Speculation City: How Did The Pacquiao-Algieri PPV Do?

Ah, yes, the American obsession with numbers. I semi deplore it, yet fall prey to it.

As I am right now, as I focus on the Pay Per View buy numbers for the Nov. 22 Manny Pacquiao-Chris Algieri scrap and card which unfolded in Macau, and was presented on pay-per-view…

How’d it do, many folks wonder…

Not sure yet. We are caught in Rumorville right now, in the speculation zone.

Top Rank was the promoter and TR boss Bob Arum hasn’t yet gone on record with a figure. Some in the industry have started choosing to blow off releasing PPV numbers, because of the excessive speculation and analysis and criticism which abounds on social media and in columns by fightwriters who sometimes seem to think they know better than the programmers and promoters about best courses of action. (Also, a poor number is more likely to get buried than a great number…hey, human nature is what it is…Who wants to shout out disappointing news from the rooftops?).

Until Arum decides to part with the tallies, we are left to hearing estimates, from around 300,000 or so buys, to the higher end, under 500,000, maybe around 475,000, a bit less, perhaps, than the number the December 2013 Manny Pacquiao-Brnadon Rios fight/card, which also took place in Macau. (That’s an apples to apples comparison, arguably, because a card which takes place in Macau doesn’t receive the same US-centered attention as would a card unfolding in Las Vegas.)

The attention to PPV numbers is understandable, I guess, being that it can be seen as a measuring stick of the popularity of the sport, or Pacquiao…But part of the fascination edges into gossip, it could be argued. There is no shortage of people who would not be displeased if in fact Arum didn’t make money on the Nov. 22 scrap, if the site fee he received from the Macau people, and his cut of monies from the PPV, and other streams, didn’t end up leaving him a profit. That too is understandable, as this business is not a zero sum game, and folks are competitive, and sometimes/often/always, depending on your personality, exult in the failure of a rival.

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