By Jake Donovan
Top Rank and Tecate have once again joined forces to make the next major pay-per-view event as affordable as possible.
Tuesday’s press conference in Los Angeles to formally announce the September 15 pay-per-view event between Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. and Sergio Martinez came with confirmation that a rebate will be offered with the purchase of their product (12-pack, 18-pack or 24-pack) and the pay-per-view event itself.
“Tecate will be announcing a rebate program,” noted Hall of Fame promoter Bob Arum, who presents the middleweight championship along with co-promoter DiBella Entertainment. “If you buy these 12-packs of beer, you get a coupon which reduces the cost of pay-per-view.”
The middleweight fight takes place at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, to be distributed live by HBO PPV.
Tecate has proven itself to be among the sport’s biggest supporters, with its PPV rebate program dating as far back as 2007. It has been on board for most of Manny Pacquiao’s pay-per-view appearances for the past several years, including his controversial points loss to Tim Bradley this past June.
Traditionally, the program calls for the purchase of a 12-pack or larger of Tecate beer prior to the event and for the receipt to be mailed in with the rebate form and cable or satellite bill showing proof of pay-per-view purchase.
Past deals have offered rebates as much as $25, which exceeds the average cost of even a case of Tecate. Their most recent rebate offer was their most customer-friendly yet, with consumers able to recover as much as $40 from the Bradley-Pacquiao pay-per-view-event.
The suggested retail price for the telecast has yet to be revealed, though ticket prices were confirmed. Tickets are available at $600, $400, $200, $100, $75, $50 and $25. They will go on sale Thursday at 12:00PM PT at the Thomas and Mack Center box office, or can be purchased online at www.unlvtickets.com .
“Because this is a fight fans’s fight, we have priced them accordingly,” noted Arum. “There are a lot of $25 tickets available. Thomas and Mack is a big place, we’re confident that we’re going to fill it up.”
The media continues tomorrow in Las Vegas, followed by media-only sessions held in New York and Mexico before both fighters return to training camp early next week.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com .
