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 Tickets for a hotly anticipated megabout dubbed the "Fight of
the Century" have been coveted by A-listers and high-rollers,
with no guarantee that prime front row spots would be granted
for every request from the biggest names in show business.
Around 900 ringside seats were available for the celebrities,
business tycoons and entertainment moguls who have converged on
Las Vegas, and actors Clint Eastwood and Ben Affleck were among
those who secured the prized positions.
Tennis greats Andre Agassi and his wife, Steffi Graf, were also
in the front rows, squeezed in alongside boxing great Sugar Ray
Leonard, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and
Hollywood stars Christian Bale and Michael Keating.
Other high-profile fans watching ringside, where seats have
demanded up to $350,000 on the resale site StubHub, included
former heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield and retired
NBA stars Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller.
Also making their way into the Arena via the red carpet were
American actors Bradley Cooper, Mark Wahlberg, Denzel Washington
and Claire Danes, Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell
Westbrook and English musician Sting.
The atmosphere in the heavily secured 16,800-seat Garden Arena
was electric as the two fighters prepared to make their way to
the ring for a bout that is expected to be the biggest grossing
of all time with a 'Who's Who' of society looking on.
However, not every A-lister ended up close to the action with
some of them bumped into the upper seating levels.
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"They can't all sit in the front row," said Dena duBoef of Top Rank
promotions, who represent Pacquiao. "Tickets and seating have
probably been the biggest nightmare for this fight."
Fewer than 1,000 tickets for the Mayweather-Pacquiao bout were
offered to the public, and those were snapped up in seconds.
The remainder was divided among the two fighters' promotion
companies and MGM Resorts, which made seats available to their best
customers -- gamblers who carry a minimum $250,000 credit line in
the casino.
"It's very disappointing that so few tickets were available to the
fans," Pacquiao fan Raymond Avenido from Hermosa Beach, California
told Reuters.
"It would have been nice to have had a bigger venue, and make the
tickets affordable for those of us who are not high-paying
customers.
"As a boxing fan, I would have paid between $500 and $800. That
should be the ceiling for someone who has been following Manny
Pacquiao since he was still boxing in the Philippines."
(Editing by Frank Pingue)
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