By Keith Idec
The official release of the NBA’s 2016-17 regular-season schedule late Thursday afternoon could help expedite the announcement of Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena as the site of the highly anticipated November 19 pay-per-view main event between Sergey Kovalev and Andre Ward.
Sources with knowledge of the negotiations have informed BoxingScene.com that at least two high-ranking Jay Z confidantes within Roc Nation Sports have continued in recent days to push Madison Square Garden as a potential site for Kovalev-Ward.
The primary problem is that Madison Square Garden might not be available November 19 because the Knicks could have a home game scheduled for that night. The NHL schedule was released last month, however, and the Rangers do not have a home game scheduled for that night.
The Barclays Center also looms as a possibility, especially given Jay Z’s ties to the arena’s leadership, though there haven’t been any discussions about bringing the fight to the Brooklyn home of the NBA’s Nets and NHL’s Islanders. The Islanders aren’t scheduled to play at home November 19, but much like the Madison Square Garden/Knicks situation, the Nets could have a home game scheduled for that night.
Neither Madison Square Garden nor Barclays Center has concerts or entertainment events scheduled for November 19.
The NBA is expected to release its regular-season schedule Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET, later in the summer than usual. The November 19 date of Kovalev-Ward is inflexible, according to the aforementioned sources.
Meanwhile, Kathy Duva – whose company, Main Events, promotes Kovalev – firmly believes she has an existing deal with Roc Nation Sports & MGM Entertainment, parent company of T-Mobile Arena, to bring the fight there.
Duva acknowledged during an interview with BoxingScene.com earlier this week that Madison Square Garden was explored as a potential site in May, but that she and since-departed Roc Nation Sports executive David Itskowitch came to terms on an agreement in early June for the brand-new T-Mobile Arena to be the site of the 12-round fight for Kovalev’s IBF, WBA and WBO light heavyweight titles. She said, too, that it is very common in boxing for final site contracts to go unsigned right up until a fight takes place once a written agreement is in place.
Kovalev-Ward tickets were supposed to go on sale Friday, but those plans were at least temporarily placed on hold until the site issue is resolved.
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
