MGM Grand were priced exorbitantly and have risen to even greater heights in the secondary market. According to reports, the total gate (ticket sales) for the event will be $74 million, which will break the previous record (Mayweather vs Canelo in 2013) by over $50 million. As mentioned, tickets on the secondary market are selling for even more, with some seats selling for as much as $150,000.

The international broadcast rights for the fight have reportedly been sold for $35 million, while an additional $13 million will be generated in closed-circuit sales.

Next up - the sponsorship rights for the event. The five title sponsors have coughed up a cumulative total of $13.2 million to advertise their products during the fight, with Tectate beer shelling out $5.6 million of that total. The Tectate logo will be featured prominently on the floor of the ring.

According to reports, Manny Pacquiao has sold six sponsorship placements on his shorts for a total of $2.3 million. Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who has a tarnished past due to various arrests, is not expected to have any sponsors when he walks to the ring on Saturday night. Mayweather, however, will take a cut of the sponsorship action through his Mayweather Promotions company.

In addition, movie studios will be taking advantage of breaks in the action by showing trailers for various movies, including the new Mission Impossible and Terminator films.

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The deal that Mayweather and Pacquiao agreed to will see Mayweather receive 60% of the "purse", while Pacquiao will receive the other 40%. If the PPV does as well as some people think, Mayweather could walk away with $180 million while Pacquiao could take home $120 million. Not bad for twelve rounds of work.

Add in all of the hotel room sales in Las Vegas, all of the bars that will be showing the fight across the world (and generating food and liquor sales) and all of the households hosting the event and you have the biggest fight in the history of boxing.

Filed under: General Knowledge