“Atlantic City is dying.”
That’s if it’s not already dead.
The proclamation that the east coast gambling hub is “dying” passed through the lips of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, whose administration is planning a massive government overhaul of Atlantic City’s gambling and entertainment district.
Steadily on the decline for the past decade, Atlantic City’s revenue has dropped at alarming rates of late; rates that have declined exponentially since 2006 when slot parlors were first introduced in neighboring Pennsylvania. Couple that with the recent legalization of table games in the Keystone State and sports gambling in Delaware and suddenly Atlantic City looks as unattractive as ever.
But no matter what surrounding states do in their efforts to compete with the gambling capital of the east, Atlantic City will invariably have its rich history on its side. A rich history that, of course, includes the sport of boxing.
Setting aside the fact that “AC” has our country’s oldest and longest boardwalk — since 1870, in fact — for the last thirty years it has served as boxing mecca, along with a gambling one.
Once gambling was given the green light by New Jersey legislators in 1976, casinos soon started popping up on the familiar of street of Monopoly fame.
With the casinos came the gambling and entertainment, boxing included. With the gambling and entertainment came the tourists. With the tourists came the money.
In the 80‘s and 90‘s when Atlantic City was operating like a well-oiled machine, it was the Historic Atlantic City Convention Center, now known as Boardwalk Hall, that hosted some of the best fighters to ever step through the ropes and into a boxing ring: Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Julio Cesar Chavez, Roberto Duran, Floyd Mayweather, Oscar De La Hoya, Bernard Hopkins, George Foreman…etc, etc. Further, Boardwalk Hall played a part in what was arguably the greatest boxing trilogy in the last thirty years, hosting the final two fights between Arturo Gatti and Micky Ward.
While Atlantic City still hosts boxing on a consistent basis, no big promoter has attempted to continually showcase their fighter in “AC” in recent times. Even Main Events, who put together countless cards at Boardwalk Hall have showcased its prized possession, Tomasz Adamek, some 120 miles up the Garden State Parkway in Newark. In years past, the Duva-led promotional company virtually sent all its fighters down the coastline at some point: Pernell Whitaker, Evander Holyfield, Fernando Vargas, and the like. Atlantic City even had an adopted “hometown” fighter courtesy of Main Events in one Arturo Gatti. Towards the end of his career, Gatti could have filled half of Boardwalk Hall if he were shadowboxing.
But recent trends have seen a decline in interest with regards to the once-lively Atlantic City fight crow. When Sergio Martinez and Paul Williams fought on HBO last December, a measly gathering of about 5,000 fans were in attendance. Undoubtedly, there will be more to witness their rematch on November 20, but the numbers from their first bout are telling.
“AC” was mentioned — almost in passing — by Bob Arum as a possible site for the November 13 PPV bout between Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Margarito but once the Texas Athletic Commission licensed Antonio Margarito, Arum took his business back to Cowboys Stadium, where upwards of 70,000 boxing fans are expected to show up.
The Atlantic City boxing scene has much more of a pulse than the city itself. However, what the two do have in common is a decline in quality over the past few years. While fewer and fewer fights that would qualify as “super” fights or PPV worthy events come to Atlantic City, one can argue that the quality of fights occurring at Boardwalk Hall has declined greatly since the “Glory Days,” with a few outliers here and there (the upcoming Martinez-Williams II being one of them).
It is possible that if Atlantic City begins to thrive once again that the boxing industry will take notice and major PPV events and mega-fights could return to the Jersey Shore.
So it is up to Governor Christie and his team to construct the plan to resurrect this “dying” city.
According to Business Week, Governor’s Christie’s plan would allow the state to “direct the agency that runs Boardwalk Hall…to attract more meetings and shows.”
The plan also includes funding to create multiple entertainment districts, outdoor amphitheaters, waterparks, and new sports complexes — perhaps one that will host the next slew of big fights to pass through the oceanfront city.
It is still Las Vegas, however, that is the go-to spot for the big fights and big PPV events, despite the trend toward stadiums that has emerged over the last year or so.
But in order for Atlantic City to once again compete with Sin City for the biggest fights the sport has to offer, it needs the makeover that Christie has in mind. For a desperate city whose casinos are struggling to stay in the black, a fresh approach to the entertainment aspect of the city might just be what the doctor ordered.
Then, and only then, will Atlantic City transform into “Las Vegas East.”
One thing is for sure, the Christie administration is counting on the wise words of one Terrance Mann as portrayed by James Earl Jones.
If you “re-build” it, they will come.
With regards to both tourism and to boxing’s biggest fights: at least that is the hope.
You can reach Kyle Kinder at Twitter.com/KyleKinder
