UNCASVILLE, Conn.—Heavyweight fighter Cassius Chaney laughed at the idea of affording a ticket to Pacquiao-Mayweather in an interview with Breitbart Sports.
“I’m not envious of them,” the former University of New Haven basketball star explained. “They work hard to get there. There’s a lot of money to be made. Bernard Hopkins told me, ‘There’s a lot of money to be made. Just work hard.’”
Chaney says he focuses on paying for his roof and his ride, so a trip to Las Vegas to watch a fight in which the average face price for a ticket runs $4,400 remains out of the question.
“I have rent and I have a car payment,” he responded to a question about affording a ticket. “Those are my goals right now. I have to worry about myself first.”
Even the charge for the pay-per view, $90 in standard and $100 in high-definition, appears as too pricey for someone who loves boxing so much that he does it for a living. “Ninety? I don’t know if I’m spending ninety on it.”
The frankness from a partisan of the sweet science, and the economic realities of fans of the blue-collar sport, suggest that the promotors’ dreams of shattering the pay-per-view record of 2.4 million buys set by Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather in their 2007 bout may be dreams of avarice rather than dreams tethered to reality.
Just eight years ago he De La Hoya-Mayweather subscription cost $54.95—$45 less than the rate for an HD buy for the current fight.
“I don’t know how sensitive the quantity is to price,” supply-side-economics pioneer Art Laffer, popularizer of the famous “Laffer Curve,” explained to Breitbart Sports about the fight. “Let’s say they charge $1,000 per pay-per-view. They would clearly not get the hits. The question is: at $100, will they lose revenue? At some price point they will start losing revenue. It seems like a helluva high price to watch something on TV.”
If actual boxers hesitate to purchase the marquee match of the year, and a self-professed fan in Laffer says he won’t buy, what does this say about casual fans? The fight surely will shatter revenue records. But in terms of the actual number of buys, promoters may wake up Sunday morning underwhelmed.
Like all fighters interviewed by Breitbart Sports at a recent ESPN Friday Night Fights card, Chaney expressed definite interest in watching Pacquiao-Mayweather. Like most of the boxers interviewed, the 6’6’’ heavyweight didn’t appear too enthusiastic about dropping a C-note to do so.
“I’m going to watch it,” Chaney explained. “But I don’t know if I’m paying for it.”
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