Boxing viewing figures in the UK

we are talking about British title fights. How many people travel over half an hour to see Stuart Hall vs John Donnelly? Has there been a single Saturday Fight Night in an arena bigger than 2000 this year? Only Burns world title fight.

Also how many people show to up watch Darts on a wednesday? how many go to watch Man United at Old Trafford compared to a saturday. How many watch Take That at the 02 on a monday night??

you can't even drink in the stands at boxing anyway.

 

I would be surprised if the attendances for any of the fights this year have gone over much more than a thousand. Dont you think that is sad? Boxing is live entertainment best enjoyed in the flesh the atmosphere, the buzz of the fight.

Travelling is an important part of it though people are less prepared to travel on a weeknight they have other commitments. When people flock to see Take That or Man U on a wed or Mon its a marquee event this is a British title not a marquee event.

You can drink in some places a the boxing at the Echo you could incidentally the Echo was able to draw 5000 for a British title fight with a Commonwealth as support on a FFN. Big crowds are doable.

 

As bad as the line up on Sky has been so far this year, those numbers are shocking. Are the Ringside numbers available? I assume it doesn't register

 

Ringside wont register its only the top 10 of the week that register per channel

 

is Premier League Darts a marquee event. What about Barnet vs Gillingham which got 2500 on a tuesday a few weeks ago.

if promoters want saturday nights provide world class boxing.

 

Ok fair enough but the point is boxing attendances are poor anyway we want to give them every chance we can thats means at the best times for people to be able to make itto increase attendances.

Rob out of interest do you have any ideas as to increasing attendances in general at boxing matches?

 

Royalt where do you get a Premier Legue ticket for £35. must be a northener.

Tickets to expensive, to many un competitive fights. Its a long process the the publics faith in boxing is pretty much gone. boxing just isn't cool anymore. you need to take everything the UFC is doing right, which is everything outside of the ring action, and do it.

Fighters need to be characters. We won't need thick ****s like Matthew Hall who can barley strong a sentence together. Mike Tyson was the highest earning fighter in the sports history for 2 reason. His exciting style and his out of the ring contoversies.

I am not asking Stephen Smith to **** someone tonight to build his fight with John Simpson.....but tell me how your gonna **** him up, beat his face in.

Boxing has tried to market itself as a noble sweet science for to many years. people just wanna see two guys beat each other up.

 

The pricing issue is a tough one im pretty sure that there is little difference between take up on £35-£25 tickets and therefore the advantages gained are minimal. I reckon its only when you start getting into the £20 and below range that it would make a real difference but then you are looking to have to do almost double which means more marketing ultimately so its a tough one.

I agree boxing shows are entertainment and i dont think enough is being done to entertain in some cases but this is the same stuff churned out all the time how do we make it a more exciting experience.

 

Adam Smith is the wrong man to be presenting a Boxing Show to. Some pasty geek in a pair of chinos is not going to get people excited about a fight.

 

Its much more than just trash talking - indeed boxers tend to be more willing to trash talk than MMA fighters.

The problem is the presentation and its been a huge problem for a while.

Take live event presentation. Compare the last UFC event (UFC 120) to Khan vs. McCloskey. UFC 120 was precedeed by a two-day fan expo with fighters flown in from across the world for autograph signings, fan Q&As, training seminars, etc. The actual event was laid out for a better live experience with more screens, better lightening and louder (and more modern) music. And the undercard had been properly promoted so that fans cared about more than the main event. Compared to that boxing events in this country just look so ****ing cheap and low rent.

That's why I just fundamentally believe the live schedule has to be cut right the way back - money has to be invested in making boxing events a big deal in this country again and that can only happen if there's fewer of them.

 

UFC is not a sport though. Its a particular promoter/compamy within a sport. Outside of UFC and Strikeforce the presentation is just as bad if not worse than boxing but its still getting more fans in arenas.