Friday, November 16, 2007

THE RESILIENCY OF LAS VEGAS BOXING

Twenty-five years ago it looked like the Las Vegas boxing scene was on the ropes and in deep trouble, with Atlantic City apparently starting to leave the Vegas boxing scene in the dust. Gambling in A.C. had just been legalized in 1978 and although the seaside New Jersey resort town had gradually grown into a rival of Las Vegas, by 1982 it had surpassed the Nevada desert oasis in both the number of boxing shows and the number of world championship fights. That was the year that Atlantic City logged a phenomenal 165 separate fight cards, more than double the 75 shows which Vegas hosted in 1982. During the next 3 years, Atlantic City dwarfed the Las Vegas scene by even greater margins---121 to 40 shows in 1983, 121 to 34 in 1984, and 142 to a mere 25 in Vegas in 1985 (the smallest number of live shows there since 1963)---nearly 6 times as many fight cards! Things started to taper off in A.C. in 1986, when it had 80 cards to Vegas' 34 and the margin of difference between the two gradually shrunk until 1993, when Las Vegas logged a mere 28 fight shows, compared to only 26 in the Jersey seaside resort.





The rise of the Indian gambling casinos in the early 1990s certainly contributed to that shift in numbers, after Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988. Like the Atlantic City phenomenon, it took about 4 years for a formidable fight scene to be established at Indian casinos throughout the United States. The early trend-setters were Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, Casino Magic in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi and Fantasy Springs Casino in Indio, California became common venues for nationally televised fight cards shown regularly on ESPN and USA networks. Ironically, few of the early frontrunners remain major players in the ongoing competition between casinos both on and off the Indian reservations, Foxwoods being the exception with boxing serving as a major attraction for 16 years. Fantasy Springs has had only one show in the last 6 years and Casino Magic hasnt had a fight card since 2002, while newer casinos have become major players in a relatively short time. Both Morongo Casino in Cabazon, California and Emerald Queen in Tacoma, Washington have each hosted more boxing cards in 2007 than all Atlantic City venues combined, which have hosted just 6 shows this year, the smallest number in the three decades since A.C. gambling was legalized.

1 comment:

analisa jain said...

Nice article, thanks! I learn something new on blogs everyday and yours is stimulating and provides new ideas. Thanks and keep up the good work!
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