It?s your own fault, sports fans. All of it.
Don?t blame Bob Arum, Manny Pacquiao, Floyd Mayweather and certainly not Timothy Bradley. We kept paying and paying to see events that everybody knew was not the event we wanted to see, and what did we get? A screwy result, while half of the premier matchup in boxing sat in solitary confinement in a Las Vegas jail for domestic abuse.
In the interest of full disclosure, I did not see Saturday?s Bradley-Pacquiao boxing match, won in a split decision by the still undefeated Bradley. But according to everything I?ve read and every person I?ve listened to, it?s a stretch that Bradley won four of the 12 rounds.
But had I not been at the Daily News offices on Saturday night, I still would not have paid to see the match. It wasn?t the one I wanted to see. It wasn?t the one anyone had at the top of their must-watch list, except maybe Arum, who promotes both fighters.
Instead, we, the community of sports fans, bought in again and helped pay more than $30 million in purse money, more than $50 per viewing, while the folks who could make the deal for Mayweather-Pacquiao, particularly Mayweather and Pacquiao, refused to make the deal.
Why? Because we allowed it. We allow it every time we make it profitable for sports to give us something we don?t want.
Imagine you have your heart set on a BMW. You?re not going to buy a Kia for the same price. I drive a Kia and it?s been good to me ? more than 90,000 miles and, besides routine maintenance, it?s only had a coolant temperature sensor replaced. It?s no BMW, though.
The pay-per-view sellers have been charging BMW money for Kia matchups: a 40-year-old Shane Mosley ? who has now won two of his last six fights ? in losses to Pacquiao and Mayweather; and Pacquiao versus Juan Manuel M?rquez, who hasn?t beaten Manny in three tries.
And here?s the problem with paying for a live performance: At the end, no matter how you felt about it, as Charlie ?Tiger Blood? Sheen told a heckler, they?ve already got your money, dude.
Our admission money, our parking money, our concession money are our voice when it comes to getting a product we want to watch.
Western Kentucky sports fans have shown they know how to get the attention of the folks on the Hill when they don?t like what?s going on. They?ve also been negligent when there?s something worth seeing.
The Lady Toppers basketball team was 9-21 last season and averaged 1,153 fans for home games, including a season-low 603 against Wright State on Nov. 22. On Jan. 4, against Louisiana-Lafayette, the Lady Toppers drew 3,414 ? an inflated statistic considering the ?nearly 2,500 middle school students and staff,? according to wkusports.com, who received free tickets.
The empty seats had made their point and former coach Mary Taylor Cowles was fired and replaced with Michelle Clark-Heard.
At the news conference to announce the dismissal of men?s basketball coach Ken McDonald, former athletic director Ross Bjork mentioned waning fan interest as part of potential ?long-term damage? he hoped to avoid by making the midseason change. Under new coach Ray Harper, the Hilltoppers? smallest crowd for the rest of the season at E.A. Diddle Arena was 4,254 on Jan. 21 against Arkansas-Little Rock.
But WKU fans have also refused to help themselves. A former WKU men?s basketball coach told a colleague of mine off the record, before he left for another job, he was disappointed at how few times his relatively successful team drew sell-out crowds to Diddle. Last football season, the Hilltoppers were 7-5 after being winless two seasons prior and finished in second place in the Sun Belt Conference. They also had the best running back in the history of the program in Bobby Rainey. Still, no bowl-game invites showed up in coach Willie Taggart and company?s mailbox. A few people in the know said WKU?s average attendance of less than 17,000 was a factor in the Hilltoppers being left out.
So, fans, you have a voice, for better or worse, in your attendance and spending, and as late sports radio personality ?Papa? Joe Chevalier used to say, ?You will get what you accept.?
