Ticket prices skyrocket for UFC 306 at The Sphere in Las Vegas… with the best seats for O’Malley-Dvalishvili now costing more than the Super Bowl!
Anyone hoping to see Sean O’Malley defend his UFC bantamweight title at the MSG Sphere in Las Vegas on September 14 can expect to pay at least a few thousand dollars – and possibly a lot more.
O’Malley will face Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili at UFC 306 at the Sphere, where the cheapest tickets are selling for $1,466 each, according to GameTime.co.
Meanwhile, $43,842 worth of expensive tickets are sold for a front row seat.
For comparison, Super Bowl tickets on the secondary market were reported to be as low as $7,000, while last-minute tickets went for as much as $37,000. The average ticket price for Super Bowl LVIII was $9,300, according to StubHub.com.
White recently said he expects the UFC to make “somewhere between $25 and $100” [million] “up to $27 million,” White told reporter Kevin Iole.
The Sphere displays graphics with Super Bowl LVIII boards leading up to the big game
Sean O’Malley battles Ecuador’s Marlon Vera in their bantamweight bout at UFC 299
Georgia’s Merab Dvalishvili reacts after his win over Henry Cejudo at UFC 298
The UFC record for single-event ticket sales is UFC 205 with $17.7 million, according to Forbes. That night, Conor McGregor defeated Eddie Alvarez by TKO at the real-life Madison Square Garden in New York.
The Sphere holds nearly 20,000 spectators, about the same as any other major arena. The venue received good reviews after hosting the NHL Draft in Las Vegas earlier this year, and many Super Bowl-goers in Las Vegas were naturally curious about the glowing $2.3 billion orb that dominated the city’s skyline.
“Oh my gosh. It’s almost 3D,” California resident Jill Hitchcock told Reuters as she admired the Sphere that evening.
“(Chiefs quarterback) Patrick Mahomes throws the football and it comes right at you. It’s awesome. Back in the day, you had to put on the (3-D) glasses. I think it’s the shape of the dome. It gives you that 3-D look. So it’s really cool.”
The O’Malley-Dvalishvili card is a first for the UFC at the Sphere.
“This will be one of the greatest sporting events of all time,” UFC President and CEO Dana White said in a press release. “What we’re doing at Sphere will never happen again. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for sports fans, while also being an incredible tribute to the Mexican people for their extraordinary contributions to combat sports.”
James Dolan, owner of the Knicks, Rangers and MSG, called the schedule a “milestone” for the Sphere.
“Having the first sporting event at Sphere is a major milestone, not only for the venue, but for live sport in general,” he said in the press release.
O’Malley (18-1) earned a unanimous decision over Marlon ‘Chito’ Vera at UFC 299. Dvalishvili (17-4) is riding a 10-fight winning streak after defeating Henry Cejudo by unanimous decision in February.