From Arlington to the Bronx, a Fan’s Perspective
By Steve Kim
If you read my diary on my accounts of Dallas back in March, you know that I spent plenty of time out there with one Matt Swider, who I only half-jokingly call “the last white boxing fan under the age of 30.” I met him and his brother a few years ago near the Mandalay Bay sports book, a few hours before the rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez. Since then, we’ve become friends (it certainly helped his cause that he’s a big Miami Hurricane fan. In fact, it’s the first thing we ever talked about) and we’ve tipped back a few dozen cases of beer together at various fights across the country.
Not only did he go to the bout between Pacquiao (he never, ever misses a “Pac-Man” performance) and Joshua Clottey at Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, he also made the trek from his home near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to catch this past weekend’s bout between Miguel Cotto and Yuri Foreman in “The Big Apple.”
If there was a fight at the Roman Coliseum, it would stun me if he didn’t make the trip.
"I enjoyed the weekend," said Swider on Monday afternoon. "I have a couple of buddies up in the city, so I stayed in the city with them, partied a little bit Friday and I actually wanted to do the whole Yankee Stadium thing, so I actually took the train to the stadium. The buddy I went to the fight with isn’t a boxing guy. It was his first show and he had a helluva time and Yankee Stadium was great. We enjoyed the whole event. The fight?...It was a Yuri Foreman fight but it probably ended up being better than expected. The undercard was pretty good, in terms of action; as good as you can expect, off-TV. The [Pawel] Wolak-[James] Moore fight was tremendous and just the whole ambience around the stadium, walked around the stadium, walked through the Yankee Museum. It was really, really a good time."
The friendly neighborhood Swider-Man makes it clear that if this exact same match-up was staged at Madison Square Garden, he would not have made the trip.
"Absolutely not; I’ve done the Garden and I’m not going for Yuri Foreman," said Swider, who might be influenced by certain “shmuck” boxing writers in their disdain for the future rabbi. One of the concerns about promotions that take place in facilities like Yankee Stadium is that they can cause a bit of a logistics headache, in terms of getting to the actual venue. One advantage of fights that take place at a casino like the MGM Grand or Mandalay Bay is that all you really have to do is take the elevator downstairs and walk to the arena or take a cab down the strip.
But getting to “The House that Steinbrenner Built” wasn’t all that difficult. Swider says, "I took the D-train from 34th Street, was at the stadium in 20 minutes. That’s definitely how I would go to Yankee Stadium; again, I wouldn’t take a cab; I wouldn’t take a bus." According to him, the rapid transit system of New York is the one big advantage of the Yankees yard over Cowboys Stadium. The headquarters set up by Top Rank for Pacquiao-Clottey was in a nearby city called Grapevine at the Gaylord Hotel, which is about a 40-minute drive to the stadium in Arlington, off the 330 highway. "Y’ know, honestly, the traffic for us, I don’t know if we got lucky, but it wasn’t too bad," Swider recalled of the trips to the stadium for the weigh-in and actual fight, where his younger brother, Brian, drove. "I know we waited it out a little bit, but it is a negative. It’s all the way across town where we were staying, where the fight hotel was. To downtown is another 30 minutes, then the other direction is another 30 minutes, if you wanted to go to the stadium. Certainly as great as Dallas Cowboy Stadium was- and I hope we’re there many times- the location of the venue, in comparison to where you stay and where there’s actually stuff to do, is a bit of a negative. But it shouldn’t preclude fight barons from going to the next big event at Cowboy Stadium because that’s something everyone should check out."
Having been to both of Bob Arum’s last two events in major league stadiums, Swider’s opinion is that these venues provide far superior atmosphere for fight fans.
