Evaluating Potential Sites for the Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather Fight

Now that negotiations for a Manny Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight have begun in earnest, it's only natural to briefly stop wondering about whether or not it will get done and start considering where it will take place.

The reflex action is to say it will be held in one of the Las Vegas casinos, and it's true that Sin City is still the fight capital of the world. But this is no ordinary boxing match, and the usual rules simply don't apply.

It's widely believed Pacquiao-Mayweather will shatter pay-per-view records, creating hefty paydays for both fighters regardless of the final negotiated split. Still, the PPV take is just one part of the overall revenue picture, and the people who put the fight together are going to want to maximize the live gate as well.

A normal boxing venue like the MGM Grand would sell out easily, even with high ticket prices. Why settle for around 17,000 fans, though, when a fight of this magnitude could sell many more tickets on top of that?

Staging the fight of the decade (and yes, 2010 i

s the final year of the decade we're in, not the first year of the next one) requires thinking outside of the box. Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Pacquiao promoter Bob Arum is already fielding calls from some surprising locales.

There's no telling where the fight will eventually end up at this early stage, but the speculation is part of the fun. Here's a look at the pros and cons for four venues that have already been mentioned in the mainstream sports media as potential landing spots for Pacquiao-Mayweather:

Proposed Outdoor Stadium—Las Vegas

What to do when the perfect facility to hold the fight doesn't exist? Build it, of course.

Casino mogul Steve Wynn is said to have floated the idea of building a 30,000-seat outdoor stadium to host the bout, and that rumor has been picking up steam. Iole says the Las Vegas officials are brainstorming ways to keep the fight on the Strip, with the former site of the New Frontier looking like the perfect amount of empty real estate.

Since Mayweather calls Las Vegas home and Pacquiao has fought there frequently, the city would seem to be the early front-runner. Hotel rooms certainly wouldn't be a problem, especially with MGM's massive CityCenter set to open soon.

The big obstacle could be the calendar. To have the fight take place in the first half of 2010, the stadium would have to be constructed in a matter of months. Even for a temporary facility, that's not a lot of time, so Vegas needs to get cracking to avoid having another city lure the fight elsewhere with the promise of more seats.

Yankee Stadium—New York

Talk about the newest incarnation of the "House that Ruth Built" as a suitable spot for Pacquiao-Mayweather began back when Manny was doing his press tour for his bout with Miguel Cotto. It's precursor saw the likes of Muhammad Ali, Ray Robinson, and Joe Louis all perform within its confines, so in a sense it would be returning the sport to its roots.

Capacity wouldn't be a problem thanks to 50,000-plus seats. The stadium just opened this past April, so few comparable facilities can match it in terms of amenities. That's important since large corporations are reportedly considering sponsoring the fight.

Spring or early summer weather could be an issue, at least for the fans since the ring can be covered. The larger question would be location, as Mayweather has fought only a few times on the East Coast (in Atlantic City, most recently against the late Arturo Gatti in 2005), and Pacquiao has been an exclusively Western U.S. attraction, where he's closer to his Filipino fan base.

There's little doubt that people would travel to Yankee Stadium and fill it up, but there's something to be said for sticking with what works. Here's a case where the romantic notion of putting on the fight in New York might be outweighed by the logistics.

Cowboys Stadium—Arlington, TX

Jerry Jones didn't spend $1.3 billion just to host eight Dallas Cowboys home games a year. The largest domed stadium in the world would be the grandest stage possible for what could be the biggest boxing match ever, and that's just the kind of show Jones would want to put on.

Well over 100,000 people could pack the ultra-modern facility, and even fans in the nosebleed sections would have great views of the action. That's because the stadium also boasts massive HD screens that hang over the field, which were the subject of intense scrutiny before the NFL season but would come in extremely handy for boxing purposes.

Texas has been the site of a number of world championship bouts over the years, but Pacquiao-Mayweather would blow all of the previous ones away. Cowboys Stadium is an intriguing option to play host, and one worth keeping an eye on if reports that its representatives have already reached out to Top Rank turn out to be true.

Superdome—New Orleans

Iole's column mentions that NOLA is trying to get into the Pacquiao-Mayweather derby, enlisting help from the likes of James Carville to pull it off. It's not a place that normally comes to mind when the sweet science is discussed, but the Superdome is certainly large enough (it should hold well over 70,000 configured for a boxing match) and has hosted numerous prominent sporting events in the past.

New Orleans is accustomed to entertaining tourists, and with the French Quarter, Bourbon Street and casinos around, it would provide some of the same atmosphere as Las Vegas. There's no reason to think fans of both fighters wouldn't be willing to travel there.

However, the Superdome is older than the other stadiums on this list and a multi-million dollar renovation plan to return it to state-of-the-art status won't be complete until 2011.

That would seem to make it a big underdog to host the fight, but if there's one thing that New Orleans has proven, it's that you can never count the city out.

Nick Tylwalk is the editor and co-founder of BoxingWatchers.com . Follow his Twitter feed @Nick_Tylwalk.