BOXINGS BIGGEST DRAW EVER

sorry folks its not floyd or manny.nor is it ali nor louis nor marciano nor the k brothers who draw big crowds..its jack dempsey hands down.it boggles the mind what dempsey fights did in a era of just newspaper articles of the uncoming fight..no interenet no tv talk shows no mass advertising across the country in tv adds or newspaper adds to buy ppvs on a big fight.just the shear announcement that dempseys fighting brought fans clamoring for tickets.the dempsey firpo fight at yankee statuim packed them in like sardines.85000 folks showed for the big fight.the first tunney fight drew 120 000 folks in philly dispite a drizzle of rain..the firpo fight left 25000 folks at the gate that did not get in but wanted too.the long count fight in chicago had 105 000 paid attendence and 125000 overall watched the fight and newspaper accounts which i read the originals said 30 000 folks left at the gate that could not get in.he was the first to crack million dollar gates and did it with the grand finaly fore the last time of a 2.6 million dollar live gate.the average ticket price about 25 dollars.floyds last fight it was 600 dollars.any way you look at it dempseys live gate is like 60 million or more today.thats just the gate..thats equal to 1.2 million ppvs at 50 dollars each.
unbelieveable huh.just immagine tunney -dempsey 2 today in ppvs.it may crack 6-7 million.at least 4 million for firpo carpientier and 5 million for tunney 1..
so when folks say floyd-pac would be boxings histories biggest fight think again folks.jack dempsey could sell tickets indeed.boxings greatest draw.

i forgot the carpentier fight drew over 80 000 fans and boxings first million dollar gate.1.7 milion.it was dempsey only who sold the tickets for carpientier fought all his fights except one in europe.he had little or no fan base in the usa..it was dempsey alone that made it the big fight in sales.

add 80 000 to see the sharkey fight plus a million dollar gate.

dempsey was the first cash cow in boxing. he was biggerr than babe ruth.

Dempsey is one my favorite old school fighters

Holy hell 120,000? Thats a shit ton.

120,000 is amazing.

What possible fight could come closest today?

Pac vs Floyd if put in Texas Stadium with a good undercard.

Or Chavez Jr. vs Canelo in Mexico, with an undercard with Arce, and some other popular Mexican fighters???

Julio Caesar Chavez Vs. Greg Haugen set the modern attendance record with 132,000 people.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1137494/1/index.htm

You also have to factor in the time period. Boxing and Baseball were the co-number 1 sports in the United States. There was no NFL, NBA or NHL. It was also a much simpler time, there just wasn't that much for people to do as far as entertainment. The modern world has far more options, not just in sports, but life in general.

Still impressive though, but you have to keep things in perspective....

hillsicc303 wrote:You also have to factor in the time period. Boxing and Baseball were the co-number 1 sports in the United States. There was no NFL, NBA or NHL. It was also a much simpler time, there just wasn't that much for people to do as far as entertainment. The modern world has far more options, not just in sports, but life in general.

Still impressive though, but you have to keep things in perspective....

Not only that, but going to a live event was the only way to actually see it live. No TV.

Not only that, but going to a live event was the only way to actually see it live. No TV.

Exactly.

Tell me a time within the last 50 years, that you could get hundreds of people gathered around a radio to listen to a fight or baseball game. TV eliminated the need for having to be there live, and or listening to it live on the radio....

hillsicc303 wrote:

Not only that, but going to a live event was the only way to actually see it live. No TV.

Exactly.

Tell me a time within the last 50 years, that you could get hundreds of people gathered around a radio to listen to a fight or baseball game. TV eliminated the need for having to be there live, and or listening to it live on the radio....

Yeah, changed the whole boxing game. Why there are less fights today. Without TV money, small attendance for fights is not enough to cover the costs of putting fights on most of the time. Why we get crappy nich PPVs so the promoter can try and recoup the cost.

Boxing worked betterr when profits were determined by attendance. Popular fighters earned their big bucks because they got asses into seats. Less popular fighters fought more often to make money.

Today, got fighters that can't even get 10 people in their hometown to show up to their fights making millions off nich pay channels.

guys with all considered 125 000 watched fight 2 105 000 paid 30 000 left at the gate with whats equaled to a 60 million dollar live gate.is any fight today going to draw a 60 million dollar gate.tv still i feel has nothing to do with it.thats for the nation thats away from a live event.take into consideration the world series the super bowl and most of the playoffs are sold out with tv avalible.and avalible in that location also.thoses dempsey fights was equal to the series or the super bowl.something about folks wanting to see it live.like the super bowl many traveled long distance to see the fight just based on a announcement not mass media publicity.if they had room for fight 2 it would of had 155000 folks there live.yep with all the competion today is a point but bare in mind the population was less then half there is today.that overcomes the competion.also remember plenty of folks earned 1dollar ten to a dollar and a half a day back then.some spent 3 weeks pay just to watch the fight in the nose bleed section.dempsey was the man.

Nobody is dismissing how popular Dempsey was for his time. Just pointing out that things have changed.

Boxing is not a large live spectator sport. Fights drew that large of gates back then because it was the only way to see it. I gurantee a bulk of the people that went to the fight didn't see anything.

I''ve been to enough live boxing events to know if you are not ringside or close enough, you are not seeing jack shit. Or only a limited piece of what is going on in the ring.

Football is played out on a hundred yard field. Baseball a diamond. Boxing in a tiny 10x10 ring. That's why this talk of Arum wanting to build a giant stadium and make thousand more is absurd. Nobody going to pay thousands for nosebleed seats.

Cowboy stadium draws people because of the stadium and because of the largest jumbotron in the world. Where people sitting in the nosebleeds can actually see what the fuck is going on.

Why when TV came around, people realized unless they got good seats, it's better just to watch it on TV. Why boxing attendance slowly started to decline, creating the need for close-circuit and then PPV.