Guys, thanks for your opinion. Can you tell me what you think would be the main thing that could make the casual fan buy a PPV boxing event? 1- A great main event. The two boxers are good boxers and pretty even. 2- A good card. There is no need for a great main event, but a good card overall will attract the casual fan. 3- A great card with a great main event will do it. No need to spend a lot money in advertisement. 4- A great advertisement campain. Advertisement sells, regardless of the boxers. 5- Other. The thing is, why is it that some people think the casual fan is going to save a particular event from failing? Let me just give you a scenario. Last PPV event between Pac and David Diaz. What do you think would have made more people (casual fans) buy the Pac vs Diaz fight?
Couple of things. - A zero. Believe it or not a 0 in a guys record looks so much more impressive to a casual fan than saying this guy beat Barrera, Morales and Marquez. - Advertising. DLH vs Mayweather had a mini series, commercials on network TV, billboards everywhere and a world tour. You can't just advertise the fight though, you have to add a little drama. Talk about how pac was an abondoned orphan that ate hillbillies to survive when he was 5. - Add a feeling of national pride. Team sports due so well because teams represent cities. Guys tune in hoping that a bunch of ****ers from their city will beat another bunch of ****ers from another city therefore giving them a sense of superiority.
Good points, but let me ask you a question. Do you really think that Pac vs Valero would be a success just because Valero has a "ZERO"?
good point a good idea would be for HBO to sell repeats of the superstars and there megafights to the networks the promotors could also use the internet to gain more exposure to the sport
1. Not sure about that, although an "0" looks nice on the record. 2. True Dat. Oscar is the darling of the HBO Corporation, and they pulled out all the stops for Cinco de Mayweather. 3. All you have to do is watch a Julio Jr. entrance and it's as if he is carrying the entire country on his shoulders.
UFC does a lot of PPV. thats hasn't affected the popularity of that sport the promotors have great cards with competitive matchups
We need "Tuesday Night Fights" to come back, and ESPN's Friday Night Fights need REAL STARS, not no names.
It would help. But the other things have to come into play. You gotta advertise and all and hype it up. Show hghlights of Valero and pacmans most devastating KO's and exchanges, sho pictures of what pacmans opponents faces look like when he is done with them. You could also do promotions, like with fighters that speak good english they could go on leno or letterman or the daily show leading into the fight. With latin fighters you could have primer impacto do a special on them or they could go on sabado gigante or something. You could have black fighters that have that hip hop image do intreviews on hot 97.1 and talk about the fight. I coudl go on and on listing ways but the point is you have to accomplish 2 things. 1.) Let people know that there will be a fight 2.) make them want to watch it. Well this would help but keep in mind that it would still have to be at a late night hour or during the day when the slot would not be better used for something else. Not that many people are going to tune in to watch a sport they don't really care about expecially when they already know the outcome. Just look at ESPN and VS. They show replays of fights all the time. Some old, some recent and the ratings suck.
I have always believed that good matches/competitive matches is what it makes an event successful. People are not stupid to pay big bucks for nothing, and that's why I don't think the casual fan can save an event from failing if is not worthy.
A match can't just tbe competitive. it also has to be action packed. Take a fight like Calzage vs Hopkins for example. Evenly matched elite fighters but they put on what the casual fan would consider a snoozefest. When a casual fan tunes in and here's that these are both 2 of the best fighters in the sport both ranked top 10 p4p both multi title champions etc. And they see a snoozefest it does not leave them anxios to see more boxing.
If one were to use the UFC as a model for a successful business in boxing: 1) Have a reality cable network series 2) Have a weekly cable broadcast of fights 3) Have marketable fighters on the PPV events with occasional free broadcasts. Oh wait!....There IS a reality series called the Contender AND there is a weekly cable broadcast called ESPN Friday Night Fights. Then it must be marketable fighters that is the issue. Let's see.... The UFC promoted their stars: Randy Couture Chuck Liddell Matt Hughes Rich Franklin George St. Pierre Tito Ortiz Forrest Griffin and now add Anderson Silva Think about what boxing has to offer the American public (who are the consumers) as marketable stars and compare.
I disagree. **** happens, some times depend on the style of the boxers, etc, etc. If you think about it then you will realise that that was not the first time that the main event sucked. If we think that people won't buy a PPV event any more because of that then boxing should be dead by now, because I have seeing boring fights before. Coming back to my original question.... what do you think is the percentage of casual fans in any given boxing event?
At the end of the day this is what it counts. In other words if a boxer is really good then chances are he would make it to PPV events, because a good/great boxer has the tendency to win fights and therefore be a champion or a great contender. Some boxers are more likeable than others but people like to watch good competition regardless.
Bollocks. Put a hyped nobody like Amir Khan on mainstream TV and he gets 10 million viewers in britain alone. What did the Eubank Benn figths get? What does a Bute fight get in Canada? What does a Kessler fight get in denmark? A Hatton fight? People love to watch boxing - but the majarity wont pay for the privaledge of watching ordinary fights for a lot of cash. The best long term way to make money is make a name on free to air TV then go to PPV AFTER the world knows your name - NOT before as they do now. Mega fights on PPV is fine. Bull**** unimportant fights on PPV is killing boxing.