The excitement builds up for the Pacquiao vs Mayweather fight to be held this Saturday at MGM Grand Arena, Las Vegas. With such intense anticipation, hotel rates and ticket prices reach record heights, as reported by Los Angeles Times
Citing Vegas.com, the news site notes that hotel rates booked on that special weekend pushed the average daily rates higher by around $750. Even the $270 hotel rate of standard rooms at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino have reportedly skyrocketed to as much as $1600!
Even as early as February, hotel rates falling on the day of the fight are more than double of their standard rates, as reported by ESPN.
Wait till you hear the ticket prices which fetch nearly 400 times greater than the typical standard hotel rate per night! Yes, LA Times notes that the tickets for the much-anticipated battle between "The Money" and "Pacman" cost more than $100,000 for a ringside seat!
Even Vanessa Doleshal, a business development manager for the Nevada travel site Vegas.com is astounded with the trend. "We've never seen anything like this before," Doleshal told LA Times.
Marco Benvenuti, co-founder of Duetto, a hotel strategy firm, also told the news site that despite the 16,800 capacity of the arena, only 500 tickets are available for the public to buy. Most were reportedly offered to the hotel's top clients or part of hotel packages.
The LA Times also interviewed David Carter, a USC sports business professor, who reasoned that this supply and demand really play a big part in Las Vegas, especially with the "shrinking venues of such events." Yet, he admitted that this fight betwen Mayweather, an undefeated champion of five weight categories, and Pacquiao, a champion of eight different weight classes---a feat unsurpassed by anyone, too ---is a once in a lifetime event.
"For many people this is a bucket list kind of thing. People are willing to dip into their savings on something like that," Carter said to LA Times.
Meanwhile, the two fighters already faced one another for the second time on Wednesday for their final conference, as reported on ESPN. To further heat up the excitement of the fans of both camps, each fighter had something to say.
"It's time to fight now. You came here to see excitement, you came here to see a great event. That's what both competitors bring to the table. This is the biggest fight in boxing history," Mayweather addressed the media, as reported by ESPN.
When it was his turn to give a message to the crowd, Pacquiao said, "Good fight between Mayweather and Pacquiao. It's going to be a good fight, There's a lot of questions in your minds that only God can answer on Saturday."
Manny also talked about his journey as a fighter.
"I just want to let you know that everything I have accomplished, it is God who gave me the strength. I want to be an inspiration to everybody. I used to sleep in the street, starving, hungry. The Lord raised me and blessed me. I cannot imagine that boy who didn't have food and was sleeping in the street -- that God gave me this life. I want to share that with everyone.
"Our goal on Saturday is to give the fans satisfaction and make them happy. Floyd and I both are working hard to entertain you on Saturday. That's the most important thing, nothing personal. Just doing our job. He will do his best on Saturday and I will do my best on Saturday and we will put our names in boxing history."
