Power to the people ... or Hearn and Warren

Er no. I'm asking for broadcasters to stop exploiting boxing fans at every opportunity and using the revenue we blindly give them to subsidise their other endeavours.

Running the sport into the ground for short term game isn't something I'm on board with and making anything and everything ppv is a sure fire way to do that IMO.

 

How is the sport being ran into the ground? Viewing figures are up. Attendances are up. Every possible metric by which you can measure the success of a sport suggests in the UK boxing is booming.

For the sport to continue to grow it needs money invested into it and a major revenue stream is PPV. As I said earlier, make Whyte v Chisora free to air. But where does the additional £9/10m come from that would have been generated by PPV? Would anyone in their right mind just give that up?

 

If you think charging an extra 20 quid ( and no doubt more in the near future) on top of a subscription any time a fight looks like it might be somewhat interesting is sustainable in the long term then I do not know what to tell you. It's my opinion that it isn't.

 

This is PPV?

 

I grant you it's not sustainable if it's every fight. But I'd suggest the numbers show it is sustainable at present, certainly on Sky. Six PPV fights last year, and they collectively sold over 4.5m. That's a massive number and can't really be ignored, especially when people are saying it's a crap business model. Surely you accept crap business models don't tend to generate upwards of £90m?

 

It's greedy and short termist and whilst I can see why that doesn't especially bother an individual promoter it bothers me as a fan of the sport who cares about where it is going.

Why you feel the need to defend the status quo so fervently is also a bit odd. I initially laughed at that thread thinking you actually work for Matchroom but now...

 

Ok - take your first point. Say you were asked in 2009 how you think the sport would be looking in ten years, what do you think you'd have said?

We've had a fairly solid stream (pun intended) of PPV's for decades now, and I'd argue the sport is as healthy as it's been for years in this country.

I don't need to fervently defend it. It just clearly works. The day sales fall off a cliff then we'll go back to cheaper options, but for now it's genuinely puzzling how some see the current business model as failing.

 

Most people on here are complaining about PPV as they are looking at it from their own point of view and wallets rather than a business model which it clearly is. The sport is currently booming and the PPV is making money and successful. People moan about certain fights not being PPV worthy but defining it is based on the number of people they think will buy it and not based on whether the fight is top level. If the people on here moaning about it were the promoters then they would be doing exactly the same thing.

 

Shill.

 

What about the fact that boxing has always been a working class sport.
Boxers have always been working class lads and the fans watching the bouts have always been working class people.
Some of the money been asked in recent times is putting it out of the reach of working class people.
Example, someone like myself who only really seriously follows one sport. I'm asked to pay a sky subs of which I might go a whole month sometimes of not getting any boxing on t.v, then on top of that I'm asked to fork out 20qid a pop for ppv x6 a year. Its the same on bt sports.
If I want to go and watch some of these fights live, some of the tickets prices are ridiculous.
Boxing is turning into a working class sport that is been put out of the reach of working class people.

 

Football is the same though. A working class sport which costs a fortune to follow. In fact, I can't think of any sport which is really cheap to follow in fairness.

Perhaps rather than comparisons with pizza we should be comparing boxing with other sports?

 

You're looking at this all wrong. Waiting for things to fall off a cliff before acting is short termist and leaves you in a horrible position once you're there that is much harder to recover from.

10 years ago I said the online advertising market needed to change beforw it fell off a cliff and was laughed out of my work. Now those same people pay through the nose for me to work as a consultant.

 

So you really think if we carry on with PPV's boxing will suffer? On what basis?

 

I don't really agree with some of your points you made and your looking at it from your own personal view. Yes I agree boxing is a working class sport but I don't think it's currently taking the working class people away. The PPV figures suggest that lots of working class people can afford to still pay the fees and that's why they are still doing it.
As far as you paying a sky subscription then PPV fees on top, are you seriously telling me you don't watch any other sky programmes. I doubt that is the case.
Boxing is like everything else in this world where prices go up. If it gets to a point where people stop buying the PPV Events because they can't afford it then things might change but currently we are no where near that situation at the moment.

 

Fair point.
But just to confirm, no I don't watch any other sky programmes, sports or other. Unless it's been boxing, I've probably watched about 10hours of t.v on the past 5yr.