This
weekend at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, HBO televises a doubleheader
featuring WBC middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (against Marco
Antonio Rubio) and Nonito Donaire (versus Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. for the vacant
WBO junior featherweight title). It's the first of three shows broadcast from
the “Lone Star State” by the major premium cable network in the upcoming weeks.
In
addition to this weekend’s card, on February 18th at the American Bank Center in
Corpus Christi, Showtime has a telecast featuring IBF light heavyweight
champion Tavoris Cloud facing Gabriel Campillo and Paul Williams returning
against Nobu Ishida. On March 24th, Erik Morales defends his WBC junior
welterweight strap against Danny Garcia and James Kirkland steps in with Carlos
Molina at the Reliant Arena in Houston on HBO.
There's
a saying that in Texas, there are five seasons that really matter: high school
football, college football, the NFL season, recruiting and spring football. But
if you go back through the years, boxing has a rich history in this state.
Muhammad Ali fought the likes of Ernie Terrell and Cleveland Williams in the
Astrodome back in the '60's when it was considered the “Eighth Wonder of the
World.” In more recent times, Oscar De La Hoya drew over 48,000 patrons to the
Sun Bowl in El Paso back in 1998 when he faced Patrick Charpentier. Five years
earlier, when Pernell Whitaker took on Julio Cesar Chavez (in the same building
in which the latter’s son performs this Saturday night), 63,500 patrons packed
the building.
Recent
fights involving Manny Pacquiao, Juan Diaz and Chavez Jr. have all done well at
the gate. In a marketplace where promotions in Las Vegas are struggling sans the
“Pac-Man” and Floyd Mayweather, boxing should mess with Texas- a lot more than
it does.
“Absolutely,"
agreed Bob Arum, who's promoting Chavez Jr.-Rubio, “and the reason is very
plain because one of the elements of the population that is most into boxing in
this country are the Hispanics and there are great, great, vast numbers of
Hispanics throughout Texas.” Richard Schaefer, whose company, Golden Boy, is
running things on March 24th, doesn't see eye-to-eye on many things
with Arum but he agrees with his rival, telling Maxboxing, “You look at the
demographics of Texas and their love and passion for the sport of boxing and
you put that in perspective of the number of big boxing events taking place in
Texas, I think there is a disconnect, so I definitely think that Texas is a
great market and it definitely deserves to have more big events.”
Arum
believes that this jurisdiction is conducive to having successful events. “For
example, in San Antonio, it's much more cost effective to advertise here with
radio, television, newspaper, because it's a relatively smaller market than it
is in Los Angeles, whose prices are prohibitive because you're reaching a much
bigger audience in L.A. but so much of that audience, you can reach them from
today to tomorrow and you ain't going to sell a ticket. But in San Antonio,
which is a small market, the rates and everything are very reasonable and a big
percentage of the people that you're reaching are really interested in
attending your fight.”
If
you look at the 2012’s boxing calendar, more fights seem to be heading away
from the desert of Vegas and into major metropolitan cities. More and more
promoters are being offered “four-wall” deals from the casinos and the site fees
have dried up in recent years.
“It's
like fishing,” explained Arum, whose company is based in Las Vegas, “You have
to fish where the fish are. So in these areas in Texas, it's loaded with your
fans, people who are into boxing, etc. Now you come to Las Vegas and not so
much and the locals are really hurting because of the economy. So they can't
really afford to buy tickets particularly. So you're really relying on the
attractions to be big enough so the out-of-town visitors are attracted to Las
Vegas because of the fight. And very frankly, there are very few fights that fall
in that category. Now that is nothing new.”
The
veteran promoter points out that in the past, during the supposed heyday of the
sport, bouts such as Larry Holmes-Ken Norton and Ray Leonard-Wilfredo Benitez (with
Marvin Hagler getting his first title shot against Vito Antofermo on the
undercard) were held at the old Caesars Palace Pavilion that had a capacity of
around 4,000. Leon Spinks upset of Muhammad Ali was at a ballroom at the Hilton
Hotel that fit around 4,200. And with Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather
really the only ones able to draw audiences of over 10,000 to “Sin City,” many
of these fights probably fit better in different locales.
The
Mandalay Bay Events Center holds around 12,000 and the MGM Grand Garden Arena
seats 16,500. “And that's way too big for most of these fights. Now for a Pacquiao
fight, that's not too big,” Arum points out.
Like
real estate, it's all about location, location, location. You still need
to bring the right fighter and fights to Texas.
“There's
always been interest to at this level- if you have the right guy,” said Arum. “Now,
if I went in with Andre Ward- who's a very good fighter, great kid- and put it
at the Alamodome, I don't know if I'd sell a thousand tickets. But if I go in
with Chavez Jr., I'll sell between 10-to-12,000.”
Lester
Bedford, who runs the Bedford Agency, a sports marketing company in this state,
has been involved in some manner in nearly every major card staged here the
past 30 years. “There's so many good fight towns in Texas. It isn't just San
Antonio or Houston, Corpus Christi and the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, many, many
terrific fight towns. Any HBO show or that type of event, I don't care who
it is; you got a home for it in Texas if you're looking for a place to put a
fight.”
Bedford
believes, “The population is a perfect mix. Every one of these cities [has] a
lot of football fans and there's a crossover between football and boxing and so
if a guy’s a football fan, there's a chance he'll be a boxing fan. So it being
such a big football state, I think that helps a lot. Some research with the Houston Chronicle has shown that people
who checked off NFL football as their favorite sport, 50 percent of those were
avid boxing fans. That's a pretty big number. So there's a big crossover
between football and boxing and I just think there's more boxing fans. I think
people are just more interested in it here than most places.”
