Golden Boy partners with Brooklyn’s Barclays Center

The Sports Business Journal this week had an article on the emergence of boxing at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, New York. The steady stream of fights is a result of a 3 year deal with Golden Boy Promotions which is using the new venue as a home base on the East Coast.

So far, Golden Boy has had two events at the Barclay’s Center. In October, Devon Alexander defeated Randall Bailey.  This past March, Bernard Hopkins defeated Tavoris Cloud.

In the October 2012 event, Golden Boy gave away 1,000 tickets to anyone that showed up at the Barclays Center that had a Brooklyn address on their ID.  Despite the comps, it sold 9,636 tickets for a gate of $750,000.  The Hopkins fight garnered a gate of $611,974 from 9,377 tickets sold according to the SBJ article.

Its third fight at the Barclay’s Center is this Saturday with Brooklyn’s Zab Judah fighting Danny Garcia.

The hope for both Golden Boy and the Barclays Center is that the fights will condition fans to expect fights at the venue, which in turn will lead to consistent attendance.  However, this has been met with mixed reviews as the article quotes Kathy Duva, the CEO of Main Events (you may also recall see filed a Declaration on behalf of Bellator in the Eddie Alvarez preliminary injunction hearing) as she has attempted to hold events at the  Prudential Center in New Jersey and determined that “two or three times a year (for events) is overdoing it.”

But, Golden Boy’s strategy continues and its done through the inclusion of local fighters on its undercards and having main event fighters make appearances.  Notably, having fighters sit courtside at NBA Brooklyn Nets games and having the Barclays Center show them and flash a reminder on its scoreboard of their upcoming fights. The Nets have also given the fighters its NBA gear to wear as a cross-promotion of products.

Showtime and Barclays collaborated on a marketing strategy to promote its boxing at the venue — something that does not usually happen.  As a result, the parties have compiled a database from the initial events and discovered approximately 1,100 people have purchased tickets to the two events.  It also determined that 70 percent of those were male with an average age of almost 43.  Also 46 percent were married.

Payout Perspective:

In the competition for market share of the boxing world between Golden Boy and Top Rank, it will be interesting to see how the battle for New York shapes up.  Top Rank has promoted shows in New York although its business model focuses on the market (promotion and content) rather than the building according to Top Rank head Todd DuBoef.  Its most recent event, Donaire-Rigondeaux from Radio City Music Hall sold out (5,600 seats) and had a gate of about $400,000.

But, the Barclay’s Center-Golden Boy business partnership is unique from the perspective that the Brooklyn building is new and likely wants to keep occupied.  Golden Boy would like to set a footprint in the market and promote its known fighters while cultivating prospects.  Obtaining information on the ticket purchasers is valuable to gauge the audience that it is consuming its product.  Like other professional leagues, obtaining this data helps with targeting marketing campaigns and advertisers.  One would obvious think that the overarching need is for promotion and quality cards to keep fans coming back for more.  Does this strategy foreclose other regions of the country where an appearance could receive a bigger attendance due to the novelty of the event?  It also appears that quarterly fights at the venue may place consumer fatigue (as Kathy Duva indicated) on boxing fans unless there are compelling match-ups on the cards.