A little birdie has informed me that SN have only sold 5000 tickets for what is an excellent show...if this is true it could turn into a disasterous night for Mr Warren...
Is this a sign that mainstream Boxing is on the slide?
O2 show ticket sales, very poor
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thepocketrocket
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jamesmcdonnell
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I also think it is especially hard to get londoners to go to a big boxing event.
There just aren't that many shows on in London any more, and aside from the York Hall mob, which is a small group, there aren't many prepared to travel to a venue in London to watch a fight.
Look at Haye v Thompson, cracking fight on paper, only sold what, 3000?
There just aren't that many shows on in London any more, and aside from the York Hall mob, which is a small group, there aren't many prepared to travel to a venue in London to watch a fight.
Look at Haye v Thompson, cracking fight on paper, only sold what, 3000?
It's very tempting to think of it that the last show Calzaghe-Manfredo was so poor, so piss-takingly pathetic, that it's had a dramatic knock on effect on both the TV situation and ticket sales for future events. Obviously there are other factors, but I'm really curious how much of it was down to that big budget farce.
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WildWaylon
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People knew the full details of the Calzaghe/Manfredo bill yet they still paid to see it, why I dont know - Maybe boxing is more popular in South Wales than it is in London - True fans may have been pissed off with that bill but they love the sport and hope for better next time - Viewers on ITV is another matter, many of the more casual fans may not bother watching the next one and will go to the pub instead - That bill did nothing to gain fans and lost many potential fans instead - The 02 bill is suffering mainly from lack of advertising both at the venue and on ITV as well - However ITV may correct that situation next week - One thing is for certain FW wont put on a one sided bill again because ITV wont stand for it - To be fair to FW he has had a lot of fighters pull out of decent fights for one reason or another and both Harrisons have been a huge dissapointment for different reasons - I think the Khan fight will save the day as far as ITV are concerned - Apart from boxing fans there are a huge number of viewers who will watch because of the Khan fight - He is their main attraction - His Olympic success got boxing back on ITV and without him boxing would have been dropped IMO - His next fights have to be against decent opponents to please ITV bosses and FW cant protect him anymore - A lot of responsibility and risky fights ahead for the youngster, as I see it - He has to perform well and keep winning for boxing to survive on terrestial TV - If three other fighters were to fight on ITV the number of fans would soar - Hatton, Haye and Froch - I cant see how Khan can do it on his own because he cant be on every FW bill - Somehow or other collaboration between promoters has to happen or Frank has to go all out to get these guys boxing for him.
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TerribleTerry
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An advertising campaign that boardered on amatuerish has got to be part of the reason.
I was in central London last wednesday and looked out for indications that a big boxing bill was less than 2 weeks away.
A few illegal looking bill posters fighting for space with adverts for raves was all I saw.
On the same trip large UFC posters were clearly visible at underground tube stations. Obviously UFC are looking to break into the market so high visibiity is essential, but boxing promotions by comparison look lazy and complacent.
If boxing doesnt sell itself and just relies on words of mouth and the family/friends of fighters, how are we supposed to attract new fans??..
I was in central London last wednesday and looked out for indications that a big boxing bill was less than 2 weeks away.
A few illegal looking bill posters fighting for space with adverts for raves was all I saw.
On the same trip large UFC posters were clearly visible at underground tube stations. Obviously UFC are looking to break into the market so high visibiity is essential, but boxing promotions by comparison look lazy and complacent.
If boxing doesnt sell itself and just relies on words of mouth and the family/friends of fighters, how are we supposed to attract new fans??..
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Max Molyneux
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I think over the years, it's always been hard to sell shows in june/july.
People just haven't got the surplus cash.
Summer holidays will always have preference to boxing shows when it comes to deciding where the cash goes.
Look at the shows that have been recently.. only a few hundred at the last couple main title shows..i would guess about 7000 at the 02 come fight night will be a good turnout for mid july, not to mention there is another show the week after.
People just haven't got the surplus cash.
Summer holidays will always have preference to boxing shows when it comes to deciding where the cash goes.
Look at the shows that have been recently.. only a few hundred at the last couple main title shows..i would guess about 7000 at the 02 come fight night will be a good turnout for mid july, not to mention there is another show the week after.
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Max Molyneux
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Re: O2 show ticket sales, very poor
yh and 4000 of those are khan fans.thepocketrocket wrote:A little birdie has informed me that SN have only sold 5000 tickets for what is an excellent show...if this is true it could turn into a disasterous night for Mr Warren...
Is this a sign that mainstream Boxing is on the slide?