02/04/12- Top Rank
Boxing, San Antonio
02/11/12-
Savarese Promotions, Houston
02/17/12-
Sosa Promotions, the Woodlands
02/17/12-
Goossen Tutor and Showcase Boxing, Arlington
02/18/12-
Goossen Tutor, Corpus Christi
02/24/12-
South Coast Promotions, Houston
03/01/12-
United Renovations, Dallas
03/09/12-
Triple A Promotions, Laredo
03/16/12-
Boogie Promotions, Wichita Falls
03/17/12-
Triple A Promotions, Robstown
03/17/12-
Ultimate Warrior Fighting, Pharr
03/24/12-
Golden Boy Promotions, Houston
03/24/12-
Zeferino Promotions, San Antonio
03/31/12-
Valley Promotions, McAllen
04/27/12-
Triple A Promotions, Victoria
05/04/12-
Zeferino Promotions, El Paso
Every
year, this state is among the leaders in the amount of boxing shows put on.
Bedford, who is working alongside Top Rank for this upcoming promotion,
projects 12-to-15,000 in ticket sales. “It’s going to be a multimillion-dollar
gate possibly or something close,” he said. He adds that Texas regularly, “cranks
out $100,000 gates. We got different cities that do that.”
"It's
been a good market for 30 years. Ever since I've been in boxing, it's been a
terrific market and you give them a good fight card and they're going to show
up,” added Bedford, who believes the presence of HBO and Showtime actually
helps drive the events, locally. He expects robust numbers for all three of the
aforementioned upcoming cards. “You give them some trash, they know it. It's
like a concert; you know when you get a hot group or somebody who's doing well
on the charts- they're going to do well in Texas or any other city. And in
boxing, the same thing. If you get a good event, it's going to do well.”
According
to Bedford, for real promoters- who aren't just content to place their events
in casino for a batch of rooms and meal vouchers- Texas can be very affordable.
“There's a lot of arena operators here that are willing to put up the arena for
almost nothing. I mean, the Alamodome cost us $25,000. To go to the Madison
Square Garden, it costs almost $400,000.”
Some
others have their own buildings they are willing to utilize.
“Actually,
Golden Boy, together with AEG and the Brener family, runs the brand-new soccer
stadium which is being completed as we speak in downtown Houston,” said
Schaefer. “It's going to be like a 24,000 seat venue- similar to like the Home
Depot Center soccer stadium in Carson [California]. It's going to open up in
May, so we are currently talking to the general manager there about getting a
date to do a boxing event even from downtown Houston at the soccer stadium. So
we are planning on doing that, potentially in the summer with [WBC junior
middleweight titleholder Saul] “Canelo” [Alvarez].
Golden
Boy’s Morales-Garcia card was postponed from its original January 28th date. They were in the process of rescheduling this show based on the early
returns and Schaefer says there was no thought of going anywhere else on the
new date. “No question about it; it was very warmly welcomed. We had very good
ticket sales and it was very clear that it would not be right to take this
event away from Houston and we were fortunate we were able to work out the
dates in a way that we were able to keep it there.”
Arum
has talked about bringing a summer bout between Lamont Peterson and Juan Manuel
Marquez back to Arlington and Cowboys Stadium. Top Rank is of the belief that
with the right match-up and affordable pricing, events in Texas do invariably well.
It's hard to argue with the track record. Helping matters is that Texas is
a big event/boxing-friendly commission, as indicated by Antonio Margarito
getting the licensing to face Pacquiao after being rejected by the Nevada State
Athletic Commission. Against the wishes of many others in the boxing community,
Texas welcomed the “Tijuana Tornado” with no compunction. Hey, nobody tells
Texas what to do.
“Big”
Greg Alvarez, Assistant Boxing Administrator for the Texas Combative Sports
Program, says, “I think all the fights would have a home here in Texas,” adding,
“It puts us in the national spotlight and ask the promoters if they like coming
to Texas and look at what they tell you. They love coming to Texas.”
GATE
RECEIPTS
So
how have the recent big cards done in Texas? Here are the official numbers from
the TDLR:
Sept. 6th, 2008- Juan Diaz vs.
Michael Katsidis, Toyota Center, Houston: 9,758 tickets sold,
3,221 complimentary tickets, $900,190 total gate
Feb. 28th, 2009- Diaz vs.
Juan Manuel Marquez, Toyota Center, Houston: 13,505 tickets sold,
complimentary tickets (not available), $1,267,770 total gate
June 26th, 2010- Chavez Jr.
vs. John Duddy, Alamodome, San Antonio: 6,686 tickets sold, 745
complimentary tickets, $591,215 total gate
March 13th, 2010- Pacquiao
vs. Joshua Clottey, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington: 36,371 tickets sold, 5,472 complimentary tickets, $6,359,985 total gate
Nov. 13th, 2010- Pacquiao vs.
Margarito, Cowboys Stadium, Arlington: 27,874 tickets sold, 9,717
complimentary tickets, $5,404,760 total gate
Nov. 19th, 2011- Chavez Jr.
vs. Peter Manfredo, Reliant Arena, Houston: 3,828 tickets sold,
364 complimentary tickets, $442,160 total gate
(The
state gets three percent of the total gate revenue.)
