Barry Horn had a behind-the-scenes look at how Jerry Jones snagged this weekend's boxing match.
Jones believes his stadium's seating capacity, its ambiance and its heavyweight video screen combined with North Texas' growing population - which includes a large Hispanic demographic that embraces boxing - are his aces in the hole.
Ross Greenburg, HBO sports president, calls Cowboys Stadium "a potential Woodstock for sports," equating big fights with major events like NCAA Final Fours and NBA All-Star Games.
"Put on a quality event and people will come," he said.
Top Rank boxming promoter Bob Arum and Jones preach that the sheer number of seats at Cowboys Stadium offsets the tonier price of seats in Las Vegas.
"It's simple math," Arum told Horn. "And watching replays on the big screen during the fight is something that has to be mind-boggling. ... Anybody misses anything, and believe me that happens even at ringside, and there it will be replayed bigger than life."
For Pacquiao-Clottey and its heavily Hispanic undercard, Cowboys Stadium has been configured for 45,000 seats. More than 35,000 tickets have been sold. That's a big number for boxing in Texas, where day-of-the-event ticket sales traditionally are huge.
Mega-fights, matches between two high-powered boxers, don't come along every year. But competitive fights that include at least one big-name boxer are relatively plentiful. Jones said he thinks he can host "three to five fights" a year.
Arum said talks already are under way for a bye-week fight at Cowboys Stadium during the football season.
Arum and Jones agree that they will both make money on the first fight card at Cowboys Stadium.
"Even if we didn't make a dime," Jones said, "in the context of exposure worldwide for our stadium and opening it up to the small guy who can't buy Cowboys tickets, this will be a successful promotion."
Source: stadiumblog.dallasnews.com
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