De La Hoya Fight Throws a Midas Punch

LAS VEGAS — It’s not easy to impress a city that has a Statue of Liberty, an Eiffel Tower and pyramids. And it’s certainly not easy to make a financial dent in a town where billions are wagered yearly.

But when welterweight boxers Oscar De La Hoya and Felix Trinidad square off here Saturday, many who work or play in this city will be paying attention, as well as money to watch the fight, bet on it or both.

They will not be the only ones. Interest is so high that De La Hoya and Trinidad, both unbeaten and considered the best welterweights in the world, will be fighting in the richest non-heavyweight bout ever.

Everything about this fight--except the 147-pound fighters--is big, from its reach to its revenue. The fight will be seen in more than 60 countries, from Malaysia to Venezuela, to South Africa to Iceland. The pay-per-view total is expected to reach a million buys--at a basic price of $49.95. De La Hoya alone is guaranteed at least $21 million, Trinidad $10.5 million.

As for seeing the fight live, forget it. The 12,000 seats in the Mandalay Bay Events Center were snapped up by the sponsoring hotels and promoters before the public had a shot at them. But scalpers are selling tickets for as much as $7,000 each. The average for prime locations, though, is more like $3,500 to $4,000.

As many as 40,000 theater seats at closed-circuit showings have been sold, and the total is rising daily.

Betting on the fight--De La Hoya is a 6-5 favorite--is expected to equal the action for college football or the National Football League next weekend, said Vince Magliulo of Caesars Palace. No official figures are available but that means millions of dollars.

All this for a sport that was left for dead two years ago at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena, where Mike Tyson had bitten off a piece of Evander Holyfield’s ear in their heavyweight title rematch.

New Heights for Boxing

But boxing has been put back on its feet and carried to this new height largely by De La Hoya, the most marketable face in the game, and one of the most popular athletes in the world.

His timing couldn’t have been better. He arrived on the scene just as Latinos were poised to exert their economic force, and just as pay-per-view television was taking off.

When De La Hoya emerged from Barcelona, Spain, in 1992 with an Olympic gold medal, he knew there was more gold awaiting him back home.

Having grown up in East Los Angeles, De La Hoya was eager to give his family the good life. For signing his first professional contract, he wanted a long-term, million-dollar package that included, upfront a house, car, van and cash totaling nearly $100,000 for his father, Joel, and his trainer, Robert Alcazar.

De La Hoya got his wish. What has followed has been beyond his imagining. The fighter known as “the Golden Boy” has turned into the Midas man. At 26, Oscar De La Hoya has generated more money than any non-heavyweight in the history of a sport that stretches back more than a century.

In Saturday’s showdown, De La Hoya’s 32nd professional fight, he will surpass $100 million in purse money for his career.

The fight is not only expected to break financial records for non-heavyweights, but to move into monetary territory previously ruled by the heavyweights.

For example:

* If De La Hoya-Trinidad reaches 1 million pay-per-view buys, it will be the first non-heavyweight bout to do so. The fight needs only half a million buys to break even.

In Puerto Rico, where Trinidad lives, the percentage of homes buying the fight is already up to 15% to 16% of the 200,000 outlets capable of receiving it. Considering that 90% of pay-per-view buys normally are made in the last few days before a fight, more than a third of Puerto Rico may buy this fight.

In comparison, a million buys in the continental United States would represent about 2.5% of the TV sets capable of receiving pay-per-view.

The record for non-heavyweights was set by a De La Hoya bout, of course, his 1997 victory over Pernell Whitaker, which hit 760,000 buys. The all-time record is 1.75 million buys for the 1997 rematch between heavyweights Tyson and Holyfield.

* The live gate--the value of the tickets outstanding--at the Mandalay Bay Events Center is about $13.5 million, although many of those in attendance will not have paid. Mandalay Bay and Paris Las Vegas Casino Resort, Mandalay’s partner in this venture, paid the promoters $10 million to $11 million for the right to stage the fight. That gave the hotel control of tickets, minus those promised to the promoters, and it has given them away for the publicity value, to lure high-rollers, and to reward big gamblers. If certain financial goals are reached, there’s even a chance at a small profit.

