The Empty Seat Dilemma: Why So Many Top Fighters Can’t Sell Tickets

[Horus]

African American Draws

Roy Jones jr: "Pensacola, in the house"
Jermain Taylor: "I doing this for Arkansas"
Devon Alexander: "Im bringin home to the Lou"
Andre Ward: "I am trying to show the world what Oakland has here"
Cory Spinks: " St. Louis we made it"
Floyd Mayweather: "Michigan, is my home, all the best come from there."

All these fighters sold out their hometowns, and are draws in their hometown.

What were their SUCCESS MODEL?

[ИATAS]

First off, you have to build a fanbase somewhere. See Fernando Guerrero as a good example.

Second, you have to have the event at the right venue. Vegas, the Staples Center, big places like that are only going to work for big time fighters. Small cities is where the market is at.

Perfect example is Friday Night Fights a couple weeks ago when Shumenov fought in Vegas. Outdoors. in 100 degree weather. There were like 28 people in the seats. Terrible, just terrible.

Compare that to a place like Tacoma, WA, where every card is a sell out here (couple thousand) and that's for straight up bums an non-televised events. If Shumenov or anyone like that would come, add to that ESPN/Showtime/HBO, it's a sell out guaranteed. Looks good on TV because the seats are full and the atmosphere is electric ("oohs" and "awes" after every punch). And I know there are tons of small towns just like this across the country.

So it's about location and building a fanbase. Plain & simple.

[Dick Buffman]

The Hauser critique still stands. And will always stand.

Until HBO stops doing what its doing, it will ruin the sport completely. Perhaps an HBO boycott is in order, maybe then they'd change their methods.

[2501]

African American Draws

Roy Jones jr: "Pensacola, in the house"
Jermain Taylor: "I doing this for Arkansas"
Devon Alexander: "Im bringin home to the Lou"
Andre Ward: "I am trying to show the world what Oakland has here"
Cory Spinks: " St. Louis we made it"
Floyd Mayweather: "Michigan, is my home, all the best come from there."

All these fighters sold out their hometowns, and are draws in their hometown.

What were their SUCCESS MODEL?

They stayed in a Holiday Day Inn?

[Dick Buffman]

African American Draws

Roy Jones jr: "Pensacola, in the house"
Jermain Taylor: "I doing this for Arkansas"
Devon Alexander: "Im bringin home to the Lou"
Andre Ward: "I am trying to show the world what Oakland has here"
Cory Spinks: " St. Louis we made it"
Floyd Mayweather: "Michigan, is my home, all the best come from there."

All these fighters sold out their hometowns, and are draws in their hometown.

What were their SUCCESS MODEL?

Hbo.

None of those guys were built up in any grass roots way. Without Hbo, they are busts.

[KickAzz]

dawson, berto, paul williams, bradley... they can't get any fans because mayweather sucks up all the african american fight fans. these guys are playing second fiddle to mayweather, same as when rjj was the man, mayweather couldn't get any press. if pwill, berto, bradley want to become more high profile, they gotta challenge mayweather.

the same thing is happening with nonito. all the pinoy fans gravitate towards pacquiao so nonito is living in pac's shadow.

[Horus]

They stayed in a Holiday Day Inn?

lol..

[Horus]

Hbo.

None of those guys were built up in any grass roots way. Without Hbo, they are busts.

I guess thats why Berto,Williams,Martinez,Bradley are all draws right?

[joe strong]

The Problems.

1. The fighters normally fight 2x a year or less. By the time the general public and fans fet to know the boxer he is gone for another 6 months or more.

2. Venues and Location. Normally the venue is out of place. Fighters need to fight in there own backyard more and also in realistic venues. Why book the Mandalay Bay Arena when you know that BHOP vs RJJ isnt going to sell 25% of capacity.

3. African American fighters lately have been the slick boxers not the aggresive type that fans want to see. Don't get me wrong I enjoy watching Floyd, Alexander, Bradley, Pwill, Dawson, and Berto but there styles aren't exactly go for the KO or kill like the types of Pacquiao, Angulo, Arthur Abraham, Froch, or Donaire.

4. More Free TV exposure. Put the fights back on regular basic TV. I know that ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX can afford these fights. Especially when they pay Billions for other TV rights. I believe if you have a good fight card every week with 2 quality fights on free TV the fan base will not only grow but excel. Look at MMA's relationship with HDNET, ****e TV, NBC.

5. Less Belts, Less greedy Promoters, and HBO and Showtime to take a stand.
Im tired of hearing this is a championship fight when there is basically 8 belts in 15 weight divisions means we have 120 Champions. Cmmon Man.

