Dave Metzler on Mayweather-Hatton PPV #'s:
In what has to be considered a huge disappointment, although it is being
presented very differently to the public, the Floyd Mayweather vs. Ricky
Hatton match only ended up doing a first estimate of 850,000 domestic
buys (that doesn't include worldwide numbers--which would put it above
1.1 million-and perhaps as high as 1.8 million as there was a report from
Sky in the U.K. claiming 900,000 U.K. buys for a show that started at 5
a.m., although the early reports were that it did 3 million pounds in
U.K. PPV revenue and those two numbers don't add up) and $47 million in
total PPV revenue. This was broken down as 520,000 buys on cable and
330,000 via satellite. The show drew 16,562 fans, which was 16,025 paid
and a gate of $10,393,950, and another 19,000 paying $950,000 in the area
on closed circuit. Regarding overall revenue, depending upon overseas
numbers, it is a minimum of probably $67 million and perhaps as much as
$85-90 million.
Golden Boy Promotions had predicted 1.5 million domestic buys for the
show, saying that all indicators of interest level going in put it at 60%
of that of Mayweather vs. De La Hoya, which did 2.4 million buys,
although it ended up around 35%.
As far as a domestic number goes, it would be No. 2 this year behind
Mayweather vs. De La Hoya, because Mania with Trump and Vince did about
740,000 domestic and the latest estimate on Chuck Liddell vs. Quinton
Jackson, UFC's biggest fight of the year, was 675,000 buys.
Mark Taffet of HBO, when announcing the number, noted it was the biggest
PPV boxing number in history on a show that wasn't headlined by either De
La Hoya, Mike Tyson or Evander Holyfield.
With the two Mayweather fights combining for $181 million in revenue, HBO
boxing finished its 2007 with 4.8 million buys and $255 million in total
gross revenue on eight shows. This breaks the all-time record for any
organization set by the 2001 WWF, which did $240 million, although with
considerably more buys at a lower price tag, and a dozen shows. The
previous HBO boxing record was $200 million in 1999, while UFC is
estimated at doing $223 million in 2006 on ten shows, also with
considerably more buys. The Mayweather gross revenue number would be the
most for any athlete in singles PPV matches for a year. Tito Ortiz last
year would have been the PPV box office king with 2.25 million buys and
$90 million.
But the 24/7 thing didn't work nearly as well the second time, partially
because the ratings for 24/7 without De La Hoya were likely way down. It
also showed just how incredible a draw De La Hoya is, and also, that
Hatton's British working class appeal didn't translate as well to the
U.S. It also showed the De La Hoya build up was one of those things that
clicked beyond anyone's wildest imagination and wasn't indicative of
anything that would relate to a new level of interest in boxing. The
numbers fell short of De La Hoya vs. Ricardo Mayorga in 2006, which
didn't come in with nearly the promotional hype and muscle this fight
had. Before the De La Hoya fight, the biggest numbers Mayweather had ever
drawn were 374,000 for his fight with Zab Judah.
It also shows that boxing's apparent "big-fight" domination of UFC due to
its historical advantages and mainstream hype advantages is not
necessarily that great. It's amazing, when you consider the hype in each
respective fight mainstream, how solidly Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell
beat this fight and how Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock wasn't far off.