Boxing's Dark Side VII Ya gotta hand it to the NFL, they sure are an institution. Boxing promoters struggle to get 600 people at their events. Football owners have to turn people away because they've already reached their 68,000 capacity. Talk about getting people interested in a product!! Seldom does a day go by that you don't hear someone in the office talking about their fantasy football league. How many people take part in that childish game? The figure ranges somewhere between 20,000,000-60,000,000. That's 20 million to 60 million people, you read those figures right (we hope.) How do they get so many people interested? How does boxing get so few people interested? How can the NFL sell out the biggest outdoor arenas every week? How can promoters not sell out the smallest indoor gathering spots 3 times a year? We've already talked about the "blame game," and how people in the boxing business love to play it, but how can their be such a drastic difference in the people's athletic entertainment interests? We figured that the best way to come up with some answers was to compare the business plan of both. The owners of football teams have a lot of money, otherwise they wouldn't own a team. Boxing promoters don't necessarily have much, but they at least have some. Otherwise they shouldn't be promoting. Unfortunately, the ones that don't have much money can still run low budget events. An elementary school janitor could run a pro show if he saved a year's salary. An elementary school janitor couldn't buy season tickets to the Patriots if he saved 2 year's salary. You know what though? If the Patriots were playing Westfield State College, the Marlboro Shamrocks, the University of Connecticut Huskies, or the Bay State Gas intramural two-hand touch team, they wouldn't be selling many tickets either. That's why it'll cost you 5 bucks to see Westfield State, a dollar to watch the Shamrocks, 3 to 7 bills to catch a Connecticut Huskies game, and you can recline in your car seat for free while you watch the Bay State Gas squad play tag. If you think that pairing them with an elite team like the New England Patriots would draw a ton of fans, think again. The novelty aspect of it might draw some people for a few weeks, after all...everybody loves a train wreck. But the fans would dwindle rapidly, and by the 6th week, they'd be back in the parking lot playing. Those above references to college, intramural, and men's football teams were the basic business plan of many promoters. The Patriots? Now that's an NFL team. Surely they don't take that business approach. No, they don't. They fill their 70,000 seat stadium week after week, year after year. They play professional football. So they compete against other professional football teams. Every single player is making tons of money, for a few reasons. They are great players. Their bosses (all of them) have plenty of money. And people love to watch the team. Would they love to watch them play against a team of players that were making 500 dollars for the game? No. "But that's all the other owner can afford!!" Then why is he trying to own a football team? The owner of a professional football team also sits out of sight. Why? People don't go to football games to see the owner in a suit jacket. They don't go to any professional sports competitions to see anyone other than the participants. If they go to a basketball game, they do so to see the athletes in shorts. Football games, the pros in pads. Baseball games... yada yada yada. Boxing?? Those who go to a boxing event, they don't care to see anybody else in between the ropes, but people with gloved fists...or string bikinis. Now, if it's obvious that boxing is far behind all the other professional sports in terms of owners/promoters bankrolls, why are the boxing promoters so eager to be seen or noticed? You'd think it would be the opposite. Why are the football owners running their company in the confines of their office, out of sight? We think it's because the football owners know that they're not the product that they're trying to market. The athletes are what the NFL owners are selling to the public. You think that you'll ever see John Henry and David Ortiz in a photo with both holding a bat on their shoulder? Please. Do you think you'll ever see a professional boxer in a photo with a non-boxer, both holding up a clenched fist? Yep, you'll see that often enough, don't you worry. It's become a physical cliche..... A photographic cliche... Whatever. Remember, customers are buying a ticket to watch a professional boxing match. So when marketing an event, market the people that will be partaking in those matches. Do NOT try to market the company that will be staging the event. People don't go to arenas because of that. That has been proven. Take a look at the other sports. Check out the stands, and see how many people are watching. The owner is nowhere to be seen. Check out the next fight card you go to. Glance out into the audience, estimate the amount of people you see. The promoter is right in front of you and them. Take the figure from both, and then compare them. If the number is lopsided, we've got a problem. There are so many other parts of the business plan, but we'll let you just chew on those little pieces for a moment. We have much more to talk about, and that's why Boxing's Dark Side VIII is right around the corner. We were talking about the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC) last week, and we have much more to touch on there. The Association of Boxing Commissions....They have the NFL Players Association. Major League Baseball has players Association. The NBA has one, and so does the NHL. Boxers? No, boxers don't have an association. In boxing it's the Association of Boxing Commissions. "You mean the Association of Boxers, right?" Nope. Boxing has the Association of Boxing Commissions.