6. Stop overpricing these tickets. Why does some1 have to pay $50 to sit in nosebleed seats for a crap fight. I understand when its a PPV or a big fight the demand goes up for tickets so should the price of the ticket. But don't complain about having a empty arena when you are outpricing your audience. Example: I took my wife and kids to there 1st boxing event Arreola vs Adamek and Angulo vs Julio. 4 tickets in average seats 4 x $75= $300 +20 paking + around $80 for food and drinks. It cost me $400 to go to a good card. I don't believe its realistic to think that the average US family in this economy are willing to pay $400 to a boxing event when they can go to a baseball event for a third of that cost.

last year tye fields had his edmonton debut.he fought nicolai firtha in an entertaining fight.he had a nice knockout in the 6th round.the undercard had several canadian title holders & the co-feature was cisse salif vs jason gavern.playboy centerfold for a ringcard girl & gerry cooney was a special guest who mingled with the crowd all night.big john maccarthy was one of the referees.it was sold out with a 2000 capacity & tickets were $50 each...good domestic card featuring 4 solid journeyman heavyweights & a mix of canadian talent.we have a decent domestic scene where other events at the palace banquet hall(500 capacity)take place.tickets are usually $30-40.fields fought here once & other local & canadian champs fight here.the wbc continental americas cw title fight was held here,tye fields vs galen brown was here,& a cancelled fight between local heavyweight sheldon hinton & zack page was to be here.the fights are always soldout.people need to see their local fighters on a regular basis to build a fan base.

[Imhotep]

It’s hard to imagine that there’s an elephant in the room in the boxing business, where everything is either shoved down your throat or kept hidden like a secret of national importance, but there is one, and it’s this: Some of the best fighters in the world couldn’t draw flies to a garbage dump, to use the phrase, more or less, that Don King in better days once employed to describe the appeal of Evander Holyfield.

Many fight fans satisfy their fix watching fights on HBO or Showtime or ESPN, and as a result frequently don’t notice that the fighters they see time after time after time are playing to largely empty rooms in near-abandoned casinos. And it’s not just the journeymen or the neophytes or the guys on their way down — it’s guys you know and have seen a bunch of times.

It’s Paul Williams, who could sell out entire stadiums if you could charge his fans extra seats for their dedication to him, but as it is now couldn’t fill a phone booth if you spotted him John Goodman. According to THE RING, Williams is the seventh best fighter in the world, pound-for-pound.

The undefeated Chad Dawson, THE RING’S No. 1-rated light heavyweight who fights Jean Pascal for the magazine’s vacant 175-pound title on Saturday, isn’t much better than Williams when it comes to putting butts in seats. Dawson is No. 6 in THE RING’S pound-for-ound ratings.

There are others in similar boats: the excellent, undefeated Tim Bradley, fast becoming a star in the sport but who sells tickets like Wladimir Klitschko takes chances; Nonito Donaire, one of the best little men on the planet but one who would draw more live spectators as a horse jockey than a fighter; Andre Berto, maybe the best young 147-pounder in the game who couldn’t wrangle even the Haitian disaster into a higher profile, though not for lack of trying; and top-ranked cruiserweight Steve Cunningham, who said to hell with it and took his business to Europe, thank you very much.

Some of this has to do with fighting style. Most of these guys are boxers or boxer-punchers. And we all know who the sport’s biggest ticket sellers always have been. Think Dempsey. Think Louis and Marciano. Think Tyson. Scientists are anathema to the masses. Veterans recall that legendary matchmaker Teddy Brenner once was asked why he wouldn’t put the highly cerebral light heavyweight champion Harold Johnson on television.

Brenner is purported to have responded, “Harold Johnson represents perfection in the art of boxing, and there is no room in this world for perfection.”

Few would call any of today’s fighters perfect, but certainly they don’t have the style most fans find most appealing.

“People want to see knockouts, beat’em-down boxers, like my guy Alfredo Angulo,” Mike Criscio, who manages Dawson and Angulo, told THE RING. “Alfredo can sell 10 times as many tickets as Chad can because he goes out there and tries to take somebody’s head off, whereas Chad is more of a boxer than a big puncher.”

Fair enough. But Floyd Mayweather, whose style is so measured he makes most other fighters look like Luis Firpo in comparison, is, along with Manny Pacquiao, the biggest pay-per-view star in the business. Criscio said it’s because of how hard Mayweather has worked to make himself a star.

“Floyd Mayweather has a name. He built his name. He goes everywhere, where Chad, for instance, is more humble and he doesn’t like to show up at a lot of things. He’s more laid back where Floyd is more in your face,” Criscio said. “And I think Floyd’s doing it right. I think the more people that know you, the more tickets you’re going to sell. The more people know who you are, the better it is. It’s like pulling teeth sometimes with Chad to get him to go places.”

Criscio said all these guys who are good fighters have one thing in common: relatively passive personalities. And that hurts them.

The answer is simple:Its mainly cause most boxing fans are nationalistic and a-lot are racist.I know for a fact cause i read the racist comments on message boards,website Articles,this website with the *******s and youtube.



Why do you think a black fighter like Floyd had to act like an ******* to gain alot of fans but fighters like Delahoya,Pavlik,Pacquiao can be as humble as pie and sell alot of tickets.


That`s why a fighter like Paul Willaims have an exciting style put can`t put asses in seats.

MMA became huge because its mostly whites fighting winning.

Who ever wrote this article is either in denial or just plain ******.