GLOBALLY, Professional boxing is extremely susceptible to the volatility of economic cycles, simply because the top-level bouts require large injections of funds. A main event pitting two top boxers would entail an upfront capital outlay of at least $ 100 million before the first punch is thrown. The Pugilist’s playground is no longer the place where fairytales are made, and internationally, Professional Boxing has been on the decline for a while now, and the rot has stemmed from the erstwhile Boxing nucleus, the US of A’s dearth of superstars and charismatic personalities, stiff competition from upstart sports like Mixed Martial Arts, and the reliance on extremely limited revenue streams has pushed boxing to the brink.
There has also been a disturbing (for the Americans) trend of World Champion boxers now coming from countries other than the US – Pacquiao, Calzaghe, Klitschko, Chagaev, Darchinyan, Cotto and Marquez to name a few, and this has hurt the commercial viability of Boxing to a great extent. Gone are the days when Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Oscar De La Hoya, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. routinely sold out venues, and more than a million pay-per-views at $50-$70 each.
Vijender Singh is India’s most marketable boxer.
All of that is changing, and the business model is also very different today. Rather than a trickle-down model where the $ 100 million bouts carried boxing, there is a new trend whereby the sport is becoming more broad-based in its popularity and implementation, albeit with fewer blockbuster payouts. This is likely to promote the globalisation of the sport, especially in countries with an emerging interest in the sport, and the World Series of Boxing is a vital first step towards this encouraging development.
Take Indian Boxing. After the surreal showing at the Olympics, where the Indian boxers surpassed expectations, Boxing has suddenly surfaced on India’s sports radar. As it turns out, that could just be the catalyst for the surge in support for Boxing in India. The encouraging, albeit surprising news that India had been selected as one of the 4 Asian franchisees (there are 12 in all, with 4 franchisees each from the Americas and Europe) to host the World Series of Boxing in September 2010, was soon followed by a bidding war between potential sponsors for the event. With Videocon bagging the sponsorship rights for the property, and IMG becoming the property’s Marketing partner, there seems to be some substance in, and momentum for, boxing in India.
This is a remarkable turnaround from just a year ago, when some of our Olympic boxers were unable to even garner enough support to purchase basic equipment. While that is likely to change, Boxing, and other Amateur/Professional sports do need more broad-based support that extends beyond high-profile events. One wonders if the interest generated in boxing at present would be even at a tenth of what is today if the eminently marketable Vijender and Akhil had not accomplished what they did at the Olympics. The wishing on a star syndrome is a trap that corporate Indian sponsors in Sports need to prevent themselves from falling into. Sports globally are not developed due to individual flash-in-the-pan stories, and Indian sport has been a glaring exception to that rule. This is the right time to change that mindset and behavior.
It is encouraging that Boxing is becoming popular, and that India will host the WSB. The IBF General Secretary P K Muralidharan Raja feels that the WSB’s coming to India should help popularize the sport. Truth be told, any development in a sport other than cricket is encouraging in and of itself. However, the euphoric gold-rush mentality needs to be eradicated before one can truly say that sports in India are now corporatized. A systematic and balanced approach across sports that ensures exposure and steady revenue streams for sponsors over a sizeable period of time is what will make any of these initiatives to popularize emerging sports successful and sustainable. The success of the initiative is also dependant on how well our domestic athletes perform, and to what extent they capture the imagination of the audiences. It is up to the corporates and the federations to give our athletes the best possible support, so that they in turn can repay those who support them, with their popularity.
One shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth- the WSB in India is an extremely positive development, and with seasoned veterans like IMG at the helm of things, the chances are that it will be a well-thought out, and well-conducted event. It is even likely that IMG’s presence will add to the marketability of the property, and generate interest from sponsors even for the ancillary sponsorship opportunities that such an event will spawn. It needs to be supported by parallel development in training and coaching facilities, and above all, there needs to be a sustainable revenue model for the property, and especially for the sponsors: without a give-and-take where the benefits for Videocon and others justify the expenditure, this will be a one-off extravaganza that will knock itself out before it can even toe the line.
The rise of Indian boxing could be a fairytale beginning for emerging sports in India, and one hopes that other such events across sports help India’s move from never-ran, to potential-challenger. With emerging stars of South Asian origin such as thrust into the glaring spotlight, Boxing has become the poster-child of corporate India’s expansion into emerging sports at a time when the sport is bouncing back, and trying its level best to return to its glory days, in a more systematic and gradual manner than in the past. The bronze medal with the Midas inflection has proved golden for the IBF thus far. Let’s just hope that all the other sports that are looking for Rainmakers of their own can align themselves to this shooting star.
The author is a Sports Attorney at J. Sagar Associates.
