UFC 305 a sellout with records set to tumble as WA Government sends warning to potential scalpers

Ticket prices may have gone up but that did little to slow the appetite for UFC with tickets selling out in less than three hours of public release.

While pre-sale tickets went on sale Wednesday morning, with some tickets going at more than an eye-watering $5,000, tickets went on sale to the general public at 12pm Friday.

They lasted longer than the mere minutes it took for UFC 284 tickets to be exhausted, but just after 2pm, only limited tickets at $980 were left, which were quickly snapped up.

Like last year, prices between pre-sale and general-sale tickets rose again although not by nearly the 50 per cent that occurred for UFC 284.

However with the cheapest tickets going for more than $220 that represents a more than 90 per cent jump in base ticket prices since last year.

This means the Australian ticketing revenue record of $5,911,598 set by last year’s event is likely to be broken again and could see the RAC attendance record of 14,124, also owned by UFC 284, broken as well.

It comes as the WA Government sent a warning to UFC fans over ticket scalpers having fined 16 people for scalping Coldplay tickets last year.

In some cases, scalpers raised ticket prices by more than 500 per cent with the Government urging the public to report scalpers to Consumer Protection.

“Let this be a lesson for anyone thinking about reselling tickets to popular events at illegally inflated prices — it will catch up with you,” Commerce Minister Sue Ellery said.

“The 16 infringement notices from the Coldplay events show how seriously we continue to take breaches of WA’s ticket scalping laws, with $2,000 infringements able to be issued, or even higher penalties awaiting those who are taken to court.

“With popular sporting events, like the UFC 305 event, becoming increasingly common on the WA calendar, it’s timely to remind the public about the hazards of buying tickets through unauthorised sources. Not only do they risk paying far more than the tickets are worth, but they could also be turned away at the gate if the tickets are invalid or fake.”