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Buyers knock out Pavlik tickets in record numbers
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Kelly Pavlik fans wait in line at the Chevy Center on Saturday morning, during a big storm.
About 5,500 tickets were sold in 30 minutes.
YOUNGS-TOWN — The Feb. 21 Kelly Pavlik middleweight boxing title fight isn’t sold out yet, but more tickets for it were sold than for any other event in the Chevrolet Centre’s three-plus-year history.
And it was done in record time.
The largest crowd at a center event was 5,500 for country singer Carrie Underwood’s June 11, 2008, concert.
It took 48 hours for that concert — with tickets selling for $35, $45 and $55 — to sell out.
In just 30 minutes Saturday, 5,500 tickets — priced at $50, $100, $200, $300 and $500 — for Pavlik’s WBO/WBC title fight against Marco Antonio Rubio were sold, said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director.
“It was incredible,” Ryan said. “Nothing compares to it.”
Of the remaining tickets available, only those for $200, $300 and $500 are left with less than 100 of the $500 seats, for the first six ringside rows, available, he said.
The Underwood concert was a sellout at 5,500 because of how the center is set up for concerts. The center will hold 7,000 for the Pavlik fight.
Many of those who lined up early outside the center’s box office to buy $50 and $100 tickets in person left disappointed Saturday.
That is common for events that attract such interest, Ryan said.
Why?
The power of the Internet, he said.
At 10:01 a.m. Saturday, there were about 3,200 ticket inquiries — purchases and/or requests to purchase tickets — online for the boxing event, Ryan said.
That means a few thousand tickets were either sold or about to be sold online within a minute while nearly everyone at the center box office waited for the chance to buy at its six ticket booths, he said.
“Tickets go on sale simultaneously everywhere,” Ryan said. “A lot of the big arenas don’t open the box office.”
If it takes only two minutes to buy tickets at the box office, those waiting in line for 10 to 15 minutes can miss out on the tickets they want to purchase, Ryan said.
“The rest of the world is cranking on the Internet while those people wait in line,” he said. “With high demand, it goes instantaneously. It’s first come, first served. That’s how Ticketmaster works.”
If the Internet wasn’t the main way to get tickets for events, Ryan said there would have been about 4,000 people outside the Chevrolet Centre when it opened at 10 a.m. Saturday.
“The times have changed,” Ryan said, paraphrasing Bob Dylan.
He also offered a piece of advice for those who want to be guaranteed tickets to future events at the center: Buy a club seat license.
There are about 500 club seats at the center, located in the center ice sections 204 and 205, with about half of them sold, Ryan said.
A club seat license is $300 a year, down from $400 last year, he said.
By paying the annual fee, a club seat holder is guaranteed the right to purchase that seat to any event he or she chooses as well as on-site parking and other perks such as access to the center’s VIP lounge, Ryan said.
“You don’t get shut out for anyone or any event,” he said.
There are six fights on the Feb. 21 undercard. The arena will open at 7 p.m. with the first fight at 7:30 p.m. The fight is being broadcast on pay-per-view at $44.95 as part of a two-site, two-main event broadcast.
That night’s bout between Miguel Cotto and Michael Jennings will air at 10:15 p.m. on pay-per-view and at the center. The Pavlik bout will follow between 10:45 and 11:15 p.m.
skolnick@vindy.com