Posted on: July 31, 2024, 11:04h.
Last updated on: July 31, 2024, 11:16h.
Tickets went on sale Monday for UFC 306, the first sporting event hosted by the Las Vegas Sphere. Yet the venue hasn’t sold out yet, and it didn’t take long to figure out why.
As of Wednesday morning, the cheapest tickets available for the September 14 event, officially called Riyadh Season Noche, were $2,757.50.
That price was for 400-level seats in the rafters and it wasn’t inflated by resellers. It was for unsold tickets from Ticketmaster.
U Friggin’ Crazy?
The highest price on Wednesday via Ticketmaster was $15,007.50 for a few floor seats to the right of the Octagon and five rows back. These also aren’t resale prices.
Oh, and that’s before fees or taxes are added in.
Speaking at a press conference earlier this month, UFC CEO Dana White told reporters: “It will be the biggest gate of all time.”
That was probably an accurate statement. Assuming an average ticket price of $5,000, the gate receipts will be $100 million.
Not that it won’t be an entertaining production. White has said he is spending $17 million on it.
Earlier this month, Sphere Entertainment chair and CEO James Dolan provided a preview of what $2,757.50-$15,007.50 will buy you.
“You’re not going to be just watching guys in the octagon and on the screen,” he told the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper. “I know Dana is going to use the haptics. When the big guy falls, you’re gonna feel it.”
According to mixonline.com, 10K seats in the Sphere are already equipped with haptic technology produced by moving magnets. According to the venue, this tech “uses an audio signal with ultra-low-frequency reproduction to make the chairs vibrate and shake as desired for each performance.”
As configured for UFC 306, the Sphere can hold up to 20K people — 20K very wealthy people.
