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Jacqui Snow's "K.O.'s" Tuesday Report By "K.O." Jacqui Snow It's been far too long since we've had a boxing match-up that was electrifying enough to capture the imagination not only of boxing fans, but of the general public as well. Such is the case of the upcoming fight between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather, which takes place on Cinco de Mayo. By any standards, De La Hoya is a celebrity. He's the only boxer who's instantly recognizable to people who've never watched a fight in their lives. Your mom knows who he is. Floyd Mayweather, while lacking his opponent's star quality, has a passionate and dedicated fan base due to his skills and blazing speed, which have earned him a reputation among the boxing cognoscenti as the best fighter, pound for pound, in the sport. Tickets for the fight, which will take place at the 17,000-seat MGM Grand in Las Vegas, sold out in less than three hours and raked in $19 million, a Las Vegas record. The nine-day, eleven-city promotional tour, which was held in the weeks leading up to the fight and was open to the public, attracted over 20,000 fans. HBO went so far as to produce a four-part mini-series entitled "De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7", which premiered on April 14. So it's no understatement to say that this could have been the sporting event of the year. Unfortunately for the sport of boxing, though, De La Hoya, in his capacity as the promoter of this event, is restricting it to folks who are willing, and can afford, to cough up the hefty $54.95 pay-per-view price tag. Boxing as a sport with a major following is in jeopardy due to its failure to win over new fans. But how do you engage new fans to a sport that so few people, for financial reasons, get to see? 2006 was one of the best years for boxing in quite some time, but many of those bouts were shown on pay-per-view, precluding the possibility of a casual or potential fan catching them. And those of us who do fork over our hard-earned money don't always get premier match-ups: even last year's second-rate heavyweight bout between Hasim Rahman and Oleg Maskaev came with a non-discounted $49.95 price tag. It's very likely
that the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight will sell over a million buys.
That's an awful lot for a pay-per-view fight, but it's an extremely
small television audience for a professional sporting event,
especially one of this significance. Bear in mind that about 140
million tuned in to last year's Superbowl and even a regular Monday
Night Football game is seen by about 10 million viewers. |
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