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by David P. Greisman - The fight has sold out. The pay-per-view will pull in tens of millions of dollars. Closed-circuit broadcasts and international airings will only add to that total.
The bout between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley is already a guaranteed commercial success weeks before it takes place. It was guaranteed to be a commercial success from the moment it was announced.
It could be so much more.
It won’t be, not when promoters have learned how to make a fight into an event, how to make an event profitable, how to stick to that formula and then to streamline that formula down until doing well is good enough.
Pacquiao alone can sell a fight. He needn’t be the lone selling point.
The fight has sold out largely on Pacquiao’s name, on his ability and accomplishments – and especially thanks to the bout’s location.
Las Vegas thrives on the big show. Casinos reserve the top tiers of tickets for their high rollers. Brokers scalp seats to those willing to dish out dollars. And then fans take flights and make road trips to Sin City, booking hotels and planning days of debauchery that will culminate in watching two people punch each other.
The fight should be one of the main selling points. At this point – for a bout involving an all-time great in Pacquiao and a future Hall of Fame inductee in Mosley – the aspects of the actual fight are barely being mentioned.
We are less than two weeks away, and the buzz is closer to inaudible than it is to being palpable.
Even the most major marketing mechanism is falling short. [Click Here To Read More]
The bout between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley is already a guaranteed commercial success weeks before it takes place. It was guaranteed to be a commercial success from the moment it was announced.
It could be so much more.
It won’t be, not when promoters have learned how to make a fight into an event, how to make an event profitable, how to stick to that formula and then to streamline that formula down until doing well is good enough.
Pacquiao alone can sell a fight. He needn’t be the lone selling point.
The fight has sold out largely on Pacquiao’s name, on his ability and accomplishments – and especially thanks to the bout’s location.
Las Vegas thrives on the big show. Casinos reserve the top tiers of tickets for their high rollers. Brokers scalp seats to those willing to dish out dollars. And then fans take flights and make road trips to Sin City, booking hotels and planning days of debauchery that will culminate in watching two people punch each other.
The fight should be one of the main selling points. At this point – for a bout involving an all-time great in Pacquiao and a future Hall of Fame inductee in Mosley – the aspects of the actual fight are barely being mentioned.
We are less than two weeks away, and the buzz is closer to inaudible than it is to being palpable.
Even the most major marketing mechanism is falling short. [Click Here To Read More]
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