A look at the Barclays Center's somewhat fraught boxing venture is presented as "Fans Hope Barclays Center Will Revive Brooklyn Boxing"

The big Barclays Center news today is the Brooklyn Nets' dominating playoff opener win against the Chicago Bulls, dubbed "Beatdown in Brooklyn" by the New York Post in reference to the "Blackout in Brooklyn" theme that pervaded the arena.

But the longest single article appears on the front of the New York Times's Metropolitan section, a seemingly balanced but inherently skewed piece headlined Brooklyn Gets a Rematch: Fans Hope Barclays Center Will Revive Brooklyn Boxing.

After all, the biggest hope belongs to arena CEO Brett Yormark, who promised monthly boxing matches beginning in October, then--after having to paper the house last October with 1000 free tickets--announced the next bout in February but actually didn't have a match until March.

The gist:

Until very recently, a scene like this one — a Brooklyn boxer training at a Brooklyn gym for a big-time bout in Brooklyn — would have been impossible, but now that the Barclays Center, on Flatbush Avenue, is midway through its maiden season of organizing fights, local gyms in the borough are again alive with the thump and sweat of hometown fighters readying themselves for hometown crowds.

“When there’s someplace in your own backyard where you can fight for friends and family and people you grew up with, it means a lot,” said Cleavon Evans, the dreadlocked co-owner of the Starrett City club. “Every fighter wants to fight for their own, and for us in Brooklyn, Barclays changed that game.”

Brooklyn’s boxing history reaches back to 1882, before the Brooklyn Bridge opened, when John L. Sullivan knocked out Jimmy Elliott with a blow to the throat at the Washington Park stadium, which is long defunct. The borough has birthed its share of champions — Mike Tyson and Riddick Bowe among them.

But the fight game in New York, and especially in Brooklyn, has been moribund for decades...

Here's the way the article papers over Yormark's excess expectations:

Though Mr. Yormark has not yet met his initial promise of a night of boxing every month, the Garcia fight (accompanied by three more title matches that night) was followed in March by a second night of fights... On April 27, Mr. [Danny] Jacobs will fight at yet a third “show,” as boxing promoters call their competitions, whose main event will pit Zab Judah, another son of Brooklyn, in a title fight against the returning Mr. Garcia. A fourth show has been scheduled for June at which Paul Malignaggi, a welterweight from Bensonhurst, will meet the rising star Adrien Broner.

Golden Gloves move--why?

The article mentions that, "[t]his year, for the first time since 1927, [Madison Square Garden] did not host the finals of the citywide Golden Gloves amateur competition, which took place Thursday and Friday nights at the Barclays Center."

The main reason suggested below in the article is that the Brooklyn arena charges promoters far less. But couldn't it also be because the unnamed sponsor, the New York Daily News, moved the competition to the Barclays Center, where it sponsors the associated plaza?

Mismatched fights?

The article does note:

After the arena’s first show in October, Sports Illustrated published an article condemning Golden Boy for arranging mismatched bouts on its opening night.

...Inherent in this criticism were the conflicts that all promoters face in staging fights. It is intrinsic to boxing that matchmakers need, on one hand, to put on bouts competitive enough to engage the fickle interest of an audience, but still need, on the other, to improve the records, and thus the market values, of the fighters they are contractually responsible for promoting. 

Who's to blame?

Mr. Yormark said he had struck the deal with Golden Boy because neither he nor his staff was expert in organizing fights. He has concerned himself instead with the business end of Barclays’ boxing program...

His critics, however, have said his decision to cede control of his boxing shows to Golden Boy has consistently resulted in uninspiring fights. 

If so, and some of those critics are pretty legit, maybe the headline should be along the lines of "Fans Look at Barclays Center Boxing with Wariness and Hope."

A different way

After all, the Barclays Center could be doing more:

Robert Goodman, who managed in-house boxing at the Garden from 1985 to 1994, said that one chief aspect of his program was a continuing effort to groom young boxers from neighborhoods around New York with an eye toward having them fight one day on the professional stage...
“I think that Barclays’ fans may suffer in the end, because as it stands, no one is developing local fighters,” Mr. Goodman said. “And the only way to do that is to have control of your own department and your own local talent.”

Still, the last word goes to local boxer Paulie Malignaggi, seen by some experts as a sacrificial lamb, who:

responded to this slight while sitting in Portobello’s, his manager’s pizzeria, a Brooklyn Nets cap cocked in homeboy fashion on his head.

“My name is synonymous with Brooklyn,” he said. “I grew up in Brooklyn. I learned to box in Brooklyn. I was never anybody’s favorite. I never got the ‘let’s-set-Paulie-up-to-be-the-next-star’ fight. I’ve been an opponent for other people’s stars before and now it’s happening again.”

Still, in true Brooklyn fashion, he said it was enough to be fighting at the Barclays Center for a hometown crowd.

“Everybody wants to rep their hood and at this point I can’t knock it. Hey, man,” he added, “it’s boxing.”

