The Purse Snatchers

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali will not step into the ring for another seven weeks, but a 170-lb. Hollywood talent agent who quit boxing in college to go to work is already declaring himself the winner. No matter who is named heavyweight champion of the world on March 8, Promoter Jerry Perenchio figures that he will pocket several million dollars in personal profit. "I've been training for this fight all the time that I've been an agent," says the 40-year-old Perenchio. "This is the greatest event since I've been alive."

Indeed, never before have two unbeaten top heavyweights slugged it out for the title. Never has there been such a purse: $2,500,000 for each fighter. And never has a fight been so assiduously merchandised. The job of merchandising fell to Perenchio when he became victor last month in the knee-and-shove competition for broadcasting and other rights to the fight. Among the bidders he is said to have beaten out were Impresario Sonny Werblin, the National Broadcasting Co. and a group of black businessmen. Perenchio did it by offering $5,000,000 cash on the line, to be divided by the fighters.

Cokes and Chorus Girls. How did the little-known Perenchio get that kind of money? And how does he plan to turn a profit? Perenchio put up none of the cash pot himself, but instead found a 24-carat backer. Jack Kent Cooke of Los Angeles. Millionaire Sportsman Cooke, now 58, had parlayed a $24-a-week job as manager of a radio station in Canada into an empire of radio stations and cable-TV companies. Today he also owns the Los Angeles Lakers (basketball) and Kings (hockey), and is part owner of the Washington Redskins (football). Cooke made a deal with Perenchio, a man he had never before met, after their first 2 1/2 hour chat. Perenchio can be persuasive. "Sure, I've never put on a fight before," concedes Perenchio, whose Chartwell Artists has made a solid name for itself by managing such stars as Andy Williams, Glen Campbell and Elton John. "But I've been involved in putting on concerts ever since I worked at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, picking up Coke bottles and chorus girls."

In return for what Perenchio reports will be a fifty-fifty cut of the profits with him, Cooke chipped in $4,500,000. Another $500,000 was put up by Madison Square Garden, which has already sold out all the mail-order seats for the match. The total $5,000,000 deal was perfect for Ali, who preferred the certainty of cash to the possibility of a percentage. It was also all right with

Cloverlay Inc., a group of Philadelphia businessmen who "own" Frazier.-* In addition to the cash pot, Perenchio and Cooke will each have to ante up $750,000 in promotion expenses.

Love Story. For the two promoters, the big payoff will be closed-circuit TV. Perenchio optimistically forecasts that at least 1,500,000 people will buy tickets at an average $10 each, bringing in $15 million, which will be divided 65-35 between the two promoters and local exhibitors. To get all that, the fight has to attract almost as many people in one night as Love Story draws in one week. Local exhibitors, hopeful of drawing such unprecedented hordes, are booking the fight not only into movie theaters but also into huge college auditoriums and municipal stadiums, where well over 10,000 people can watch a single screen. Perenchio claims that he already has $4,700,000 in guarantees from local exhibitors.

The two promoters have forbidden radio broadcasts in the U.S. and Canada or even a delayed showing on TV. They are planning a documentary film, which will be released to theaters two months later and will bring them more money. They also count on an extra $4,000,000 by selling advertising, including ten commercials that will be shown to the captive closed-circuit audiences. The promoters figure to collect $1,000,000 from foreign-broadcast rights and $1,000,000 from souvenir programs and other odds and ends. Counting all the angles, Perenchio and Cooke foresee a gross of $21 million, out of which they would have to pay a percentage to the local exhibitors.

Perenchio concedes that there are a few problems. In some cities, local sharpies have booked the biggest auditoriums for March 8 and are offering to do business with Perenchio on their own terms. "I tell them," he says, "to invite their friends and have a buffet, because they're not going to get the fight. I'll throw the fight up on the side of a supermarket building and charge $100 a car before I'll let us get squeezed."

If all fits right in place, Perenchio hopes to get a profit of as much as $7,500,000--or a return of 1,000% on his $750,000 put-up. More likely he will fall short of that, but he should do nicely on an event that cannot possibly last longer than 59 minutes.

*An original share, which sold at $250 when the group was formed in 1965, is now valued at $14,400.

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