People don't follow boxing in large numbers anymore, that's plainly obvious. It's all about developing individual fighters who can entice people in in one way or another. Khan is the only fighter on the O2 show who has that appeal and the fact that the bill has had no advertising on ITV has surely hurt ticket sales. If people don't know an event is happening how can they buy a ticket to go and watch it?
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thepocketrocket
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TerribleTerry
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A lot of people knock MMA and take the mickey (its their right to do so I suppose..) but it is far removed from pro wrestling.thepocketrocket wrote:Apparently the wrestling(UFC) has sold 11000 tickets in just a few days and is selling between 300-500 tickets a day...dont ask me why...
Here is a youtube clip of Anderson 'Spider' Silva and Minotauro Noguiera (both top notch MMA fighters) sparring in the run up to their fights on UFC 73.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4AyNrCbaaA
I think they both demonstrate decent boxing skills in all fairness and whilst they weigh 185lbs and 240lbs respectively come fight time, they have decent work rates too.
Whilst they wouldnt be able to hold their own with top boxing pros, it at least shows their general grasp of boxing. (which of course is only a single aspect of the sport..)
(probably better to watch the clip with the sound down to avoid the annoying weirdo moaning from ringside in portugese.._
)Fake wrestling it aint.
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TerribleTerry
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Some mutual respect between two over 40 superstars in boxing and MMA..
Bernard Hopkins and Randy Couture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUJb-R_6kEY&eurl=
Bernard Hopkins and Randy Couture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUJb-R_6kEY&eurl=
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Max Molyneux
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Re: O2 show ticket sales, very poor
How much go WIKID!emma wrote:yh and 4000 of those are khan fans.thepocketrocket wrote:A little birdie has informed me that SN have only sold 5000 tickets for what is an excellent show...if this is true it could turn into a disasterous night for Mr Warren...
Is this a sign that mainstream Boxing is on the slide?
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Greg Nicholas
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It's actually Cage Rage, not UFC. There is a difference.thepocketrocket wrote:Apparently the wrestling(UFC) has sold 11000 tickets in just a few days and is selling between 300-500 tickets a day...dont ask me why...
How badly is Warren going to be out of pocket?? I hope it doesnt stop him putting on more quality bills like this...
And if they have sold 11,000, it's may well be because there has been a well focused and planned advertising campaign to supoort the actual evant and the TV coverage. As has been mentioned before, there is no worthwhile promotion of the O2 bill - The ITV website still doesn't say the fight is on and none of the fighter on the bill feature in the 8 news stories on their website!
Interestingly, I had a look at my TV guide on Sky and there are 2 shows on ITV4, sandwiching the main event on ITV1. If this is so then why the hell is it not being advertised?? During an ad in the darts on Sky last night (surely a key demographic for Boxing promoters are darts fans?) there was a promotion of the MMA event being televised next saturday at 9pm - in direct competition with the boxing. Sounds like a big eff-you to FW from Sky!
Dave Coldwell seems to have become the official apologist for FW on here.d wrote:I think over the years, it's always been hard to sell shows in june/july.
People just haven't got the surplus cash.
Summer holidays will always have preference to boxing shows when it comes to deciding where the cash goes.
Look at the shows that have been recently.. only a few hundred at the last couple main title shows..i would guess about 7000 at the 02 come fight night will be a good turnout for mid july, not to mention there is another show the week after.
Perhaps he's after Boxingchat's job
Not even that James, I was there. It soldabout 2200.jamesmcdonnell wrote:I also think it is especially hard to get londoners to go to a big boxing event.
There just aren't that many shows on in London any more, and aside from the York Hall mob, which is a small group, there aren't many prepared to travel to a venue in London to watch a fight.
Look at Haye v Thompson, cracking fight on paper, only sold what, 3000?
It was dreadfuly promoted though. Friday night
Not really.beagleboy wrote:Dave Coldwell seems to have become the official apologist for FW on here.d wrote:I think over the years, it's always been hard to sell shows in june/july.
People just haven't got the surplus cash.
Summer holidays will always have preference to boxing shows when it comes to deciding where the cash goes.
Look at the shows that have been recently.. only a few hundred at the last couple main title shows..i would guess about 7000 at the 02 come fight night will be a good turnout for mid july, not to mention there is another show the week after.
Perhaps he's after Boxingchat's job
Just stating how it seems to be at this time of year.
Look at the other promotions around, we've all struggled at the june/july time of year so figures of 7000 obviously aren't great in terms of the quality of the show, but when you consider the time of year and yes, the ufc competion and hols then its not as bad as it could be.
Thats all i mean.
Hats off to all the promoters who have done a show in this period, it's giving boxers work and they all know its a big risk financially at this time of year..