By Mick Akers
With boxing being reintroduced to the Brooklyn area for the first time in over 80 years with the Danny Garcia vs. Erik Morales rematch on October 20, having a packed house for the nationally televised bout is a no-brainer.
To help obtain a packed house Saturday night, the Barclays Center is now resorting to giving away a hefty amount of tickets to Brooklyn residents.
The Barclays Center released a statement advising that anyone with a valid Brooklyn ID can get four free tickets to the junior welterweight title bout this weekend.
The first 250 fans to go to the American Express box office at the Barclays Center will receive the four free tickets, for a grand total of 1,000 tickets being given away.
Sure giving away tickets to fill up a venue for a big fight is nothing new, but putting out a press release to the public to do so is. Usually high rollers and anyone in the know with the boxing promotion are the lucky recipients for the free tickets, not the average Joe.
Giving the tickets away is a smart move for the TV side of things, but for the possibility of a big fight coming back to Brooklyn may be in question, as if it is not as profitable as say holding the bout in Las Vegas, then this ticket giveaway could be bad news overall.
With the cheapest tickets for the bout being $50, it is safe to guess the freebies are from that tier. This means that the 1,000 free tickets will result in $50,000 in loss revenue.
The fight card saturday night is a very solid one featuring four world title bouts including the Garcia-Morales rematch, Paul Malignaggi vs. Pablo Cesar Cano, Hassan N’Dam vs. Peter Quillin and the rescheduled Devon Alexander vs. Randall Bailey bout.
If those fights coupled with the excitement of the first major boxing event to take place in Brooklyn since 1931 is not enough to sell out the Barclays Center, then who knows what would.
