Pacquiao Show Sacked

Boxer Manny Pacquiao’s fists of fury can draw more than 45,000 people to a fight at Cowboys Stadium, but his pull outside the ring as a musician is a little less of a knockout.

It’s undeniable the welterweight fighter’s got star power, and has tested the waters as an actor, politician and singer, scoring two platinum albums in the Philippines.
That was enough for one promoter in Hawaii, who booked Pacquiao for a concert with his MP band at the Waikiki Shell.

Dubbed the “Manny Pacquiao Live in Hawaii Concert Celebration,” the show was set to feature several musicians, magicians, dancers and DJs, then a one-hour performance by Pacquiao followed by the giveaway of an autographed replica of his IBO light welterweight championship belt, the Honolulu Advertiser reported.

But with only days till the show, Island Fire Productions pulled the plug on the performance citing low ticket sales.

Pacquiao’s concert had only moved 603 tickets, and Island Fire’s Ryan Chang told the paper he couldn’t take the risk.

“The Shell holds about 8,500 people and we only needed to sell about 2,500 tickets to break even and we would have been happy,” Chang said. “But I can’t risk losing that much of our investors’ money on walkups and late sales this week. A good walkup is about 500 people. As it stands I’ll be taking about a $50,000 loss.”

Tickets for the concert reportedly ranged from $25 to $150.