Has it ever been as bad as this? Seems to be empty seats everywhere I remember going to the hydro for Josh Taylor and Ricky burns and there wasn’t an empty seat. I get guys like azim and other shows by uk promotors are not on that level but hardly any sell out arenas anymore! means promotors will be losing money which is a problem for decent fights and cards
Promoters being overly ambitious with venues doesn't help - Callum Simpson VS Chelli was a bizzare sight
Delboy at Manchester Arena will be interesting, even with the top tier shut, I'd imagine it'll be 50% empty
The big problem / challenge for promoters is that any decent fight that should be on a UK Card ends up in Saudi.
It's sad to see. And when the shows do look half full it's only cos they have given loads of tickets away
It's been like this for years. We had the matchroom boom where alot of their shows were pretty full but other promoters were still struggling. Boxing is a niche sport with only a handful a guys who half crossover and shift tickets. Doesn't help that promoters put events on at arenas they cant fill for clever accounting reasons.
I can easily follow you but I also understand the boxers - who only have a limited period to be active - want to maximize their earnings. It's a difficult one...
Who would be considered actual ticket sellers? I’m not talking about somebody who could sell 500 - 2k tickets in their local town / city. I’m meaning who could realistically be relied upon on to sell 10-20k tickets in the UK if their fight was announced and they were the A side in that fight. In the UK would it only be Fury & AJ? I feel in recent years we had a lot more. Khan, Whyte, Froch etc
I think you're right, but also, an era of mostly Matchroom shows were 'events' casuals wanted to be at, and between lockdown and momentum changing, it's just not that kind of attraction any more. Haye-Bellew was probably the peak of that type of night (given that Joshua was a bit of a one-off). There will always be a clamour for big events in stadiums but not many - the fact top level UK boxing has basically disappeared from Sky is probably a lot to do with it and it's no surprise Matchroom is so happy to be involved in the Saudi deal.