Columnist Dean Juipe: Hispanics drive boxing, Arum says

Dean Juipe

Friday, Aug. 3, 2001 | 10:38 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

There's an entertaining fight card in town Saturday night, but hardly anyone is buying a ticket.

Promoter Bob Arum knows why.

"I'm disappointed," he said Thursday. "(Wladimir) Klitschko is an interesting guy and he's a potential heavyweight champion, yet there's practically no interest in seeing him based on the number of tickets that have been sold.

"But if I put (featherweight) Erik Morales on the card, you wouldn't be able to get a ticket."

Emphasizing that he wasn't being critical of the host site, Mandalay Bay, Arum reiterated his belief that professional boxing has become reliant on the Hispanic marketplace. Klitschko vs. Charles Shufford, plus Paulie Ayala vs. Bones Adams in a highly competitive companion bout, doesn't figure to be a box office success in spite of its inherent attractiveness.

The reason: No Hispanic stars means no great run on tickets.

"Right now they've sold about 2,700 tickets," Arum said. "If we do a good walk-up, maybe we'll have 4,000 or 5,000."

The expansive Events Center has been scaled back to 6,000 yet doesn't figure to be filled.

"Part of it is that a lot of locals are away and there aren't any tourists here right now," Arum said. "Another aspect is that the other casinos won't buy tickets for this show unless their customers specifically ask for them.

"That's one of Mandalay Bay's problems."

Arum feels the conglomerate's customers aren't like the high-end visitors that frequent the many hotel/casinos owned by Park Place and MGM MIRAGE.

"Park Place and the MGM have huge customer bases, not only where a fight's taking place but at all their affiliated properties," he said. "If we have a fight at one of those sites and there's 6,000 tickets, 3,000 are gone right off the top.

"This property (Mandalay Bay) is more dependent on public sales and there appears to be a reluctance by the other properties to buy tickets for events here.

"It (Saturday's card) would have done better at a Park Place or MGM hotel."

Or, he adds, if a prominent Hispanic fighter were involved.

"Nobody listens to what I say, but other than maybe Felix Trinidad there's not a great demand for any fighter unless he's Hispanic," Arum said. "And any area of the country that doesn't have many Hispanics will have a hard time selling tickets to a fight card."

That said, Arum -- whose Top Rank company is based here -- still enjoys putting on cards in Las Vegas, which is relevant in that he is giving up on former "boxing capital" rival Atlantic City.

"Atlantic City was competitive with Las Vegas during the era of Donald Trump's wildness," Arum said of a period of time that ended in the early 1990s. "He did two or three big fights, but it's died ever since and I don't think that will ever change."

He thinks the Staples Center in Los Angeles and Madison Square Garden in New York are Las Vegas' chief competitors, with the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut apt to be a factor by the end of the year.

"There's no question with the economic clout of a Park Place or an MGM, Las Vegas will always be competitive," he said. "But this property here (Mandalay Bay) will have a more difficult time."