40,000 tickets for first UFC event in Toronto
The UFC says some 42,000 tickets will go on sale next month for its UFC 129 show at Toronto's Rogers Centre.
Tickets for the April 30 show will range from $300-$800 on the floor and $50-$225 in the stands.
The general public can buy the tickets starting Feb. 12. But first crack will go Feb. 10 to members of the UFC Fight Club, a fan organization (www.ufcfightclub.com). UFC newsletter subscribers will get their chance on Feb. 11.
The UFC expects the Toronto show to set a North American attendance record for a mixed martial arts, as well as a world-record gate for an MMA show.
While the MMA promoter says that nearly a quarter of the tickets available will cost $100 or less, the sheer number of tickets and high-end pricing will push up the gate revenue.
Tickets for UFC 124, in comparison, were $75, $100, $150, $250, $400 and $600.
The Dec. 11 show at the Bell Centre set the existing North American MMA attendance record of 23,152.
UFC 126, a sellout slated for Feb. 5 in the smaller confines of the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, offered tickets from US$75 to $750 while UFC 128 at the Prudential Centre in Newark, N.J., on March 19, features tickets from US$60 to $500.
The UFC 129 main event features welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre of Montreal against Jake Shields. Also on the card, featherweight title-holder Jose Aldo of Brazil takes on Mark (The Machine) Hominick of Thamesford, Ont.
The Rogers Centre card will be the UFC's first in Ontario and sixth in Canada. Montreal has hosted UFC 83, 97, 113 and 124 while Vancouver hosted UFC 115.
The gate for UFC 124 was $4,586,000.
The UFC record is US$5,397,300 from UFC 66 in Las Vegas, which featured a rematch between Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell and Tito (The Huntington Beach Bad Boy) Ortiz.
But Toronto should be bigger.
UFC president Dana White has stressed that his organization will pull out all the stops to make sure the live spectacle will not be diminished in such a large venue.
"The live event means everything to me," White told a news conference in December when he announced the Toronto show. "We'll deliver. We will deliver and make sure that it has the same energy —you're not watching two little ants fight on a matchbox. I'll make sure we deliver. I promise."
The Rogers Centre says its capacity is 46,105 for baseball and 46,374 for football, not including luxury suite seats.
WrestleMania X8 attracted 68,237 in March 2002 to the then SkyDome. Bands like AC/DC have drawn crowds of 45,000.