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Whomever brings the biggest pot to the table is the A-side; whether it's because your TV broadcaster backs you with money, you've got a home venue that you draw massive gates to, or sponsors/private backer believe in you enough to put dollars behind you, he who brings the money is the A-side.
The Ward-Golovkin situation is complicated in that the parameter seem convoluted; Ward brings in more money at the gate (recent revelation of only bringing in $500k for the StubHub fight that they were puffing their chests out over should give pause), Golovkin has the seeming financial backing from HBO, but RocNation seems ready and willing to put more money behind Andre Ward than K2 is willing to do for Golovkin (Ward-Smith had sponsors out the wazoo for that fight).
weighing things objectively, you'd end up with:
-TV: HBO (starts off with backing Golovkin with $2m by default, after showing that they were willing to push that number up to $4m for the right fight, let alone the upside offered on PPV)
-venue: Oracle Arena (Golovkin only did $500k at Stubhub with 9,000 in the building, and I doubt that that number was way higher than that for the 12,000 that he put into The Forum; meanwhile Ward's already did $700k+ on 10,000 seats for the Dawson fight, like did a similar number on the 9,200 seats for the Smith fight, Golovkin is starting to have a following come out for him, and Oracle Arena is big enough to put 18,000 people into the building)
-promoter: Roc Nation (simply off of the extensive sponsors that they were able to bring to Ward-Smith, in addition to the connections that they have on the media side in NYC and LA, the two biggest media markets in the United States, and Ward's standing in the Bay Area, another top ten media market) w/K2 working the rest of the international deals (unsure of if it was just because Paul Smith was involved, but Andre Ward seems to have some interest in him coming from Sky Sports)
split the final take 50/50, between two fighters with no clear edge in any of the criteria.
K2 having the in with HBO likely means that this doesn't happen (K2 will compel a smaller gate in SoCal, less money from the UK rights fee without Sky, and fewer name sponsors for the actual fight).
Another sticky situation is the Frampton-Quigg discussions, in that, logically, the fight should be on Sky Sports(Quigg) in Northern Ireland (Frampton), with Matchroom Sports shopping the fight internationally (Quigg) and Frampton taking the 55/45 split, for being a full world champion; Team Frampton (particularly Barry McGuigan) won't take that because they want the fight on their own presumptive broadcaster for less money, with more of the pot going to Frampton.
As a simple rule of thumb, if one fighter bring the better TV money, the better gate money, and the better sponsorship money than the other fighter, the initial fighter is the "A-side".
note: tvb.org has a list, dated September 2014, that outlines and ranks the various American media markets; apparently not able to link it here.
The Ward-Golovkin situation is complicated in that the parameter seem convoluted; Ward brings in more money at the gate (recent revelation of only bringing in $500k for the StubHub fight that they were puffing their chests out over should give pause), Golovkin has the seeming financial backing from HBO, but RocNation seems ready and willing to put more money behind Andre Ward than K2 is willing to do for Golovkin (Ward-Smith had sponsors out the wazoo for that fight).
weighing things objectively, you'd end up with:
-TV: HBO (starts off with backing Golovkin with $2m by default, after showing that they were willing to push that number up to $4m for the right fight, let alone the upside offered on PPV)
-venue: Oracle Arena (Golovkin only did $500k at Stubhub with 9,000 in the building, and I doubt that that number was way higher than that for the 12,000 that he put into The Forum; meanwhile Ward's already did $700k+ on 10,000 seats for the Dawson fight, like did a similar number on the 9,200 seats for the Smith fight, Golovkin is starting to have a following come out for him, and Oracle Arena is big enough to put 18,000 people into the building)
-promoter: Roc Nation (simply off of the extensive sponsors that they were able to bring to Ward-Smith, in addition to the connections that they have on the media side in NYC and LA, the two biggest media markets in the United States, and Ward's standing in the Bay Area, another top ten media market) w/K2 working the rest of the international deals (unsure of if it was just because Paul Smith was involved, but Andre Ward seems to have some interest in him coming from Sky Sports)
split the final take 50/50, between two fighters with no clear edge in any of the criteria.
K2 having the in with HBO likely means that this doesn't happen (K2 will compel a smaller gate in SoCal, less money from the UK rights fee without Sky, and fewer name sponsors for the actual fight).
Another sticky situation is the Frampton-Quigg discussions, in that, logically, the fight should be on Sky Sports(Quigg) in Northern Ireland (Frampton), with Matchroom Sports shopping the fight internationally (Quigg) and Frampton taking the 55/45 split, for being a full world champion; Team Frampton (particularly Barry McGuigan) won't take that because they want the fight on their own presumptive broadcaster for less money, with more of the pot going to Frampton.
As a simple rule of thumb, if one fighter bring the better TV money, the better gate money, and the better sponsorship money than the other fighter, the initial fighter is the "A-side".
note: tvb.org has a list, dated September 2014, that outlines and ranks the various American media markets; apparently not able to link it here.
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