PPVs and the Myth of the Casual Fan

if you have paid and will watch the hbo broadcast tonight remember it will be shown on a free station in germany with 10,000,000 viewers approx
tv/venue/advertising are enough to hold the most important heavyweight fight currently available without ppv .


IMO this could easily happen again in america if given the chance and fighters to do it.

 

Congratulations. It was Baby Floyd, the best fighter of his generation. There are 3, 5 if your count WBO and IBO. Wlad is widely considered the HW Champion, but the average gay ass "casual fan" wouldnt know this. The casual fan is ignorant and stupid. They can rattle off names of College Basketball players off the top of their heads, but when you ask them who Emmanuel Steward used to train in the 80's and what gym he runs, you get a blank stare and a "who's Emmanuel Steward?"

 

1) Klitchko, the champion, is based in Germany and is a huge star there. He is not a huge star in the U.S.
2) German fans are attracted to a different brand of boxing than American fans are. They appreciate a chess match on canvas such as Henry Maske can bring. Similarily Klitchko can fight a boring fight as against Ibragimov and be considered entertaining in Germany.

 

I dont mind a chess match at all, although Duran-Pazienza 1, is my stereotypical, favorite fight of all time. Blood, guts, headbutts, elbows, fighting after the bell, and **** talking throughout. But I watched Floyd-DLH in amazement and mild amusement, as I caught a lot of stuff going on that the casual fan would miss. But Klit-Sultan was hard to watch even for me. It was Klitschko trying to avoid getting kayoed by a man 3 feet shorter.

 

The "casual fan" needs to be courted in order to make boxing events successful. Left to the boxing elite the sport would die. The average fan must be marketed to. Similarly the intellectual elite, though probably more informed and knowledgeable about political science and public policy cannot be allowed to solely run a country.

 

Left to the "boxing elite" we would be watching PPV for $35.00 tops, with great undercards. We would be watching a REAL HW unification tourney complete inside of one year. We would watch the best fights, that the casual fan is clueless about. Clueless "casual" morons go to "fight parties" and talk and socialize during important interviews and preliminary fights. Then, they get excited as the main event is about to start, and cheer their pick and put down the other fighter without even knowing his name.

 

I think Michael Jordan might have something to say about this. Television works on advertisement. With the right ads you might even make more money,

 

one of the best post ive seen. if everyone else realized this.....

 

Would you be willing to risk the $20,000,000 or so to find out if your theory works. Most companies would not to be willing just to provide you and a few thousand others with entertainment.

 

Yet for the ridiculous and laughable NBA with their corrupt refs, and "questionable" calls, the Networks will pull out all the stops, and the NBA fans, still think their sport isnt on the level of the WWE.

 

Unfortunatley, boxing doesnt have the fanbase of National Basketball Entertainment.

 

The quality of the sport or pogram is irrelevant. All that matters is how many people will tune in. The more people that tune in the more that advertisers will pay to have that many people see their ad. Whatever your problems may be with the NBA, they don't mean jack **** to an advertiser. All they care about is how many potential buyers will be watching and in that category NBA shits all over boxing.

 

This is true, although at this point, after the Tim Donaghy mess, I feel like I'm watching Hogan and Andre when the Lakers play the Celtics. "National Basketball Entertainment" baby. :thumbsup

 

If baseball can get ratings. The second most boring sport on the planet next to golf, then boxing can too. It's all about the marketing.

 

I think that they do that through ESPN and VS and what not. They are sticking to cable networks right now because a channel like fox or CBS is not going to sacrifice something else. I remember a few years back there was a Cintron fight on CBS and the ratings were absolute ****.

Suppose you were to try to put Wednesday night fights on CBS instead of ESPN to try to gain more exposure. CBS would have to take at least 2 shows off the air (Criminal minds at 9:00 and CSI NY at 10:00) both of which draw over 6.4 million viewers and replace it with an event of lesser known fighters (since you have conceded that right now mega fights can not be on network TV) that will only draw a million if they are lucky.