A Referendum on the ‘$80 PPV’
By: Joshua Jaramillo
The idea of a ‘pay per view quality’ card has become rather vague in the streaming era, particularly with the amount of fees a savant, or at least someone interested beyond the odd Jake Paul freakshow, has to cough up to legally watch this sport. The decline of the TV deal and generally less meal tickets for a just as large line of mouths has only further added to this mess.
This leads to our current predicament.
With the number of viable promotions continuing to shrink and consolidate, particularly with the insidious entry of a blood-thirsty regime seeking to redeem its image in the public eye with a blank cheque to those willing to overlook its moral failings (something not difficult in a sport as turbulent as boxing), it’s not completely out of the realm of imagination to consider that cards featuring names that the casual fan can barely pronounce would need to recoup some of its price tag[. This is particularly the case when it comes to a certain grown man-child to which money is simply a number standing in the way of his action figures.
In this, we receive a constant bombardment of ‘more affordable’ pay per views, costing often half of the reviled $80 price tag, but ultimately further cutting down on an already dwindling audience.
As much as it sucks to admit, it is the truth. Not every elite fighter is a star. At least a star meriting a steep price tag to watch every time they fight.
Fighters such as Canelo, Tank, or, as loathe as I am to say it, Jake Paul are equal parts spectacle as fighters.
Your coworker will tune in to watch them once or twice a year, and hopefully, it’ll be an event with their friends or at a pub. The $80 being well spent on a memorable night that, more so than the fight at the end of the card, was about the night as a whole.
The current strategy of forcing fighters on cheaper, but still pay-walled cards is unsustainable. To reach these heights of superstardom, a fighter needs an audience hanging on to their every move.
Canelo worked his way up on largely free televised cards, be it on TV Azteca in Mexico or on American television before hitting the big time. The accessibility of his early body of work is something that eventually built up to his current superstardom.
Boxing at this moment, particularly due to how accepting it’s been to Saudi whims, has made it nigh impossible to naturally generate new superstars.
It’s a sad but silent truth that this sport we love will face a long road to recovery following the inevitable temper tantrum of the petulant Turki Al-Sheikh (see his previous sports ventures!). Once he loses interest as a result of electing to gouge the remaining paying customers weekly rather than construct stars and events the sport of boxing will struggle to recover.
Ironically, if we truly wish to preserve a sense of stars and events among not just the hardcores, but the greater viewing public that ultimately funds it all, the institution that needs to be torn down is not the ‘robbery 80 dollar pay-per-view’. It is the bevy of additional fees that ultimately block the average passing fan from sharing our affection of the larger picture beyond the biennial megaevent.
Then again, who am I to speak? I haven’t paid for boxing since 2019.
