Hopkins vs Calzaghe does "close to 8 million" at gate

[Mr.pain]

One thing was clear about the 'Battle of the Planets' at the Thomas and Mack Center; most folks on earth, simply had no interest in paying for those exorbitantly priced tickets for Calzahge-Hopkins.

"The venue was scaled at like $16 million, with top prices at $1,500. So I think that that was over-priced, but in the end, the gate was still one of the largest gates for a non-heavyweight or non-Oscar gate in the history of Las Vegas," explained Schaefer. "I don't have the actual numbers, but the chairman / CEO of Planet Hollywood (Robert Earl) told me it was close to $8 million."

Multiple sources say that the arena was 'papered', with many tickets simply given away or discounted.

"It didn't move the way we thought. We thought it would move, but then again, Ricky Hatton brought about 35,000 Brits with him and Joe brought about 5,000," Schaefer would concede.

Schaefer refutes the reports of Golden Boy giving back a portion of their site fee to Planet Hollywood.

"That's actually not true, I don't know who reported that. Nobody gave any money back," insisted the Swiss banker. "Whoever said that, that's not correct or was not well-informed. In fact, somewhere I read that the site guarantee was 11 or 13 million, that's all baloney. All that's not true, it was well below 10 (million). And so if you take into consideration that the gate was about 8 (million), Planet Hollywood, if you look at the type of exposure they got due to the fact this was the highest rated HBO show in recent
history, they got a lot of exposure."


The Countdown is on for Forbes

 

[FIGHT FAN]

they dont know anything, if they actually thought this fight would do huge numbers. golden boy sucks.

 

[Wigglyman]

they dont know anything, if they actually thought this fight would do huge numbers. golden boy sucks.

Exactly expecting Cal to bring over as many fans as Hatton...wow they are mental.

 

[mschatz]

They sure pick weird fights to hype...Cal vs Hopkins looks great on paper, but if you know the fighters, you cant expect that to make for an entertaining show to the casual fan. I guess just name recognition...

 

[Necrocide]

Yeah, 8 million dollars gate for a non-heavyweight fight. What a total disappointment.

...

 

[BobbyBrez]

If you think it did $8 million at the gate I got some ice in Alaska to sell you. Seriously.

At least 1/4 of the arena was papered, you can ask Liu, I vented my displeasure at the whole think. You can blame Planet Hollywood and Frank Warren for the entire disaster. PH won the bid at $8.5 million, way over the share they could finance. Keep in mind PH doesn't have an arena that could accomdate itself so they had to outsource T&M (biggest arena in the city). If it had been at Mandalay Bay or MGM, would have been a different story. Fights simply aren't bigger off the strip, in terms of advertisting, guest comps, etc.

To make up their money, they jammed the face values but in the end wound up fucking themselves by selling less. I could give you the ins and outs of ticket economics in Vegas but my fingers would fall off.

GB then proceed to make a shitty undercard (no disrespect Mr. Barnett) with not many name-brand fighters. To top if off, it was the same night as a major UFC event with a likeable star that a lot of the Vegas fight community would rather watch than Slappy Joe and BHop.

Take it for what it's worth, just keep in mind that I know more about this than you. So there.

 

[Necrocide]

Well, since you put it that way, boxing is probably dying and this is proof.

 

[mschatz]

Take it for what it's worth, just keep in mind that I know more about this than you. So there.

bwahahaha excellent closing statement.

 

[Jason Barnett]

Bobby is exactly right. They had a bunch of comp tickets just to get people in the place. In speaking with one of GBP's reps, he said that HBO and PH got excited because Calzaghe-Kessler had 60,000 people.....well, same thing....they gave away most of those tickets to fill up the stadium. Great marketing by Warren, but not the most ethical way to do business.

Planet Hollywood did a great job hyping the fight. The off-strip site probably turned a lot of casual fans off. Who wants to spend 30-45 minutes in a cab to get to the T&M? It would have been much better had the show been at MGM or MB.

I will say that I still had the most fun with all the UK fans during the main event. Those guys really get into the fights because of the naionalism involved. I can see why the spectators at the soccer matches get so violent.

 

[BobbyBrez]

PH and T&M aren't close, but it should be a $10 ride.

bwahahaha excellent closing statement.

When the shoe fits...

 

[prosa123]

Well, since you put it that way, boxing is probably dying and this is proof.

I wouldn't say that. Given the points mentioned - mediocre undercard, off-Strip location, same night as a big UFC event, and most of all a main event that wasn't expected to produce many fireworks - it's not surprising that ticket sales lagged. Not to mention that prices were very high, which may have been a real problem considering that the economy's not in the best of shape.

 

[Necrocide]

That was sarcasm.

That's just my way of deferring to Bobby on this. The closest I've ever been to Las Vegas was when I went to Illinois, so he's certainly more educated on, well, literally EVERYTHING about Vegas than I am. I'll take his word for it on this one, and figured a sarcastic log on the fire of those constantly proclaiming the death of boxing was as good as anything else for a plus one.

 

[BobbyBrez]

Don't feel bad Gavin, I know more than pretty much everyone that lives here on this too.

I'd never tell Liu how to sell Mega Whey (edit: I tried to type in another supplement and it banned it) or GJ how to be a government lackey or Craig how to be an asshole either.