the problem boxing has in competition for tv with other sports, is merchandising, branding, fan base, etc. football teams generate their own viewers. they are a known quantity. they sell jumpers, key rings etc, and are part of a competition that has many other teams and also their own fan bases, and their own merchandising. tv then has a ready made viewer base. football clubs are their own brand, they are well known, and need no selling to have people understand what and who they are. tv is guaranteed to sell advertising as they know the fan base will supply viewers. not so with boxing. no one knows who the **** kickett is, or the rest of them. they know kostya, but he dont need free tele. boxing hasnt the fan base, the merchandising, brand (clubs), or the profile. its a hard sell for the tv stations. they have to try and sell advertising while the event is being televised. some companies may not want their brand associated with boxing. dont attack me, im just telling it like it is. there may be a way to do it though. boxing could go down the path of football. boxing gyms could become 'brands'. they could be stand alone clubs that have a sporting profile. just like a footy club. fighters, like footballers would fight for that 'club' (gym). weekly televised boxing events would be gyms (clubs) fighting eachother, with high profile fighters, that are bought from the open market, imported or whatever, just like football. my 2c.
IMO youre right no one knows who Kickett or Katsidis is. THATS WHY ITS UP TO THE PROMOTERS/TV TO PROMOTE THEM This **** wont happen over night will it. Ch 10 and others need to take time and build these fighters up, its not just guna happen. Kostya fought on Ch 7 if im not mistaken and Fenech was free to air to. Look at De La Hoya, Ray Leonard, all of these guys have one thing in common, they fought on free TV at the beginning of their careers to build up a fan base. Youre idea could work and it could not, its not the point, if we want to make these guys stars/well known you need to put in time money and effort to promote them and make them household names.
Similar to how Muay Thai fighters in thailand use the name of their Gym as their surname while fighting, this is more of a tradition than branding in thailand some sort of branding could work in free to air TV fight nights. Perhaps a brief feature before fights of fighters training in their gyms with their trainers, a quick interview with their thoughts on the fight and a brief interview of the trainer. It could all be cut down to 2-3 minutes per fighter and this would give the audience at home a real insight into what go's on before the fight. Also, it would make the audience feel involved and capture their attention. :happy
This would be a good idea. I think boxing is often overlooked as a brainless sport with two people bashing each others head in for no reason. What gets over looked is the commitment, discipline, training and pure science of the fight game. Alot of this behind the scenes stuff would do its bit IMO. I was watching the aussie muay thai the other night and what struck me was the sheer difference in production values. It might seem totally unrelated, but really when fights are being televised from a local pub it looks totally unprofessional.. The muay thai events have the lighting, the good commentating, clean filming and a general professionalism to them. While all this superficial **** might not mean much to the dedicated fans, it does to the casual fan and does its bit in ensuring a good image for the boxing scene. I guess the first step is a mainstream free to air channel getting the wheels in motion..