"Absolutely; it’s better than the casino settings. The casino settings, while fun for somebody like me or you on a college football Saturday- we can watch the games during the day- for the most part, I’ve been there and done that. The fight week might be a little bit better. The night before, Friday night, you can get a little more of a feel; everybody is in the same place," he says."But the actual event in the stadium, there’s fans there early; they’re loud; they’re into the fights. As opposed to Vegas, we get there and, till the main event starts, 8:00 on the West Coast, there’s nobody there but me and you."
There was a disappointing turnout for Cotto-Foreman; the stadium was rigged for 35,000 patrons, and just over 20,000 was the number announced as the official attendance. But those who showed up had a great time. "Absolutely; they were digging it," said Swider. "Like I said, the buddy I went with, never been to a live show before and it might as well been Pacquiao-Mayweather, he had such a great time- and it was a Yuri Foreman fight."
(There he goes with the Boreman…uhhh…I mean, Foreman cracks.)
In comparing the two venues and his experiences there, Swider states, "Yankee Stadium was great; the museums, it’s like a big baseball museum, baseball heaven. But Cowboy Stadium just stands out. You get in Cowboy Stadium and you’re in the life of luxury, ’Jerry’s World,’ the big screen. It seemed like just a little bigger event, the way the music was louder. Everything in Cowboy Stadium, I would say, was a little bit louder; maybe the retractable roof had something to do with it. I’m not sure. Yankee Stadium, there was a chance of rain; maybe it impacted it a little bit. But as great as Yankee Stadium is, nothing compares to Cowboy Stadium- any venue I’ve ever been in."
There are reports surfacing that if a Pacquiao-Floyd Mayweather fight does come to fruition, it would take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which is a buzzkill on several fronts.
"I think it should be disappointing to everyone that wants to buy a ticket," said Swider. "I’m sure I may have to dip a little deeper this year if that fight’s in Vegas. But I’m sure I’ll be there."
Yeah, priced be damned, he’s going. That’s what he does.
"I would probably have to pay it," he says of the mark-up of tickets that is guaranteed to take place. "There’s no question, the fans are losers if that’s not a stadium fight."
(The fight back in March drew over 50,000 fans. One boxing observer noted that what this past weekend lacked were two important ingredients: Jerry Jones and Pacquiao.)
Swider bought a $100 ticket for this most recent fight in the centerfield bleacher area. For Dallas, he purchased a $300 ticket, "Very good seats, right off ringside," he said. "The seats I had, if we were in Las Vegas, you’d be talking $750, for starters."
There’s no doubt, this guy has two loves, boxing and college football (in fact, we are planning to hit the Miami-Ohio State game together on September 11th in Columbus, Ohio). Before hitting “The Big Apple,” he came all the way out to Los Angeles to watch the fourth installment of Rafael Marquez-Israel Vazquez at the Staples Center, a few weeks back. He work in consumer marketing for American Media and much of his discretionary income goes to his boxing excursions. He estimates that for travel, lodging, fight tickets ("and the beer we drink"- which is quite costly, I do admit) that he forks out around eight grand a year.
He believes that big stadium events do create more fans.
"There’s no question," he says, "you go to these events and I was talking to some fight people after- you and others- after we left Cowboy Stadium and we estimated that out of the 50,000, a good 40,000 of that had never seen a show before and were never going to go, unless it was at that venue. And everybody in that venue in Dallas- and I would say the same about everyone in Yankee Stadium on Saturday night- left saying, ’The next time there’s a fight here, I’m coming.’ And I don’t know if they would go if it was at Madison Square Garden. I don’t know if they would go if it was at American Airlines Center, or whatever it is in Dallas. I don’t know if they would go. The stadium, the fight, the atmosphere, I think that everyone that’s been to these stadium fights here, and you see the numbers they continually do in Europe with stadium fights, there’s no question, it builds the fan base. No question in my mind."
If Top Rank continues on with their “Arum-palooza” of hosting stadium fights across the country, Swider will be there.
