Part One
DALLAS – Even with three NFL Super Bowl World Championships on his resume, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his 100,000 seat Goliath had little more than a dream going for him in trying to wrest the Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao fight away from Las Vegas and its 16,200 seat David venue.
But Jerry fought the good fight and I applaud him. Remember, the largest bona fide offered and accepted guarantee in boxing history was only $12.5 million for Lennox Lewis vs. Mike Tyson back in 2002.
So Jerry’s $25 million was significant. Until Las Vegas turned over its cards to include 40,000 seats using closed -circuit locations from other MGM Grand – Mirage properties that they have used in the past.
That’s still just half the seats Jerry has in the same place.
It’s why I’m scratching my head now. It’s why Al Gore can’t believe he lost the 2000 election to George W. Bush.
It’s good old fashioned common sense.
Before it was completed, 100,000 seat Cowboys Stadium won the rights to the 2011 Super Bowl, the upcoming NBA Basketball All Star Game in February, and a future NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four.
How could it lose a boxing match to a 16,200 seat venue?
The truth will come out eventually and I believe it won’t be believable. Hilarious, yes, but not believable.
Wouldn’t an additional 80,000 live fans, mostly new fans, and twice the media coverage this fight would have generated been good for boxing? The additional media coverage would have increased the pay-per-view buys and the promoters and fighters would have made more money.
I wrote a couple of weeks ago that if anything were good for boxing it would have been done by now.
I don’t know if any decisions were finalized on the Jerry Jones bid as to the local blackout of pay-per-view locally in Dallas – Fort Worth or the lucrative closed-circuit rights there.
Both would have been serious problems for Jones to have to contend with.
I just learned the City of Arlington has a 10% event tax. I knew of the 8 1/4% sales tax and 3% boxing tax/fee but it adjusts to a whopping 21 1/4% right out of the box office. This doesn’t affect the fighters, just the local promoter. Then there is a TV tax but that’s for another day.
Jones didn’t blink at it.
Jones has his three Super Bowl trophies and his $1.15 billion stadium for his legacy but he certainly got an education as to how this business really works. And boxing is the big loser for it. Oh, the fight will break all the records, but finally it really could have been good for boxing. This fight does nothing for boxing.
I’m going to call this column Part One because I know something good is coming. I just don’t know what or when.
I would like to see a sequel to a 1996 movie called The Great White Hype. I believe the antics of the past two weeks would be an acceptable plot to work with.
