Things not thread worthy

[BrutalBodyShots]

(05-02-2013 08:55 AM)salvador Wrote:  That's fascinating. That makes you kind of a boxing promoter.

From a value proposition, Floyd/Guerrero seems like a much better deal than Trout-Alvarez unless you have a lot of Mexicans in your town for no other reason than there's just so much more advertising for Floyd that there's less for you to do to convince people to watch - especially if you are charging admission to recoup the cost.

Still, it's amazing that boxing is making it more expensive than UFC for non PPV fights. I suppose it's because UFC is the single owner whose long term interest is to grow the sport whereas every fighter in boxing is a free agent looking to max out his individual money potential before he retires. Just one more reason UFC is gaining vs. boxing.

The "real" boxing PPV's like the Mayweather fight are often negotiated through corporate Buffalo Wild Wings as well. Since they are the biggest events often they give us a quantity discount. There are about 900 Buffalo Wild Wings right now country wide, so they'll give us a price "break" if say half of them agree to purchase Mayweather/Guerrero. Almost NONE country wide purchase the none PPV's like I did Alvarez/Trout which is why the price is so expensive.

Due to the pricing we're probably not going to do the non-PPV's any longer, we simply don't get a big enough of a turnout to make it worthwhile. Also it's sort of one of those things you have to be in 100% for or out 100% for, because by showing just some fights you never really build that following you want; guests won't get to know you as THE place to see boxing... just some boxing, so they won't commit to coming all the time because sometimes they will get let down. The lesser fights also draw less because if people have regular HBO/Showtime at home they can see these fights at home. Probably half of boxing fans have these channels, so there aren't that many that are willing to come out unless they really want to see it on our 200" screen.

Believe it or not, the big PPV events can actually hurt sales rather than help them, especially when it comes to UFC. Normally my store runs a wait list until about 9PM on Saturday nights, then it tapers off. We are open until 2AM. With UFC now showing prelims on FX for 2 hours prior to their PPV events, I have guests showing up at 7PM-8PM for UFC. They get a table and camp at it until the PPV is over which is always after midnight, sometimes even 1AM. So basically you give up 4 seats for 4-5 hours at a table where they order food once and just sit. You hope to drag some more sales out of them by selling more drinks, but they can only have so many. On a normal Saturday night we'd turn all of those tables at least 2-3 more times before closing = more sales.

When you look at a snapshot of the day in and of itself of a PPV, it seems not worth it when you compare the sales to actual profit. Taking $900-$1600 off the bottom line of a single day can make the day nearly unprofitable. The goal is that these events draw in new guests who like their experience and then come back again at times other than PPV events.

It's amazing how much more expensive it is for commercial accounts verses residential, that's for sure.