Richard Schaefer has recently announced that the Pay-Per-View sales for Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley are being projected to hit the 2 million mark at a minimum as of right now.
Much of this has to do with the fact that this fight has been sold to more large commercial establishments than ever before.
I understand that the entire chain of Hooters has purchased the event as well as numerous other chain establishments.
This is a major factor as to why the CEO of Golden Boy Promotions can confidently make claims that this fight will generate a surprisingly large number of buys in comparison to fights past.
It’s not a true reflection of the general public’s demand for the fight but it is definitely a reflection of the outside of the box thinking of Golden Boy Promotions to “sell” this fight to entities that will in turn resell them to the public.
For those of you that haven’t noticed, Stubhub is a major sponsor of Mayweather-Mosley and they are also considered to be the largest ticket scalper in the world. It’s no coincidence that there are still a large amount of tickets available for this fight up until this very moment while the live gate has already been reported to have broken the $10 million mark.
In this aspect of the boxing game… Richard Schaefer has shown that he is a great business man.
Instead of attempting to sell Pay-Per-Views and tickets directly to the pubic… sell it to the big boys who in turn must market the original product as their own in order to make their money back and much more.
Is it genius?
I can’t necessarily say that it is.
Is it good for the average boxing fan?
I can’t necessarily say that it is… however, it’s definitely an aspect of the business that is lacking when it comes to other “big-time” promoters in boxing.
Schaefer is no marketing guru but his background is purely business and financially based which shines it’s true colors in big-time events. He uses his experience in order to leverage built-in distribution points for his product and that is a pure business way of thinking. It’s also the same reason as to why Golden Boy Promotions has problems in creating it’s own talent from scratch but that’s another story for another day.
As of right now, The Boxing Truth must applaud Golden Boy Promotions for a great move in handing off the grunt work of it’s promotional business to numerous promotional entities that have indirectly marketed the fight for them.
They embraced the secondary ticket market in Stubhub rather than shun them in order to guarantee set revenue from the live gate.
They brought in the corporate sponsorship (AT&T, Tecate, Dewalt) to incorporate rebates, “activation” type marketing for the event, and subsidize costs.
They coerced the important decision makers at large corporate entities into buying the event guaranteeing a set revenue amount for Golden Boy Promotions rather than hoping the public buys the fight.
These were all savvy, cut-throat business moves in a time when banking has been handing out money to commercial entities while the consumer dollars have shrunken.
Why not sell the fight to the people with money rather than those without?
This is why Schaefer is considered the “Boxing Banker” and everyone else is still struggling to continue find new ways to generate dollars in boxing.
I just hope that the fight itself delivers in terms of excitement for the entities that spent their dollars in buying the fight will once again look at boxing with a bitter eye.
PS. He still sucks at projecting PPV figures for smaller events. I had to make one stab at the guy… this is no suck up piece.
