 Boxing Could Come to an Arena Near You, Thanks to the NHL Lockout
By Steve Kim (February 14, 2005)
 Send this page to friend Give us your feedback
All across North America, arenas that normally host NHL hockey remain empty. And if a deal isn't struck by this afternoon, there is a good chance that the NHL could be on ice for the rest of the season.
And with this, the business of boxing could be the biggest benefactor.
This Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Bernard Hopkins will defend his middleweight championship against Howard Eastman. If the Los Angeles Kings were in action, this fight would be taking place somewhere else, as would have the December 18th light heavyweight showdown between Glen Johnson and Antonio Tarver.
Dates that were once reserved for hockey are now vacant and more and more they are being filled with boxing events.
"If you look at the Staples Center or these other venues in Memphis, Chicago, they rely to a very large extent on their suite income," explains Richard Schaeffer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which is promoting this Saturday night's fight card in Los Angeles. "And if you have luxury suites - which are going at, starting from $180,000 all the way up to $300-400,000 a year - and I don't know how many they have at Staples, but probably 400 or so, if you multiply that, you see that it is a huge, huge income.
"And so what they have to do is provide the content, if the Lakers play the way they are and the Clippers are the way they are and now the hockey team is not
playing," continued Schaeffer, who could be prophetic in forecasting that neither Los Angeles hoop team sees post-season action. "And the same is true in Chicago - the Bulls are nowhere, the hockey team is not playing and on and on. The same is true in Memphis, so some of these venues are starting to become more aggressive as it relates to bringing other sports content into their venues."
In the modern era of boxing, it seems that the large majority of big fights now take place in either Las Vegas (with their exorbitant site fees put up by casinos), Los Angeles or the New York/New Jersey region. But in between, a wide valley exists between the two coasts, and cities that once had championship fights on a regular basis have not seen world class boxing in years.
But just recently the Savvis Center (home of the NHL Blues) in St. Louis hosted the welterweight championship bout between hometown Cory Spinks and Zab Judah to a full house of over 22,000. And buoyed by that success, Don King is taking his WBO heavyweight title fight between Lamon Brewster and Andrew Golota to the United Center in Chicago.
Boxing, it seems, has an opportunity to re-connect with a fan base they haven't catered to in years.
"And that is a great opportunity, not only for the promoters and fighters, but most importantly for the sport," points out Schaeffer, whose company will be taking Marco Antonio Barrera to El Paso, Texas in early April for his next bout. "You can't go and just bring these fights to Las Vegas, Los Angeles or New York. If you start branching out to other markets where the public hasn't seen huge fights, that is what will create the next generation of fight fans, because these fight fans in these local markets have an opportunity to go and see a fight or be exposed to fights, which they've never been to in their life. I'm sure if you look at Cory Spinks versus Zab Judah, in that venue, among those 20,000-plus, there were many, many thousands which had never been to a live boxing event and were exposed to
that.
"And if you to go to a live boxing event, most people I've talked to - including my friends - who before I got involved in boxing, they didn't really go to boxing events, now they do - they have the boxing bug. And so that's how you create new fans. Taking some of these bigger shows or big names into markets they haven't been before."
Back in it's heyday, boxing was as important to the American culture as baseball and football. But as it faded from network television and it's biggest events became more and more polarized between just the two coasts, boxing has been relegated to niche status. Fans of other sports, all across the country, can enjoy the highest levels of their favorite sports. With boxing, unless you live near 'Sin City' or 'The Big Apple', chances are the closest you'll come to seeing a big fight is through the television screen.
But there does seem to be a vacuum now where boxing can make some inroads as arenas now scramble for life without hockey.
"In a building that does over 230 events a year, certainly it's a hit for us to lose 40,50 hockey games," admits Michael Roth, VP of communications for the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns and controls the Staples Center. "But it's something we knew going into this year was a possibility and it's something that we're living with and we'll go on."
The Staples Center has been a regular host of boxing since the facility's inception, having been the venue for Oscar De La Hoya-Shane Mosley I, Lennox Lewis- Vitali Klitschko, Roy Jones-Julio Gonzalez and Johnson-Tarver, among other fights. Roth notes that a Duran Duran concert has been booked for February, two U2 dates have been added in April, along with an ice show, to fill the vacancies left by the lockout.
AEG, which also owns the Home Depot Center in Carson, California (which hosted Barrera's bout against Paulie Ayala in June), is currently building an arena in Kansas City (the Sprint Center) along with outdoor soccer centers in Chicago, Washington D.C. and the New York/New Jersey area. All of these venues could one day host fights.
Bringing Hopkins-Eastman to the Staples Center looks like just one small stroke in a much bigger picture for Golden Boy Promotions and AEG.
"We've basically have had discussions with the Anschutz Entertainment Group and the idea is, to down the road, execute a strategic alliance with the Anschutz Group, not only as it relates to the Staples Center and to the Home Depot Center, but as it relates to their other venues as well," said Schaeffer.
"And the reason behind that is, it's very interesting, if you look at boxing today, it's very much followed by Latinos and if you look at the Anschutz's other assets such as soccer, I think they own four Major League Soccer teams (including the L.A.Galaxy), and the marketing of the soccer teams are obviously geared mainly towards the Latinos as well.
"They have huge mailing lists, they have huge fan bases in these soccer teams and we're going to cross-promote that and really help bring that sport of boxing to markets where it traditionally has not been. That's really the idea."
