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By Boxing Insider News
As Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez continue to roll along on their media tour (which came through Miami on Friday), one where expenses are exceeding $1 million, one does not have to go far to realize why all the money is being shelled out, and why may all come back into the coffers of the promotional interests involved, and then some, by the time of the fight.
Showtime truly believes that this fight will justify its investment in Mayweather, a move that was looked upon with a lot of skepticism by some at first and perhaps even more so after the lack of excitement generated with the fight against Robert Guerrero but now looks much more optimistic after the bout with the undefeated Alvarez has been made.
How much can this fight do on pay-per-view? Well, “optimistic” would hardly be the word to describe those who believe that it can exceed the 2.5 million buys that were generated by the fight between Mayweather and Oscar De La Hoya in 2007, but the universe of homes that is connected to pay-per-view is bigger now than it was then, and continues to get bigger every day.
And there are also other revenue sources.
What some people don’t realize is that there can be a significant amount of income derived from the sell-off of the rights to a big fight through hospitality venues, meaning bars and restaurants. People gather, eat and drink, and they pay a lower charge for admission than they would if they were buying the fight as a subscriber on home television. But they also pay on an individual basis, and the income that is made by the venues themselves can hardly be called ancillary.
Richard Schaefer, the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, which is handling the nuts and bolts of the promotion itself by virtue of its agreement with Mayweather Promotions, and also holds the rights to Alvarez, has told internet reporters that this is “the single biggest guarantee for a closed circuit deal, ever,” and by “guarantee” what he means is that the money that is paid by the hospitality sites for the event is rendered up front, constituting cash in the bank in advance of the fight. In this particular case, the closed circuit rights have generated a reported $4 million.
Schaefer is also not shy in talking about the advance live ticket sales. The Mayweather-Alvarez fight will be held at the MGM Grand Garden, and he says that the hotel people from the host venue has bought much more than double the amount of tickets they purchased for the Mayweather-De La Hoya fight. It was a foregone conclusion that all available tickets for the fight would be sold out; indeed, the fight sold out Wednesday, with almost $19 million in cash that came into the MGM box office, which will wind up being a record for Las Vegas with a few hundred thousand dollars to spare. And the word is that the $32.5 million that Mayweather made for his last fight (his first of the Showtime deal) will be rather small in comparison to what he will pull in for this one.
There is very little that is unattractive about the matchup. Mayweather is, well, Mayweather, regarded by many to be the world’s best pound-for-pound fighter and looking to wrap up his career in a blaze of glory. He shouldn’t be looking for “redemption” after scoring such a one-side decision as he did in May, but there were fight fans who were disappointed with the overall event because it lacked pizzazz and excitement.
That same template will not likely apply here.
Alvarez is a young gun who is undefeated after 43 fights (one of those fights was a draw), has matinee idol looks, a big following, both in and out of the Latino community, and is going to be the naturally bigger man. he also, in the opinion of many, has a real chance of pulling the upset.
That is a formula that has always made for gold in the pay-per-view arena.
