Touts have attempted to cash in on Muhammad Ali’s funeral by selling free tickets for a profit.
The legendary boxer passed away on Friday in a Phoenix hospital after suffering a septic shock due to unspecified natural causes. Earlier in the week he had been admitted to hospital with a respiratory condition. Ali, who won three world heavyweight titles during his boxing career, had fought Parkinson’s disease for 30 years.
Ali’s funeral will take place on Thursday and Friday in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky. The Muslim prayer service will take place on Thursday, where 14,000 free tickets have been made available to the public. On Friday, a memorial service and funeral procession will take place where 15,000 tickets were available.
Tickets ran out after about an hour when they were released to eager fans, some of whom had queued overnight, Wednesday morning. It was not long until reports soon surfaced of touts looking to exploit the event.
Ali’s family spokesperson, Bob Gunnel, said: “I’m personally disgusted and amazed that someone would try to profit off Muhammad Ali’s memorial service.
“Obviously it’s very disappointing that someone would try to turn a buck and make a dollar off of this solemn service to our great city hero and champion, Muhammad Ali.
“I haven’t discussed this with the family because they have enough to worry about right now, but I’m sure they would be extremely disappointed,” he said.
The tickets were reportedly available on sites including Craigslist where one was asking for payments of $100 (£69.10) per ticket, reports the New York Daily News.
Other users of Craigslist were willingly offering to pay a price for a ticket.
Former British world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis and the actor Will Smith, who portrayed Ali in the 2001 film, will be pallbearers at Friday’s service.
Additional reporting by Associated Press.
