I don't think people would mind prices going up if the quality of the product was consistent, but it's not. For your tenner PPV money around the turn of the century you would get three world title fights, then cross to the states for several more which we wouldn't get to see otherwise. Good, well matched ones as well (Calzaghe-Reid, DLH-Quartey same night, Woodhall, Cantwell, Morales on as well). Nowadays you get to see Cleverley-Bellew or Khan-Prescott, with a load of domestic level fighters on the undercard. Or at best, some other matchroom champs against 50-1 underdogs.
Imagine thinking that the price won't keep-on-a rising if the "numbers" are high enough as well. How much is too much? You'd be surprised if the PR push is hard enough I reckon and as long as streams remain mediocre and buffering. That's a good enough reason not to buy them. I would be astounded if the Sky/Matchroom money men weren't studying spreadsheets and waiting for a uniform amount of PPV buyers over the course of X amount of time before deciding to add a cheeky £3-£5 to it. You can be 100% guaranteed they have consistent figures in mind and then they'll bump it up and so the cycle will continue. Human desires re resources are very predictable. Fighters who've had PPV paydays once, won't want to fight without it again. Thereby creating a culture of boxers used to fat paycheques and refusing to engage for anything less for immediate and long term financial reasons i.e. if they take a backward step pay wise it will be hard to renegotiate going forward and damage their status. Which will cause non-PPV fighters to demand or clamour for the same. And so on and so on. It's literally just happened with Whyte as a working example.
Only a matter of time now before the price goes up, it will be interesting if Eddie and his team devise an elaborate excuse as to why the price is going up or if they'll just do it and hope the mugs don't notice which they probably won't. It's a question of when not if.
In fairness, Frank and anyone else doing PPV will want it as well but yeah agreed. Will probably be along the lines of the old letters I used to get from BT literally quarter informing of a price hike "in order to keep our network to the very best standard" etc. etc. Nothing to do with shareholder dividends and executive bonuses, no siree bob. I've said this before but I'm surprised a sliding scale of PPV's haven't been crowbarred in yet. E.g., you pay more for an AJ/"A-side" fight and say 25% less for a lesser draw night. Then the fun will really start as fighters will all clamour to prove they're worthy of the higher rate. It's factors like this that should put people off of PPV, but when the streams are so **** (let's be honest they are) then I can see why people buy em' and I can also see why they are used from a business POV.
£500k per week for average footballer at Man Utd and PPV millions paid out to mediocre puddings Whyte, Chisora, Bellew, Crippled Haye etc There must come a time when people ask - WTF is going on here
If people were willing to pay a score to see Whyte vs Chisora in a non title fight, Eddie has every right really to charge £50 for AJ vs anyone with a pulse.
Incredible price for the faded v non elite - surely not many USA mugths pay for that fight!!! One of those fights that you would not lose much sleep if you missed it - bit like Burnley v Brighton.
Come 2020 Katie Taylor will be full time PPV main event attraction lol, and you will all be marvelling at her talents like typical matchroom groupies
Ten years ago people complained about average footballers being paid 250k and wondered about PPV money being paid to Prescott, Harrison, Salita and Jennings. People still watch football and boxing is more popular than ever. See, I'd understand the PPV moaning if it was demonstrably doing damage to the sport. But I just don't see how that is happening.
People ie genuine boxing fans are concerned about being priced out of watching the sport they follow and have done for many years similar to how football has. You can say it's only 20 quid or less than a pizza all you want but that 20 pound on top of a subscription service that people already pay a pretty penny for could be enough to deter people from buying if they can't afford it and need to pay a bill I'm not sure if it's dananing the sport but I do know it's depriving some people of watching by legal means Do the promoters or people with no real dependants care? No and nor do I expect them to esp as long as there is a market chucking 20 pound at regular matches The bubble will burst though and that's when the sport might take a hit When that happens promoters will be looking to the long time fans to keep their business afloat Couldn't blame them by that point if they stick 2 fingers up and say no thanks
The latter point doesn't really happen though. Let's say the bubble really did burst and there was no casual demand whatsoever for PPV's. We were back to 15k buying Brook v Jennings type fights and promoters (and venues) making a loss. All of a sudden purses drop, revenue slips and fights are free to air. You, as a boxing fan, are surely still going to watch?
I hate PPV for mediocre cards - I'm not adverse to paying for a card with a strong headline attraction and robust undercard. Everything else can kiss my ring. I refuse to pay for it. DeGale vs Eubank Jnr is an absolute joke of a PPV. A joke.
The key should be competitive fights on the undercard ! None of these 1/100 shots and Nextgen fighters that we are continously fed.
Undercards mean very little unfortunately. You can go to live fights and realise this. Utterly empty venues for the majority of the undercard, then filling up when the main event starts. I mean, how many people would, if Joshua Wilder had a terrible undercard, think 'the undercard is rubbish - I'm not paying.' Probably less than one percent of the audience, if that. In business terms it's just utterly insignificant.
