By Howard Fischer | Capitol Media Services via Arizona Capitol Times
Just because you may have spent more than $1,500 to attend a sporting event doesn’t mean you’re going to see the kind of contest you wanted to see, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
In a decision setting new precedents for all sorts of future sporting events, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out a lawsuit filed by spectators to the 2015 boxing match between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and and Manny Pacquiao at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. That bout between the two champions was won in a decision for Mayweather after the full 12 rounds, though the court said the fight “turned out to be a yawner.”
Tickets were selling from $1,500 to more than $7,500, with “scalpers” getting as much as $231,000. And court records show the pay-per-view revenues broke records, with commercial subscribers paying up to $10,000 to show the fight at their establishments.
It was only learned later that Pacquiao had torn the rotator cuff in his right shoulder during a sparring session about a month earlier.
That led to a series of lawsuits by individuals against both boxers and their camps and HBO, which aired the event. Plaintiffs said they were defrauded, arguing in legal filings that Pacquiao was “damaged goods,” that the fight was a “magnificent con,” and that they would not have purchased the tickets had they known about the injury.
