Can we stop calling Vegas a "Boxing Town?"

GrantZilla wrote:Dan Rafael
Nevada commission reports Rios-Abril @trboxing #boxing card Saturday at Mandalay Bay sold 2,728 tix for $257,950 gate. Also 531 comp tix

actually those are not bad numbers considering rios-abril was the main event

why was Rios not fighting in California. Couldn't he have drawn more if he had fought within 50 miles of Oxnard?

captainanddew wrote:why was Rios not fighting in California. Couldn't he have drawn more if he had fought within 50 miles of Oxnard?

Exactly. Vegas is not a fight town anymore. Unless it's Pac or Mayweather it's going to be a half empty casinio.

GrantZilla wrote:

captainanddew wrote:why was Rios not fighting in California. Couldn't he have drawn more if he had fought within 50 miles of Oxnard?

Exactly. Vegas is not a fight town anymore. Unless it's Pac or Mayweather it's going to be a half empty casinio.

especially makes no sense with a California guy like Rios. Add in an undercard with some other California/Mexican talent and you can draw a decent crowd.

GrantZilla wrote:

captainanddew wrote:why was Rios not fighting in California. Couldn't he have drawn more if he had fought within 50 miles of Oxnard?

Exactly. Vegas is not a fight town anymore. Unless it's Pac or Mayweather it's going to be a half empty casinio.

Other than Cotto and Adamek thats pretty much everywhere in the US.

SlickMoney wrote:Other than Cotto and Adamek thats pretty much everywhere in the US.

We all know the reason why that's the case. Promoters don't promote fights and take site fee money instead of building local fanbases for their fighters. Why you get two East Coast fighters fighting in a empty Indian casino on the West Coast and vice versa.

As Captain said, a fight like this should have been in Cali.

vegas is still a fight town.the local community has supported weekly fight cards with decent attendence thats not considered big fights but rather a club fight atmosphere.not every fight is going to sell out or excite fans.yes la or as captain suggests maybe a california site could of done better.arum and top rank most certainly promote fights.this was a top rank fight...a so called half full casino on the average is not a failure especialy if the economy is considered and the fact boxings creadiblity is extremly poor...who can figure that two boring fighters in a rematch that has two fighters that are questionable draws has sold over 7000 tickets with a few weeks to go.thats hopkins-dawson..
foxwood in conn has draw decent crowds with fights that are not big big fights.same with hard rock cafe in hollywood florida..actualy if we took the casinos out of the fight game there will be far less fights for sure .there is no magic wand to have success after success.yes there are a few fighters that can and will draw huge crowds and huge gates no matter what.lets take sergio martinez as an example.no one can say hes not gotten excellent exposure threw tv.or all the boxing magazines.hes a excellent fighter very likeable guy and fought in atlantic city.a close drive from ny city or philly and the so called magical ny city media market...he draws 5000-6000 folks.in a fight town close to 2 huge sports towns and fight towns..are we to say thats a flop.
yes there are times a promoter takes a site fee and does little to promote a fight.but we cannot say thats the case in each and every time a fight doesnt draw a good crowd.especialy the rios fight and top rank.to say that is totaly incorrect..
yep developing a local base is fine but then lets not complain when a pasqual or bute fight in canada before sell out crowds in great fight towns that are there local base.
there still are weekly plenty of fights going on all over the country.plenty are not big fights and plenty are in whats called a fighters home base.take the casinos out of the fight game and the result will be a sport that will disapear off the map..
consider the fact that boxings popularity is maybe at a all time low and its shrinking fan base .a half fulled casino as slick points out isnt that bad.
golden boy or whoever is invloved must be doing a awsome job of promting the hopkins -dawson fight then.for a fight few fans are excited about it will sell over 9000 tickets with 2 fighters with questionable following.we cant keep pointing the finger at casinos or promoters doing nothing as the reason a fight doesnt sell out or get 90 percent attendence.myself im glad there around for if there were not then less fights of a atractive nature will be given to us..boxing needs believabilty.if it does that then maybe some fights or more fights will do better.

