First details of BSA, SABC's MoU revealed

Boxing South Africa has divulged in part what the Memorandum of Understanding with the SABC will entail, with the main point being a process of selecting promoters' applications based on specific event criteria.

The two parties have yet to sign the MOU with negotiations set to be finalised in the coming weeks, according to BSA acting CEO Erick Sithole.

Sithole further elaborated that the initial coverage will only be for national and international bouts, while a development element will be discussed once the ball gets rolling.

"The MOU that will be signed is based on the following principles: Number one, there will be criteria to select promoters. Two, there will be tournament specifications, for instance, there must be one SA title bout, at least one women's bout, and a provincial title," explained the acting CEO.

"So, among many, those are part of the specifications that will be put out to our promoters who want to stage tournaments. There are also venue broadcasting specifications, and there is a checklist that will be provided to promoters, as well as stakeholder obligations.

"There will be dates provided to BSA by SABC and then those dates will be allocated per province, and then proposals from promoters will be invited by BSA, in line with those specified dates.

"SABC has agreed to provide funding or a standard flat fee, depending on the nature of the tournament, and one thing that's very good about this MOU is that it only talks to national and international titles. There will be another one for developmental tournaments at a later stage."

For the public broadcaster, the value derived from this partnership is in bringing back one of the previously most-loved sports to the masses that cannot afford pay television.

But how exactly is the deal structured as far as finances go? Rathbone explains...

"So, in year one, obviously we are going to put some things in there and say like, we're going to pay the rights fees, do the productions and all these kinds of things, so there's an amount of money that SABC needs to kind of fund,"

"We can't go out from day one and say, we're going to just give you every weekend because we don't have the revenue for that, so we're starting in year one with, I think it's 12 fights, I think 18 fights in year two and then 36 in year's three.

"Although we have said that's conditionally on us getting the revenue, the idea being that we will grow it as we find more sponsorship and get more revenue, we can then put that back into doing more and more fights.

"But in principle, we're starting with 12, which means that at least once a month there's going to be a BSA fight that will be in place."

By Chad Klate