Showtime Sports Exec VP & GM Stephen Espinoza said that the final fight in the net's deal with boxer Floyd Mayweather, scheduled for Saturday, is "structured in such a fashion that neither Mayweather nor Showtime will be hurt if the pay-per-view buys are low," according to Steve Carp of the LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL. Espinoza: "It's a safe deal for both sides. But Floyd's protected, and so are we." Espinoza "would not say what the projected number of pay-per-view sales will be." The cost of the broadcast of Mayweather's fight against Andre Berto is "$74.99 for high definition and $64.99 for standard definition." Carp notes "more than 10 million pay-per-view purchases have been made" for Mayweather's previous five fights on Showtime, with revenue of more than $750M. Espinoza said that PPV figures were "made public to put Mayweather's achievements into context." He said, "Sometimes it gets lost in all the negativity." Carp notes there is "no contract extension if Mayweather decides to change his mind and continue fighting" after Saturday. Espinoza said that they "discussed it for a while." But he "may be one of the few people in boxing who believes that Mayweather is retiring after Saturday's fight." Mayweather said of working with Showtime, "They've been nothing but great to me. They delivered everything they said they would, and I'm grateful to them." Espinoza "appreciates Mayweather's loyalty to Showtime." He said, "It's been a great experience. If he had a problem with Showtime, he never said anything about it" (LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL, 9/10).
DEAL IN REVIEW: Espinoza said of Showtime's deal with Mayweather, "In terms of the caliber of the fights, the visibility he has brought Showtime, the elevation of our boxing program overall, we couldn’t be happier." Asked whether the deal has been a financial success for the net, Espinoza said, "There are a lot of misperceptions about the deal and about what will make it a success. Each of the events on its own has been success. Some have been modest successes and some have been monster runaway successes. But I wouldn't be still here in this position, getting the latitude to continue to do big events, if each of those events wasn't a standalone profit by itself" (SI.com, 9/9).
WHO'S NEXT? Espinoza has said that Saturday's fight "could draw in excess of 1 million buys, despite the relatively unknown status" of Berto. He added that he "doesn't expect the fight to come anywhere close" to the record 4.4 million buys generated by Mayweather's May fight against Manny Pacquiao. In Demand Senior VP/Programming & Business Development Mark Boccardi said that while Mayweather has "set the template for being a successful PPV event draw," it "won’t be easy for other up-and-coming fighters to replicate Mayweather’s success both in and out of the ring." Boccardi: "The way he did it worked well with his personality, but it’s not going to work for everyone. The old saying (that) you can’t fit a square peg into a round hole holds true here" (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 9/7 issue).
BURNED BY THE PAST: YAHOO SPORTS’ Kevin Iole noted thousands of tickets “remain available" for Mayweather-Berto, though Mayweather Promotions CEO Leonard Ellerbe "dismissed that on Tuesday by noting that the fight would produce an eight-figure gate.” Had the Mayweather-Pacquiao “been even reasonably entertaining, the reaction to the Berto fight would have been dramatically different.” But instead of a "celebration of boxing, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight was obviously a money grab.” In everyone’s desire to “get rich, they forgot they needed to deliver a quality product.” Fans “have remembered all of that” and “clearly aren’t happy.” Now, it “appears they’re staying away” (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 9/9).
