Jimmy had sold a lot of tickets for the show

English translation: see explanation

05:45 Nov 19, 2016

English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
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English term or phrase: Jimmy had sold a lot of tickets for the show

Hello everyone,

John Kavanagh writes in his book:

"But it was a bad night for SBG. Some of my guys were slaughtered, and the show itself was a bit of a catastrophe. Occasionally, even at the very highest level, you get those nights when the fights don’t deliver, the crowd are restless and it’s a soundtrack of jeers instead of cheers. Rings was one of those. The low point of the night came with the main event. Rodney Moore from Northern Ireland was due to fight a guy called Jimmy Curran, who was a noted kick‑boxer from Dublin, although he didn’t really have any MMA experience. Jimmy had sold a lot of tickets for the show, so in many ways he was the star attraction."

Well, my question may seem very easy but still: Does the phrase in question really mean that the fighter worked as a sales person selling tickets? Or does it mean that people bought many tickets because of his participation in the show?

Thank you.

Mikhail Korolev KudoZ activity Questions: 2414 (none open) (10 closed without grading) Answers: 130
Local time: 21:01

Selected answer:see explanation

Explanation:
Jimmy was the attraction.

However, it is possible that Jimmy also had to sell tickets. I don't know if this practice was common for boxers in those days but it is common for musicians these days. Part (or all) of their pay for the show comes from having to buy a certain number of tickets at a discount and then selling these tickets at full price. It's called "pay to play".

If this wasn't the case, how did they know how many people had come to see Jimmy? You can get a rough idea but it's hard to get any kind of exact figure.

Selected response from:

Terry Richards
France
Local time: 20:01

Grading comment

Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Terry.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

3 +8

see explanation

Terry Richards

4 +3

Многие купили билеты, чтобы посмотреть на Джимми.

FreEditor

Summary of reference entries provided

Fighters selling tickets

Charles Davis

Answers

33 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

jimmy had sold a lot of tickets for the show Многие купили билеты, чтобы посмотреть на Джимми.

Explanation:
Obviously Jimmy was the attraction, not a ticket seller.

FreEditor
Uzbekistan
Local time: 23:01
Works in field
Native speaker of:

Russian,

Uzbek

2 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +8

jimmy had sold a lot of tickets for the show

see explanation

Terry Richards
France
Local time: 20:01
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 120

Grading comment

Many thanks to everyone.
Thank you, Terry.

Reference comments

4 hrs peer agreement (net): +4

Reference: Fighters selling tickets

Reference information:
In boxing and other forms of fighting at amateur and lower professional level, it seems to be common practice for the fighters themselves to sell tickets, that is, not just to be the reason why people buy them but actually to sell them. In practice this probably means promote sales to family, friends and friends of friends. If Jimmy had sold a lot of tickets he would be the attraction because many of the ticket-holders would be there because they knew him.

"The majority of tickets are still sold through fighters (about 90%) that said with the right growth in a couple more years I would hope to be at the level where Irish MMA promoters are not reliant on pro fighters selling tickets to make an event work"
https://www.boards.ie/b/thread/2056096693/12

Charles Davis
Spain
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 572

Note to reference poster

Asker: Thank you, Charles.

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