The largest non-heavyweight gate so far is a little over half that. When De La Hoya and Julio Cesar Chavez fought at Caesars Palace in 1996, the crowd of 14,738 paid $7,579,100.

Tyson-Holyfield II, fought at the MGM Grand Garden Arena before 16,279, produced the biggest live gate, $14,277,200. Behind it are Tyson-Holyfield I in 1996 at the MGM Grand, a crowd of 16,103 for a live gate of $14,150,700, and Tyson-Peter McNeeley in 1995 at the MGM Grand, a crowd of 16,113 for a live gate of $13,965,600.

* The $21-million guaranteed payday will be De La Hoya’s best yet. But, said his promoter, Bob Arum, “The way things are going, Oscar may hit $25 million.” Trinidad’s $10.5-million purse is $8 million more than his previous high, for his match against Whitaker last spring.

How much do the fighters get to keep, before taxes?

De La Hoya does not have a manager, he has fired his business manager, Mike Hernandez, and Arum’s fee is not dependent on the purse.

So De La Hoya’s only financial obligations are to his father and chief advisor, Joel Sr.; his brother and handler, Joel Jr.; his trainer, Alcazar, and his senior trainer, Gil Clancy. The percentage paid to each of them is confidential.

Trinidad’s promoter, Don King, takes $2 million off the top, and Trinidad’s father, involved in his son’s career, will get an undisclosed share of the purse.

De La Hoya made $12 million for his first fight with Chavez and $11 million to $12 million for the Whitaker fight. De La Hoya’s payday Saturday will exceed even the $20 million made by Holyfield when he fought for the undisputed heavyweight title last March against Lennox Lewis. Holyfield and Lewis will each get $15 million for their rematch in November.

What about all the great fighters in the past? Normally, financial comparisons can be made by accounting for the inflation rate. But in this case, even that doesn’t help because then, pay-per-view was not a factor. Muhammad Ali fans, for instance, had to go to theaters for closed-circuit showings and the numbers who did were far fewer than those who can buy the fight to watch in their own homes.

Pay-Per-View’s Rising Prominence

Pay-per-view became a force in the 1980s, but even for the Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvin Hagler middleweight title fight in 1987, the biggest selling non-heavyweight bout so far, there were only 7-8 million TV sets capable of receiving the fight. For this fight, there are 42 million.

Historically, the demand for a fight peaks in the final days and hours before the bell. But the demand for this one began before the ink on the contracts was dry and has never let up, Arum said.

There are no seats available to the public because there are fewer seats at the Mandalay Bay Events Center than at the other major Las Vegas venues. Bill Doak, director of marketing for Mandalay Bay, said that, for future fights of this magnitude, he hopes to make some tickets available through a lottery.

But for this one, the scalpers are in control.

“It’s desperation time,” said Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. “This is an incredible ticket.”

Arum agreed. “I have never seen anything like this,” he said.

Besides his purse money, De La Hoya continues to grow his bank account with endorsements. He will make about $8 million to $10 million on endorsements this year and projections are for $30 million in a few years.

Commercial sponsors once feared to tread in a sport noted for corruption, but De La Hoya is another matter.

“Prior to Oscar, the commercial sponsors saw boxers like Mike Tyson and they were scared off,” Arum said. “It was extremely difficult to get sponsors to back fights.”

De La Hoya has made it easy.

Said Bruce Binkow, one of De La Hoya’s agents, “He is articulate, he is good-looking, and he has crossover appeal to both males and females, and both Anglo and Latino. He is the whole package.

“There have been others, but people like Muhammad Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard came along too early to take advantage of the marketing opportunities the sport is now enjoying.”

Binkow and his partner, Leonard Armato, are conducting a summit meeting of De La Hoya’s marketing partners here Friday at Mandalay Bay. Attending will be representatives of McDonald’s, Puma, MCI, Logo Athletic, Electronic Arts video games, EMI Latin recording company, Met-Rx nutritional supplement and Budweiser.

“As a Latino, Oscar is on a great platform,” Armato said. “He is part of the fastest-growing segment of the population and he travels very well.”

Some would argue that De La Hoya is not the greatest fighter, pound for pound. None can argue that he is not the greatest, dollar for dollar.