LAS VEGAS?Notes in search of a column from Big Fight Central?
Conventional wisdom is that Golden Boy garners huge site fees from the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay but a veteran corporate executive with MGM Grand Mirage, which owns those hotel-casinos and others, tells Boxingconfidential that the conventional wisdom is all wrong.
This man said the site fee paid to GBP and co-promoter Top Rank for Manny-Oscar was, get this, ZERO. That?s right, ZERO.
The executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed to Boxingconfidential that, even for Pacquiao vs. De La Hoya, all GBP and TR get is a ?four wall? deal which means that all the promotional companies do is rent the arena like a rock music promoter would.
But a site fee of ZERO for the year?s biggest fight? Unless I misunderstood my source, and I don?t think I did, that is a tough blow for the reeling sport-business. As the economy nosedives and casinos go into bankruptcy and some even shut their doors, promoters may be forced to go to non-casino areas and work the streets to sell fight tickets.
I should mention that the MGM Grand did buy a big block of tickets, many of which they kept for their better customers, the so-called high rollers. And the MGM took a second big block of tickets to give other big hotel-casinos in and around The Strip.
But that second block has basically been returned to the MGM which, in turn, has handed them back to the promoters. The non-host hotels don?t have many of their ?whales? or other big betting clientele coming for a fight in a bad economy and about two weeks prior to Christmas.
That?s why the MGM has plenty of face value tickets which just went on sale. And it?s why the MGM is cranking out emails offering past guests Fight VIP packages. One such package I saw Thursday gets you an MGM hotel room for two nights, two $250 face value tickets and a post-fight party VIP entry status.
Can anyone say fire sale?
But the shocker news is a ZERO fight fee at least in terms of the host hotel-casino.
Another source, long involved in promoting boxing but not involved in Manny-Oscar in any way, said a ZERO site fee from the MGM is more than believable.
“This isn’t the old days when Don King grabbed millions in site fees from the MGM for Mike Tyson site fees,” the boxing man said. “What Golden Boy does and, in this case, what they and Top Rank have done is sold all the tickets minus what they held for the MGM and other Las Vegas hotels to a third party. I think they did with Mayweather-De La Hoya and it was a grand slam home run for all. I think they’ve done it again here. Golden Boy has a phobia about taking any financial risks.”
So who is the third party that bankrolls such promotions? is it GBP partner and worldwide arena owner-operator AEG or a consortium of large scale ticket brokers?
“I don’t know about that and Golden Boy is not telling,” the man said. “It’s possible Top Rank can’t tell you that as they’ve got their Pacquiao percentage and that’s it. What does Arum care about who really bankrolls the live gate?”
That?s an astounding bit of news, if it?s true, and the hotel-casino veteran and the fight promoter source certainly have no reason to lie about it.
But don?t expect co-promoters Bob Arum or Richard Schaefer to trumpet it while they continue their hard sell in tough times for Manny-Oscar.
This makes sense, beyond the current credit crunch and lousy economy, because boxing insiders have long said that Golden boy?s impressive lineup of sponsors, while not all smoke and mirrors, also put up no cash for their relationship with Oscar De La Hoya?s aggressive company. In other words, Tecate beer, Cazadores tequila, Southwest Airlines provide marketing and public relations sparks for the GBP fight shows but do not make periodic financial payments.
No one denies that the Goldens have done well to bring in sponsors who previously steered clear of boxing but there is not exactly any full disclosure about the sponsor-promoter relationship.
This just in from a TV insider who shall remain nameless and blameless. This industry veteran tells Boxingconfidential that the Tecate beer rebate for the Oscar-Manny PPV is illegal in four states, three of which are strong PPV markets. They are Arizona, Minnesota, New Jersey and Louisiana.
With the exception of Minnesota, these are strong PPV markets.
This same source said consumers are having trouble finding the Coca Cola Full Throttle Energy Drink rebatres in several key markets. Many point of purchase locations don?t have them or not aware they should have them available for fight fans who buy the energy drink.
But, wait, there is more bad news here.
Not that anyone has sympathy for ticket brokers/scalpers, but the resale market for fight tickets has collapsed and a look at ticket sites and Craigslist Las Vegas show people selling $1,500 tickets for higher up in the arena locations for half price or less.
The greedy co-promoters are equally guilty for expanding $1,500 face value seats from the floor and just above the floor to way up near the Bob Uecker, you need binoculars sections.
A source from Reno tells Boxingconfidential that a prosperous area multiple car dealerships owner was offered the chance to buy $1 million worth of tickets back before the economy tanked.
?The guy was keen on the deal but they wouldn?t tell him how the gate was structured meaning what the prices were for all the sections of the arena. So he asked a boxing guy who told him he should pass and he did,? the source said.
As if car dealers don?t have any problems right now.
One more bit of grim economic news from the Mothership. While local cabbies do like the $1.87 price of gas in Clark Country, they?re all complaining about a dearth of riders.
?Guys in for the rodeo drive their pickup trucks to town and then they walk a lot. They are not big cab users,? one veteran hack told me. ?The hotels have some people but it seems business dies at nine o?clock each night. After that, you can sit in the cab line at the MGM, wait an hour or more and then get a $10 fare over to Mandalay Bay which means you?re earning three dollars an hour.?
Grim, grim times and look into the New Year confirms all this.
Expectations for Antonio Margarito-Shane Mosley are low on Jan. 24 and Mandalay Bay and Arum?s doubleheader with Miguel Cotto on top at one location and Kelly Pavlik in a comeback bout at a second venue will be a Top Rank (no HBO money) PPV with a too heavy $44.95 price.
Pavlik has drawn some good crowds to Atlantic City but, with perhaps five of 11 casinos there going it no bankruptcty court, Arum is taking no chances.
Hometown Youngstown will be the site of Pavlik?s first fight after his dismal loss to Bernard Hopkins.
Now Y-Town, they know all about grim economic times.
What can be done? The same thing a real fighter does when facing adversity in the ring.
You bite down and fight on.
The bumpy boxing ride of late may turn into some real turbulence as we forge ahead.