It is a case by case bases, and usually when a fight doesn't draw a good crowd, there is a pattern. You bring up how well ticket sales for Hops-Dawson II is doing. That's because it's in Atlantic City, close to both fighter's hometowns. The first fight didn't do well in ticket sales because it had two East Coast fighters fighting in LA.

Martinez won't be a big draw in the US because he's not American and Argentina doesn't have the kind of fanbase in the US that Mexicans and Ricans do.

GrantZilla wrote:

SlickMoney wrote:Other than Cotto and Adamek thats pretty much everywhere in the US.

We all know the reason why that's the case. Promoters don't promote fights and take site fee money instead of building local fanbases for their fighters. Why you get two East Coast fighters fighting in a empty Indian casino on the West Coast and vice versa.

As Captain said, a fight like this should have been in Cali.

Im guessing TR didnt want to move the venue. It was supposed to be Rios-Gamboa in Vegas.

SlickMoney wrote:

GrantZilla wrote:

SlickMoney wrote:Other than Cotto and Adamek thats pretty much everywhere in the US.

We all know the reason why that's the case. Promoters don't promote fights and take site fee money instead of building local fanbases for their fighters. Why you get two East Coast fighters fighting in a empty Indian casino on the West Coast and vice versa.

As Captain said, a fight like this should have been in Cali.

Im guessing TR didnt want to move the venue. It was supposed to be Rios-Gamboa in Vegas.

I'm not blaming TR. I'm just pointing out that it's time to stop calling Vegas a fight town. It isn't. Not since the economy went to shit. Vegas been Ground Zero. People are not going to Vegas like they use to. It's not just boxing that draws poors crowds. UFC doesn't either in Vegas. Only mega-fights sell.

SlickMoney wrote:

GrantZilla wrote:

SlickMoney wrote:Other than Cotto and Adamek thats pretty much everywhere in the US.

We all know the reason why that's the case. Promoters don't promote fights and take site fee money instead of building local fanbases for their fighters. Why you get two East Coast fighters fighting in a empty Indian casino on the West Coast and vice versa.

As Captain said, a fight like this should have been in Cali.

Im guessing TR didnt want to move the venue. It was supposed to be Rios-Gamboa in Vegas.

agreed. they probably didn't want to move it. I don't see the point of having it vs Gamboa in Vegas anyway. Gamboa isn't a huge draw. Only place he could really draw is in Florida with the large Cuban population. It should have been in California or Florida.

Fights don't need to be in Vegas unless it is massive events with guys that can really draw.

Ok, I'll call it a city that people box in.

hardcorebee24 wrote:Ok, I'll call it a city that people box in.

Or

hardcorebee24 wrote:Ok, I'll call it a city that people box in.

....lol i agree.
if we stop calling vegas a fight town then theres no fight town anywhere in the usa.in la the so called flop of hopkins-dawson drew 8500 fans.a disappointment maybe for golden boy.a flop.i dont think so considering grant said it did poor for 2 guys from the east coast fighting on the west coast.yet now since both guys are fighting close to there home town or where there fighting out of is it draws 9000 folks thats a success in atlantic city with the magical ny city news media coverning the fight.for a fight that has 2 fighters neither one of them liked by the boxing fans neither one of them style wise a fan friendly type of fighter i think considering that both fights did pretty good..good in la good in ac.
i realy dont know if hopkins has a large fan base considering his last fight in philly drew 3000 folks.danny garcias last fight in philly drew less then 1000 folks..i guess philly is not a fight town at all since the local boys struck out there..
there are fights that disappoint crowd wise and fights that suprise us crowd wise.the promoter not the fighters nor the site deserve credit in both hopkins-dawson fights.the numbers said good job.especialy when all of us fans said a boring fight by 2 unlikeable fighters.and 2 fighters that fight non fan friendly..to now blame vegas the casinos the promoters for a downturn of a expected crowd is plain bullshit.the fight game for many reasons is a crap shoot ..even mega fights at times falls short of expectations.vegas philly ac foxwoods in connecticut are all good fight areas.the fan base is shrinking the economy so so ticket prices to fights even mediocre ones are esculating beyound reason etc etc that and several other reasons contribute to at times a smaller crowd then anticipated.i expect or anticipate the mares fight in el paso texas will do ok.i dont recall elpaso as being named a big fight town either.it will do well because of a promoters vision and smart work.
harcore i agree vegas is just a city where fighters not only like to fight in but live in also..not bad for a non fight town.

