Report Of Discount Tickets Denied

by Bernard Fernandez, Daily News Sports Writer
Posted: December 14, 1995

If there are any fistfights in the stands Saturday night in the CoreStates Spectrum, it won't be because someone discovered his seat cost eight times that of his neighbor's.

Michael Marley, publicist for Don King Productions, refuted a Scott Palmer report on Channel 6's 5 p.m. "Action News" broadcast yesterday that ticket prices for Saturday's Mike Tyson-Buster Mathis Jr. fight at the Spectrum were being drastically reduced. Palmer, relating details of a conversation he'd had with Jimmy Binns, Philadelphia-based general counsel for the World Boxing Association, said $400 seats would be slashed to $50 in an effort to boost attendance. Tickets in other price ranges also would be discounted, Palmer said.

Contacted by the Daily News, Marley said that tickets prices would not be

cut and that Palmer's report was in error.

"I talked to Don King and he doesn't know anything about it," Marley said of the report, which, of course, created a stir among ticketholders and would- be ticketholders hoping to catch a bargain. "This is an event staged by Don King Productions. Don sets the prices, and if Don says it isn't so, it isn't so."

Binns said his comments to Palmer were misconstrued.

"I told Scott the mayor's office had been looking at ways to make the fight more accessible to Philadelphians," Binns said. "The idea of making tickets more affordable is great, but it just won't work in this case."

According to Binns, King distributed 1,000 free tickets to underprivileged children and another 1,000 tickets would go to disabled children and their chaperones.

"Everyone else will just have to pay the face value of the tickets," Binns said.

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