PPV Expectations for Pacquiao vs Hatton
We are about a week out from the showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton and there is much talk about the fight as a barometer as to the health of boxing on PPV. Bob Arum spoke with USAToday about his expectations for the battle between the two:
Anything over 800,000 buys in the United States will be (a success),” says Bob Arum, chairman of Top Rank Inc., which promotes Pacquiao. “It looks like it will do as many or more than De La Hoya-Pacquiao.”
Pacquiao-Hatton is the first major PPV bout of the year and a likely candidate for fight of the year. Still, the economy has led to prices being scaled back. The high-end arena tickets are going for $1,000, $500 less than they were for Pacquiao’s eight-round stoppage of De La Hoya. The PPV telecast is selling for $50, $5 less.
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“The Battle of East and West” will air around 3 a.m. there (in the UK), but that shouldn’t have a negative impact. Arum expects about 1 million buys at $23 to $24.
This will be the first big card of the year and should be a tea leave to the fortunes of boxing PPV in the near to mid term. HBO PPV has been intentionally scaled back this year, with more major fights being shifted over to HBO proper. With fewer events on PPV, the ones that are there need to be blockbusters for HBO. There was talk in the article of “pent-up demand”, which the promoter/HBO are counting on but that remains to be seen.
The arena tickets are scaled back, something that has taken place with the UFC as well. The UFC has instituted a decrease in their top end tickets since the economic downturn, with the gates in Vegas seeing a decrease. The boxing crowd is much more high-roller driven so they still have an elevated ticket price in comparison to the UFC, but they are feeling the pinch and adjusting accordingly. The slight drop in the PPV is negligible and really a non-starter as to whether folks will or won’t end up purchasing the card.
The UK buy information for Hatton is interesting. The UK is an avenue for PPV riches where as The Philippines not so much. This is interesting in relation to where the UFC has sought to expand internationally. The UFC has paid lip service to the Filipino market due to stars like Vera, Munoz, and Nover but the rubber is meeting the road over in the UK and mainland Europe. The end game for moves like the Bisping and Hardy pushes and the US vs UK TUF season are to elevate Brit fighters to a level where they can do sizable numbers on UK PPV. Hatton-esque numbers for MMA at this point seem a little far-fetched but are a target to shoot for.
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