Dmare, are you phobic agaisnt facts and logic?

I have shown you facts on how fights in big media markets draw better crowds and better ratings on average compared to Indian casinios in small to no markets. Unless it's a hometown fighter that's grown a fanbase in said small market. Pavlik in Youngstown for instance.

This isn't the 1950s. Boxing is a nich sport. There is no denying that. So the media which is already struggling do to the online age is not going to spend extra money to pay reporters to go across the country to cover a fight. If the fight is a short driving distance, they are more likely to cover it. Pretty logical.

Same goes for fights in Vegas. Vegas is dead. They are giving practically flight tickets away to get people to come and spend money. Except people don't have extra money these days. And that goes for the locals. Unless it's a huge fight, people are not going to go to Vegas to see it. And locals are too broke to see it.

grant i gave a point of view thats accurate.you have given zero facts.zero reasoning except a hatred towards vegas or casinos or cities with casinos that have fights.i dont understand why you think or feel that way.again there are several reasons why a fight at times doesnt meet expectations.i pointed a few out.
where are the so called big fight towns then.ny city chicago la of course.philly sure.they have flops also or fights that dont meet expectation..your fixaction on the big city ny city magical media market in reality does not exist unless its a mega fight held there.others are not given coverage.coverage means if theses droves of reporters now will drive to ac for the hopkins fight for the real lh championship means several days of articles of size in there sports section.folks who live in ny city please tell us how much coverage the daily news or the post or the ny times gives this fight the last 4 days before it..the philly papers are they devoting 4 days of coverage on this fight for there home town guy..ill bet no.so many papers in fact dont even give the results in a 2 sentence article.
a reporter actualy can at least give one good size article describing the fight and its results by staying at home and watching it on tv.several papers near a fight dont even do that..
a nitch sport gets nitch coverage.there are fights held all over the usa and several in so called small markets and large markets.are we gonna blame vegas or the casinos if thoses fights dont do well..
promoting a fight in the last few years has become a big crapshoot.the interest by the public isnt there anymore like it was even 10-15 years ago...a perfect example is how you and others have complained several times that espns sports center ignores boxing .they give great coverage on all sports from guess what.there studio.
you loved to point out the rios fight attendence which was a disappointment even though gamboa pulled out but said nothing when a casino in the middle of nowhere in nebraska i think drew a sellout standing room only crowd of 8500 folks with a fight that had no locals in the main event nor no big names.there always 2 sides to a coin.why not be greatfull that vegas the casinos do have fights for without these sites there will be less fights.plenty of thoses fights draw a good crowd that are not big fights but nothing is said about that except bitching and moaning..
there are casinos in small town areas and gee some within a short drive from the big media markets.the ones in the so called middle of no where rarely get a big fight.
i for one am greatfull there part of the boxing action.they are part of the reason big fights or mega fights do happen.and part of the reason young fighters get a chance to develope.whats wrong with that..

again grant what casino with little or no market has a big fight thats taken it away from your big media market on a constant basis..what big crowds go to fights in the big media market for a card with no known names.what coverage do thoses fights get from your big media market.close to zero.case in point danny garcia a up and coming local boy fights in a decent media market in philly.hes local.has the correct ethnic background and in philly a good fight city.he drew 1000 fans along with other local fighters.a casino on a friday or sat night would of done the same maybe better.its a crapshoot isnt it.one way of looking at it is casinos all over are now the new club fight areas with there weekly boxing shows in vegas or other boxing shows elsewhere that are not a big fight..nothing wrong with that either.

I'm not talking about club fights. I'm talking about say having Bradley-Alexander in shithole Detriot because Shaw got a site fee. Talking promoters having two East Coast fighters fighting in some Indian casinio on the West coast because the promoter took a site fee instead of actually promoting the fight and building a fanbase.

Danny Garcia not a draw likely do to poor promotion. I bet his promoter never got him on a local Philly radio station. Or even paid a few bucks to get a huge sign for his fights. Or advertise public workouts and other community things. That's what every team does to build players into community stars.