Extra tickets made available for UFC 129 “St. Pierre vs. Shields” were not available for long, as the promotion announced on Saturday that the event has sold out with 55,000 tickets purchased.
Tickets initially went on sale Thursday and were only available to subscribing members of the UFC Fight Club. Originally set up to accommodate 42,000 spectators, the Rogers Centre sold out on the first day of sales. Due to the high demand, the UFC reconfigured the seating layout to house another 13,000 fans, and the public responded, bringing the grand total of tickets sold to 55,000.
UFC officials have mentioned that multiple large video monitors will be available to attendees in the upper levels to enhance the viewing experience.
The event is expected to easily break both UFC attendance and live gate records. The promotion’s previous highs in each of those categories came at UFC 124 and UFC 66, respectively. UFC 124, headlined by St. Pierre’s recent title defense against Josh Koscheck, netted 23,152 spectators. Four years earlier, Chuck Liddell defended his light heavyweight strap in a rematch with Tito Ortiz at UFC 66, and the promotion earned a live gate of $5.4 million.