Yormark is surely pleased with the cross-marketing. It's probably in Malignaggi's contract.

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What happened to "monthly" boxing at the arena? Next show is more than three months after the first

As I reported in October, on the eve of the first boxing event at the Barclays Center, the initial plan to hold "monthly major professional boxing cards" there was under review, as the response to the first show led Barclays and Golden Boy Promotions to reevaluate.

As the New York Post reported, the question was "whether the next card will be either December of January." 

As it turns out, the next card will be Feb. 9, 2013. That's a more than three-month gap.

For the first show, however, they had to give away more than 1,000 free tickets, so maybe now there's a recognition that the audience for boxing--at least at the prices they charge--can't support monthly boxing.

It's a rare programming mis-step at the arena; while a few concerts haven't sold well, necessitating a wipe-out of upper bowl seats, those are generally one-shot events. Monthly boxing was a plan that they had to revise.

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Notes from inaugural Barclays boxing event: perspective may depend on proximity; early liquor cut-off; crowd rowdier than hoops but mostly in control

8 pm, visible empty seats

Beyond the press coverage of the inaugural boxing event Saturday, Oct. 20, I talked to a couple of people who had good seats and said it was enjoyable to watch, and point people to boxing blogger Karl Greenberg, who had cheap seats, said it was hard to see without binoculars, and was peeved at the concession prices.

But the biggest piece of news: they cut off liquor sales at 9:30 pm, some three hours before the epic, nine-bout card ended (and two hours before they could have kept serving), but more than 4.5 hours after they started letting people into the building for the undercard, which started at 8 pm.

That indicates a certain amount of understandable caution regarding the potential for a crowd to get liquored up during an event that lasted, roughly, three times as long as a typical basketball game.

Around midnight, somewhat more full

It also indicated a recognition that some people in the crowd, as one observer suggested, were getting started on the booze (discreetly) while waiting outside on the arena plaza.

Given the sport--and, perhaps, the 1,000-plus free tickets--the crowd was somewhat rowdier than at a basketball game. One observer reported that people were periodically screaming things like "knock the fucker out" and "that guy's a pussy."

But only one attendee--at least among those in view of my sources--was ejected for rowdiness (video here) and the crowd was generally in control.

What about the freebies?

The announced attendance was a little over 11,000, a little more than the estimate of 10,700, but achieved only with the freebies, which is likely why boxing won't be monthly, as initially announced, but return in three months. The arena can seat up to 19,000, depending on configuration.

Update: ESPN reports the event "drew 11,869 patrons, 9,635 of them purchased tickets, and the gate was approximately $1 million, according to a reputable source." That's 19% comps, but columnist Michael Woods still thinks the tally was "not too shabby."

Wrote MaxBoxing's Steve Kim:

In my previous article, I detailed how the discounting of tickets by Golden Boy Promotions and the Barclays Center was alienating fans who actually purchase tickets and have the temerity to support the business of boxing. Well, things got even more farcical with this offer put out earlier this week, which in effect gave any resident of Brooklyn four (not one, two or three but four, whether you like it or not) freebies.
Uh, yeah, but I have a feeling that the Brett Yormark Foundation wasn’t given any four-packs for the Jay-Z concert in this building. You don’t need to be an insider at StubHub to figure out how things are going with this promotion.

The Nets connection

NetsDaily reported (and has since updated the passage):

There were nine fights at Barclays Center Saturday night, and each fighter, along with his corner men, received a bag of Brooklyn Nets gear, caps and water bottles and t-shirts. It's part of Brett Yormark's cross-promotion, to associate others with the team and the team with the others. It started, of course, with Jay-Z end now will be a regular part of every big event at the arena.

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Barclays Center inaugural boxing round-up: a triumph (except for the failed drug test, papered house, and delayed return card)

While nearly all coverage of the inaugural night of boxing last night at the Barclays Center was laudatory, SI.com's Brian Armen Graham was a skeptic, and the facts that the arena papered the house and boxing won't return monthly--which went unmentioned in most the coverage I scanned--were factors.

Graham wrote, Boxing's return to Brooklyn: one-sided fights and bad promoter deal

The built-in hook for Saturday's fight card at the Barclays Center -- where Danny Garcia nearly decapitated a faded Erik Morales in the main event to defend his junior welterweight titles -- was the return of championship boxing to Brooklyn for the first time since before La Guardia was mayor.

...Brooklyn may be fertile ground for the sweet science, but events like this one won't be enough for the seed to find purchase.

The reason: one-sided bouts:

Four one-sided fights feels more like fulfilling business relationships and obligations than producing an authentic sports experience for fans.

Looking back, maybe the plan to reestablish boxing in Brooklyn was flawed from inception. The Barclays Center signed an three-year agreement with Golden Boy, cash up front being no small matter for a $1 billion building that admirably went up without public subsidies. But the short-sightedness of inking an exclusive deal with a promoter was laid bare in February, when the building missed the opportunity to host a Wladimir Klitschko fight because the heavyweight champ's promotional team understandably balked at sharing revenue with a co-promoter they didn't need.

