ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 A professional boxing event at Blue Cross Arena left promoters more than $100,000 in debt, and they\u2019re still on the hook to pay the venue and the fighters.<\/p>\n
Clay Harris and Derick Gramling set out to bring professional boxing back to Rochester after more than 30 years.<\/p>\n
Leading up to the event<\/p>\n
Gramling poured about $50,000 into the event himself. They advertised all over Western and Central New York on TV, radio and with flyers, hoping they\u2019d sell enough tickets to cover their costs.<\/p>\n
But at the end of the night, Blue Cross Arena told them that didn\u2019t happen. The venue can hold more than 10,000 people, but in total, less than 1,800 guests showed up.<\/p>\n
Prior to an event, Blue Cross Arena says it works with promoters months in advance to secure rent pricing, venue configuration, and ticket sales.<\/p>\n
After the event ends, Blue Cross meets with promoters to settle total costs. Depending on total ticket revenue, sometimes promoters end up owing the arena for the remaining cost of labor and rent. Otherwise, the arena cuts the promoters a check to reimburse them for the difference. In this case, Blue Cross says the boxing event ticket sales did not cover the cost, resulting in Harris and Gramling owing tens of thousands of dollars. <\/p>\n
Event day<\/p>\n
Harris blamed the rainy weather and the arena closing concessions early. But Blue Cross Arena said it stuck to policy, shutting down food and alcohol sales 30 and 40 minutes before the event\u2019s published end time. When the event got delayed for two hours, that didn\u2019t change the arena\u2019s policy. Harris and Gramling said the delay happened because the Athletic Commission had to approve the 30 checks meant for refs, doctors and fighters.<\/p>\n
They both affirmed all checks were valid, noting the commission verified the routing and account numbers. <\/p>\n
Cashing in<\/p>\n
Russell Peltz, the manager of two event fighters, said the bank wouldn\u2019t cash one of the fighters\u2019 checks and the other one\u2019s bounced. After agreeing on a $30,000 contract for Bryce Mills, the event\u2019s headliner, Peltz called the commission twice to tell them he felt uneasy about trusting promoters would follow through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese other kids that fought for 2,000 or 2,500 and, you know, they train for six, seven, eight weeks. A lot of them don\u2019t have jobs. And the jobs that some of them have don\u2019t pay them very much. And it\u2019s this just shouldn\u2019t be happening in 2026. In New York State. It just shouldn\u2019t be, shouldn\u2019t be happening anywhere,\u201d Peltz said.<\/p>\n
Peltz says he blames himself. During contract negotiations, he noted promoters declined an upfront payment. Peltz asked for $30,000 for Mills, with $5,000 paid upfront. Promoters said no, and Peltz proceeded to ask for $25,000 with the same amount paid upfront. When this counter offer was declined, Peltz says he settled for the $30,000 total. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was a promoter for 50 years, and then now I\u2019m just an advisor manager, and really this has never happened to me,\u201d Peltz says. <\/p>\n
Peltz submitted photos of the checks fighters received, as well as a document showing that Bryce Mills\u2019 amount was withdrawn for \u201cinsufficient funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Payment Plans<\/p>\n
Harris and Gramling said they\u2019ve already sent the money to the commission to pay the referees and doctors. As part of the event, they also paid special guests to fly out and attend like Mohammed Ali\u2019s wife, and they paid for the hotel stays and food for fighters.<\/p>\n
In the end, Gramling said it cost him his gym. <\/p>\n
They reiterated they were not trying to defraud anyone with this event. In response to the fighters still waiting payment, they apologized for the delay and said they\u2019d turn over every stone, including appealing to the community, to find the money.<\/p>\n
Blue Cross Arena confirmed it is working with both promoters on a repayment plan. A representative noted that both have been responsive and actively working with the arena throughout this process.<\/p>\n
The New York State Athletic Commission said it suspended Gramling and is taking actions to hold promoters accountable in meeting their obligations to all athletes and participants.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0boxing<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Blue cross arena<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROCHESTER, N.Y. \u2014 A professional boxing event at Blue Cross Arena left promoters more than $100,000 in debt,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652690,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[213727,703,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-652689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-blue-cross-arena","tag-boxing","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}