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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, December 10, 2009

Boxing: Staples offers $20 million for Pacquiao-Mayweather bout


By Lance Pugmire
Los Angeles Times

Staples Center has made a guaranteed $20-million offer to host the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Jr. mega-fight that has been tentatively agreed on by the boxers to be fought on March 13.

�This is the biggest boxing event ever, and we�re prepared to step up in a big way,� said Dan Beckerman, chief financial officer for AEG, which runs Staples Center.
Pacquiao and Mayweather have not officially agreed to the fight, but their promoters are already looking to secure a site for the lucrative bout that is the talk of the boxing community.
Beckerman said his pitch to Mayweather�s promoter Richard Schaefer and Pacquiao�s promoter Bob Arum is to �activate the entire LA Live campus� in downtown Los Angeles on fight week.
The new JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels would serve as media headquarters, a fan-fest would be staged at Nokia Plaza, a large closed-circuit audience could watch the bout at Nokia Theatre and 20,000 would fill Staples Center, Beckerman said.
�We know there�s interest in this fight across the world, but we�re very interested and honored to make the most impressive offer possible,� Beckerman said. �It�s our biggest guarantee ever, and we hope it wins the day. We wanted to push as far and as hard as we could.�
Schaefer, chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, which counts AEG as a partner, declined to immediately comment on any site deals. He canceled a planned trip to tour Cowboys Stadium, which has been considered as a possible fight site, on Wednesday.
Schaefer declined to say the Dallas site deal was dead. �I don�t need to tour any facilities. I�m a numbers guy. Numbers transmit over the fax machine as well as they do in person, and I�ve yet to see any numbers from them. I�m told things are bigger in Texas, but Staples has stepped up and presented us the numbers. Money talks,� he said.
However, one of the barriers to staging the bout in California, promoters say, are the state taxes required from the boxers � payments not required in Nevada and Texas. �That�s certainly a factor in the overall economics, and one thing we�d have to overcome,� Beckerman said.