Boxing legend Muhammad Ali (L) and wife Lonnie Ali appear onstage during the Keep Memory Alive foundation’s “Power of Love Gala” celebrating Muhammad Ali’s 70th birthday in 2012. (Getty)
Thousands of people will be attending Muhammad Ali’s funeral on Friday afternoon. But you can only attend if you have a free ticket. Are any still available?
Unfortunately, tickets are no longer available for Muhammad Ali’s funeral. On Wednesday, 15,000 free tickets were made available, but the venue ran out of tickets within an hour. The funeral is going to be held at the KFC YUM! sports arena in Louisville, which seats 22,000 people.
After all the tickets were given away, scalpers then went online, trying to make a profit by selling their free tickets on sites such as Craigslist. But if you want to keep with the spirit of what Ali wanted for his funeral, you won’t look to buy a free ticket for $250 or more. Ali’s family has denounced the scalpers and scalping tickets is illegal in Kentucky.
Family spokesman Bob Gunnell said about the scalpers: “It’s deplorable that some people are trying to profit off of the solemn service as we celebrate the life of Muhammad Ali.”
Ali wanted his funeral to be open to the public, but the sports arena only holds 22,000 people, which is why they are only allowing people inside who have a ticket.
If you are in the area and were unable to get a ticket, you can still watch the funeral on livestream online (we will post a link on Friday morning) or you can join a large group of people at Belvedere, a downtown park nearby that can accommodate more than 10,000, the Courier-Journal reported. They will have big screen TVs set up there so you can watch the funeral live with a group of Ali’s fans.