(left) American Pharoah goes over the track during morning training for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on April 29, 2015 in Louisville, Kentucky. (right) WBC/WBA welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. works out at the Mayweather Boxing Club on April 14, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mayweather Jr. will face WBO welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao in a unification bout on May 2, 2015 in Las Vegas.
Most of the year, people pay little or no attention to boxing and horse racing. But on Saturday these sports—once dominant forces in American culture—will be at the heart of what’s being pumped up as the year’s biggest sports day.
Some are calling Saturday, May 2, the Greatest Sports Day of 2015. Down the line it could very well come to be viewed among the biggest days ever in sports history. According to a new Nielsen study, more than half (52%) of adults in the U.S. will watch, listen, or attend at least one of Saturday’s sporting events. Here are a few other indications showing just how huge Saturday will be for the sports world.
Major Events in No Fewer Than 6 Sports on Saturday
The highly analyzed NFL Draft stretches through the weekend, and two other big-time sports in North America—the NBA and NHL—are in the midst of the playoffs. Game 2 of the second-round matchup of the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals will be played on Saturday afternoon, and, depending on Thursday night’s action in the NBA, there could be two first-round Game 7s (Bulls-Bucks, Clippers-Spurs) on Saturday as well. While this season in Major League Baseball is still young, and the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry isn’t nearly what it once was, fans always pay extra attention when the two teams square off, as they will on Saturday afternoon at Boston’s Fenway Park.
Oh, and Saturday is when both the “Fight of the Century,” the much-hyped battle of Floyd Mayweather vs. Manny Pacquiao, and the most famous horse race on the planet, the Kentucky Derby, take place.
Floyd Mayweather to Earn $5 Million+ Per Minute
The winner of the Kentucky Derby comes away with a prize of at least $1.24 million—not bad for a contest that lasts two minutes. (Don’t forget, they are the “Two Most Exciting Minutes in Sports.”) Still, that’s nothing compared to how the boxers will cash in. Regardless of who wins, Floyd Mayweather is expected to take home something in the neighborhood of $180 million for boxing Manny Pacquiao on Saturday. If the fight goes the full 12 rounds, that breaks down to a haul of roughly $5 million per minute of action in the ring. And if the fight ends early, Mayweather could earn far more for each minute duking it out.
$200 Million+ in Wagers for the Two Big Events
Nearly $130 million was bet on the 2014 Kentucky Derby, while Nevada casinos are anticipating $70 million in wagers on the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight. For the sake of comparison, Nevada casinos took in “only” $116 million in bets on the most recent Super Bowl. Meanwhile, Vegas sports books estimate that money wagered legally accounts for only 3% or 4% of all bets placed in the U.S., with most bets still made via illegal bookies.
48 Million Viewers for Derby & Boxing—Just in U.S.
The Kentucky Derby has been averaging TV viewership of around around 15 million in American homes. The over-under for the number of U.S. homes that will buy Mayweather-Pacquiao fight on pay-per-view is 3.8 million. But it’s not like people shelling out $100 for PPV will be watching the fight alone. Advertisers estimate that the fight could be seen by as many as 33 million viewers. That’s just in the U.S. Around the globe, tens of millions more will surely be watching, including a huge portion of the populations in the Philippines, where Pacquiao is from, and in Mexico, which is a boxing-crazed nation—and one of the few countries where the fight will be broadcast on networks for free.
$600 Million Economic Impact on Two Host Cities
That’s the estimated combined economic impact of the Kentucky Derby and the boxing match on their host cities—respectively, roughly $200 million for Louisville and $400 million for Las Vegas.