Golden Boy made another dubious move on Wednesday, when it offered free tickets to the first 1,000 fans who could prove Brooklyn residency -- an effective one-finger salute to the diehards who bought tickets early. When you paper a house, you risk killing a market. Needless to say, the gambit played no small part in boosting the announced attendance of 11,112 -- if not the live gate of just under $800,000.

(Emphasis added)

The building didn't go up without public subsidies, as I commented, citing direct subsidies, tax breaks, eminent domain, etc. And the state gave away naming rights. Also, the free tickets were courtesy of the fledging Brett Yormark Foundation.

The press cheers

New York Times, Brooklyn Welcomes Back Title Fights:

Championship boxing returned to Brooklyn on Saturday night for the first time in 81 years. The borough deserted by baseball’s Dodgers in the 1950s and now embraced by the N.B.A.’s Nets, held four title bouts at the newly built Barclays Center.

Before the arena opened for the nine-card bout, hundreds of eager fans spilled out of the Atlantic Avenue subway station to line up in front of its doors, behind which a few Brooklyn brawlers were hoping to make history of their own.

“The last good fight I saw in Brooklyn was on the No. 2 train last week,” said Monica Johnson, a 24-year-old grocery clerk from Flatbush. “If any of these fights tonight are as good as that one, it’s going to get real crazy in here.”

...“It’s a thrill for me to have been a part of all of this great history of Brooklyn boxing,” [Danny] Jacobs said after the fight with nary a scratch. “I’m ready to do it again next week.”

Boxing.com, Barclays Winners Squared Circle:

The inaugural fight card at Brooklyn’s spanking new Barclays Center was a smashing success. The four fights broadcast on Showtime did not, however, come off without a hitch. There were two failed drugs tests, an inability to make weight, and there were no upsets. But three of the four fights were entertaining, and two of the four were even competitive.

The main evening of the evening featured super lightweight champion Danny Garcia (25-0, 16 KOs) defending his WBC/WBA titles in a rematch with Erik Morales (52-9, 36 KOs). Morales had failed two pre-fight drug tests yet he was given a green light [link] to fight. The reasons for this are as inexplicable as they are inconclusive.

ESPN, Brooklyn wins big at Barclays:

The Barclays Center has provided a new home and a new name for what are now the Brooklyn Nets of the NBA -- although early preseason results suggest it has done nothing to magically improve that team's results. The arena's first experiment in bringing big-time boxing back to the borough, however, saw the home team sweep the wins, sometimes in style.

OK, Paulie Malignaggi might have benefitted slightly from hometown cooking in eking out a split-decision win against Pablo Cesar Cano. But, close and hard-fought though it was, it was clear how much the win -- and the experience -- meant to the "Magic Man."


...this is New York, so everything was bigger: the beautiful new venue, the crowd that didn't quite fill it in numbers but filled it with noise, and the number of local fighters who represented their city and their borough.

The New York Daily News, Brooklyn-native Mike Tyson on hand at Barclays Center to see Danny Garcia KO Erik Morales in fourth round:

“This is a milestone for Brooklyn,’’ said Tyson, who grew up in Brownsville and drew one of the biggest cheers of the night. “It’s good to see the people here. They have jobs. They’re happy. This is just the beginning. I believe after this first night we’re going to see marvelous things here.’’

The first title match of the evening, featuring Randall Bailey defending his IBF welterweight title against Devon Alexander, was so boring that the fans booed throughout. It was the first world championship fight in Brooklyn in 81 years and never have so many waited so long for so little.

USA TODAY:

Even the pro-Brooklyn crowd booed at the decision [for local Paulie Malignaggi].

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Boxing tonight at Barclays; will it remain monthly as planned? It doesn't look like that (though they could just lower ticket prices)

From the New York Post's George Willis today, Fightin’ to keep card intact at Barclays:

“How many times have you seen four world titles fight in one night and it’s not on pay-per-view?” [Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard] Schaefer said. “Having Danny Garcia make his return is the icing on the cake. It’s a very diverse card, just like Brooklyn and New York,” Schaefer said. “There’s a little bit for everyone.”
This is the first boxing card in a three-year deal Golden Boy Promotions signed with the Barclays to serve as the exclusive promoter for boxing. The initial plan was to have one boxing show a month at the facility. But Schaefer doesn’t want to sacrifice quality for quantity. Officials from Barclays and Golden Boy will meet this week to discuss more definitive plans and whether the next card will be either December of January.
“I want to make sure the market will carry that many shows,” Schaefer said. “I don’t want to over play the market either.”

It looks like they're already skipping November, and aiming for a two-month or three-month gap.

The initial plan, indeed, was to have boxing monthly, as indicated in the arena press release excerpted at right.

However, tickets have apparently sold so slowly that they decided to paper the house with more than 1,000 free tickets, nearly 10% of the expected attendance.

That said, I suspect they could fill more seats if they charged less than $56 minimum next time.

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