"I’m going to the first one at Dodger Stadium; I’ll be at the first one at the new Meadowlands Stadium, no question," said Swider, of two venues that Arum has recently talked up as having strong interest in having fight cards. But he does have one caveat. "Well, if Yuri Foreman’s in that one in Giants Stadium, I’ve seen enough. I mean, Friday, I was traveling in; I was texting a few people- you included- and I sat next to a 300-pound woman on my flight. There was major traffic getting into the city and I said, ’All this for a Yuri Foreman fight?’"
(I can vouch for him; I received that message on my Blackberry. He sounded as if he was going through a root canal without Novocain.)
"But then Saturday night came, [I] got to the venue and that’s where I should’ve been. Right at the venue and it ended up being great. Absolutely, stadium fights, Dodger Stadium, Rafael Marquez and “JuanMa” Lopez, you know I’ll be there."
FANS
I don’t think there’s any doubt that Foreman’s story brought about extra coverage of the “Stadium Slugfest,” but I’m not sure that it translated to any folks of Israeli descent or of Jewish faith actually buying tickets to the fight.
When I asked Swider about this, he recalled, "Right about fight time, I rolled through; it looked like the synagogue of Foreman, they took all those empty white seats in one of the sections. Other than that, there was a section of Yuri Foreman people where his wife was sitting and where they threw in the towel. There were some flags there. There was one flag I saw in the stands and it nearly caused a riot about 45 minutes before the main event, during the (Vanes) Martirosyan fight. There was one guy. One guy.
"So it was Spanish Harlem in the house on Saturday night."
According to “JT,” a frequent e-mailer, and a native New Yorker, "Dude, there were waaaaaaayyyyyy more Boricuas than Jews at the stadium. Two Foreman fans were sitting beside me, and you could see how shocked they were at Cotto’s reception. They actually thought Foreman was gonna be cheered? In the “Boogie Down”?! Both Foreman and his fans looked rattled by the boos and jeers.
"There was a Foreman fan behind me (in full Mets attire, no less) cheering himself hoarse, while everyone trash talked him, "Remember where you’re at mother**ker!" "Let’s see your ass make it to the train, bitch!" The Foreman fan passed out from booze and exhaustion right before Yuri got crumpled. No lie, referee Arthur Mercante Jr was saving Foreman while NY’s finest was saving this rabid rabbi fan.
"I love New York."
See if that ever happens at the Grand Garden Arena.
I later asked him if he enjoyed the experience at Yankee Stadium.
Via e-mail he stated, "Everything about it, fight drawn along ethnic lines and borough allegiance, the oppressive humidity and cool breeze of the outdoor arena, stadium acoustics, sitting on a bleacher beside old guys betting quarters. It was way better than the Clottey fight. New York cared about this fight. It was awesome; I could go on."
He added later, "Also, the rumble of the Number 4 train bringing fans in. Stadium fights are for the fans, for people who take mass transit."
WHITE OUT
Swider is 26 years old and his brother is a few years younger. I asked if any of his cronies around his age group are real boxing fans.
"There’s some casual; like, if there’s an HBO event on, they’ll watch; or a major show, they’ll watch. As far as friends of mine, most of them don’t watch," said Swider, who watches everything from the biggest pay-per-view shows to Telefutura, Telemundo, “Friday Night Fights” and “Top Rank Live” on a weekly basis, including a host of internet streams on the weekend.
"But it’s funny, going into the office today, or getting some texts and emails over the weekend, for whatever reason, it probably had to do with Yankee Stadium, there was a lot of coverage in the mainstream press about this fight," he continued. "A lot of people watched this fight and liked it and, to me, hey, it was fun to be at the stadium and it was a relatively good show and Top Rank always does a great job. But if they liked Yuri Foreman-Miguel Cotto, you hope we get more people under the tent. And I think that stadium fights, if people tuned into HBO to watch Yuri Foreman because it was at Yankee Stadium and they liked what they saw on Saturday night, I think we got some better things we can show them than that."
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