What's interesting about this card is that with Hopkins making the 20th defense of his middleweight title and Jermain Taylor featured in the semi-main opposite Daniel Edouard, this show features four boxers with no ties to the west coast or any Latinos.
"The main reason was that he was never here," said Schaeffer of Hopkins, who was made a partner in Golden Boy Promotions, a few months back. "I think Bernard Hopkins is one of the superstars of the sport and to just have his fights on the east coast or in Las Vegas, we felt that it was time to bring Hopkins into a market such as Los Angeles, where he hasn't been. And we feel as well, the way he has fought and won against Oscar and Trinidad, that he has earned the respect of the Latinos and we think it's important in lieu of future pay-per-view events, that he is exposed as well in markets that he hasn't been before."
Wanting to expand his horizons is understandable, but not having any marquee Latinos on the card has been a head scratcher to most observers.
"That is a decision, to a large extent, which is obviously driven by the television network," said Schaeffer, speaking of HBO, which will be televising the doubleheader. It's no secret that HBO, which in essence promotes Taylor, wants to push The Executioner's heir apparent as much as possible. "I think at the same time you don't have today, unfortunately, that many huge Latino names, which really draw.
"I mean I can give you examples with the Grand Olympic Auditorium; you put an Israel Vasquez on, he sells 800 tickets. And so I don't think unless you put a Barrera or put on a Morales, you really are going to get a significant turnout of Latino fans. We think Latino fans are going to see the fight because it is a compelling match-up, whether it involves Mexican fighters or African-American fighters, it doesn't really make that much of a difference."
But Schaeffer does concede, "If you bring a really big Mexican star here, oh absolutely, yes, but that was not really an option anyway."
On the non-televised portion of the undercard, Golden Boy Promotions will have some of it's stable of young prospects in action like Kingsley Ikeke, Abner Mares and Vicente Escobedo.
When asked about ticket sales, Roth would answer, "Steady", which could be another way of saying lukewarm, slow or perhaps, just steady. But Hopkins-Eastman could be a loss-leader for Golden Boy Promotions and the Staples Center, as the 'Golden Boy' himself could be making his return at this venue.
"As it relates to Oscar, yes, we've basically told them that we would want to give them a first right of negotiation for Oscar's next fight," Schaeffer reveals. "And we certainly hope that Oscar will be fighting in Los Angeles again."
It would certainly beat having hockey.
OSCAR IN 2005?
So what is in store for De La Hoya, the prizefighter, this year?
"He clearly indicated to me that he had no plans to call it a day," said Schaeffer. "In particular because the last fight he obviously got that liver shot, he didn't really take any other damage and he was able to stay in there for nine rounds and be in the fight. I think he did better than most people thought he would and I think he has realized that the 160-pound weight class is just too much for a guy that started at 130."
De La Hoya, who is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles on Sunday, where he will then go on a full-court press to promote this weekend's fight, could be making a
return to the welterweight division.
"I think he's intrigued by the thought of coming down, maybe as low as the 147-pound weight class. We'll see how he feels and how he can perform at that level and he doesn't want to end his career the way it did on September 18th."
BARRERA-FANA?
It looks like Golden Boy Promotions and Marco Antonio Barrera will go ahead with their April 9th pay-per-view show with WBC mandatory Mzonke Fana as
the opponent.
The question is, why? In the past Barrera has had no problems in dumping belts and he's had no particular affinity for the WBC. So why the change in philosophy?
Wouldn't it have made sense for Barrera to just abdicate the belt and take on a more well-known foe?
"If you look at the 130-pound weight class, it's called prizefighting and if Morales and Pacquiao are going to fight each other, you really take the two biggest names in the division out of the equation," says Schaeffer, who says that while Fana may be an unknown, in watching tapes, he is actually a very competent fighter. "I think it makes sense to go out and fight a fight, to make a title defense and sort of see what's going to happen in that other fight and then go fight the winner."
Schaeffer admits that while they might sell more pay-per-views with a Carlos Hernandez or Jesus Chavez, they may not sell enough to offset the higher cost of
using either one of them.
Also, keeping the WBC belt is a nice bargaining chip to have on your side. Especially if Morales should down Pacquiao on March 19th, since he has always coveted the green belt of Jose Sulaiman.
FINAL FLURRIES
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Andre Ward might be David Reid with better eyelids... He really needs to learn how to tuck his chin and work behind a jab. He fights like a poor-man's Roy Jones...I found it ironic that FSN used Los Angeles Times sports editor, Bill Dwyre, during the broadcast of the Oscar Larios-Wayne McCullough broadcast, since he's basically the guy that's all but killed the boxing beat at that paper..... I hear Clarence Vinson, who suffered a cut during his first day of sparring, might be out of action against Jorge Lacierva on March 4th....I don't know about you guys, but I wouldn't bet on Gatti-Mayweather taking place.... Seriously, don't you just love not having the NHL? It's great that I can watch my 'SportsCenter' without having 20 minutes dedicated to that sport nobody really cares about.....For the record, I thought Larios-McCullough could have been a draw or a close Larios win, but I didn't agree at all with just how wide the judges had it for the defending WBC junior featherweight champion....
Discuss this Topic - Go to the forums
For Questions or Comments
E-Mail Steve Kim at k9kim@maxboxing.com
Steve Kim's Column Archives - Click Here
|
