Boxing News Thread

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Feb 10, 2006
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As much as I hate Uncle Al, this seems like it can work. Maybe having Garcia vs Salka or not having Broner on PPV like that was an experiment held by Al to see what peoples reactions would be if that was to happen. And of course, people watched(not me). With that being said it can work once Manny and Floyd retire. PPV sales for boxing have already dropped and they will drop even more once they retire. The only reason I think this will fail is because of HBO and all promo companies. The best competition will be held on HBO bottom line and none of that can be said for an Al Haymon fight.
 

HERESY

THE HIDDEN HAND...
Apr 25, 2002
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Don't get ahead of yourself yet big guy. The mathematics don't add up. You cant pay all these guys big money on NBC Sports.

We all knew Haymon has been up to something signing all these fighters like starting his own promotional company or partner with someone like Floyd for when he retires but HBO and Showtime will not be cut out, you cant finance all those fighters on NBC Sporte and ESPN, not enough money.
Who owns NBC Sports and ESPN?
 
Mar 30, 2013
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Ok it seems Disney is the majority owner of ESPN at 80% and Comcast is the owner of NBC Sports.

Both companies have deeper pockets than HBO and Sho combined. If they do it is another thing.
Well, Showtime is owned by CBS so they have some pretty deep pockets as well. But most importantly, HBO may not have the deepest pockets but they are definitely the most committed to boxing of any network.
 
May 13, 2002
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As much as I hate Uncle Al, this seems like it can work. Maybe having Garcia vs Salka or not having Broner on PPV like that was an experiment held by Al to see what peoples reactions would be if that was to happen. And of course, people watched(not me). With that being said it can work once Manny and Floyd retire. PPV sales for boxing have already dropped and they will drop even more once they retire. The only reason I think this will fail is because of HBO and all promo companies. The best competition will be held on HBO bottom line and none of that can be said for an Al Haymon fight.
PPV numbers have been down for everyone this year - boxing, UFC and WWE. Too many PPVs.
 
May 13, 2002
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Ok it seems Disney is the majority owner of ESPN at 80% and Comcast is the owner of NBC Sports.

Both companies have deeper pockets than HBO and Sho combined. If they do it is another thing.
ESPN is the perfect example - huge pockets but yet the amount of money they spend on cards is tiny. NBC Sports is a small cable channel with low ratings across the board. I just don't see a massive investment, and Thats what it would take in order to fund good quality fights, on a product that hasn't been bringing in solid ratings. I think what we are going to see is more of the same - showcase fights for up and comers. Al Haymon has a big stable and since he can't fit all these guys on Showtime and won't work with HBO so he needs another outlet. If this was an NBC deal or CBS, that could be big. NBC Sports is like Fox Sports, small potatoes.

Of course I welcome more boxing on more TV channels. I'm just saying this isn't going to be a game changer.
 

HERESY

THE HIDDEN HAND...
Apr 25, 2002
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ESPN is the perfect example - huge pockets but yet the amount of money they spend on cards is tiny. NBC Sports is a small cable channel with low ratings across the board. I just don't see a massive investment, and Thats what it would take in order to fund good quality fights, on a product that hasn't been bringing in solid ratings. I think what we are going to see is more of the same - showcase fights for up and comers. Al Haymon has a big stable and since he can't fit all these guys on Showtime and won't work with HBO so he needs another outlet. If this was an NBC deal or CBS, that could be big. NBC Sports is like Fox Sports, small potatoes.

Of course I welcome more boxing on more TV channels. I'm just saying this isn't going to be a game changer.
That's why I said "if they do it is another thing." If they want to capitalize and get in on the boxing revenue they are going to have to spend money. As part of NBC Sports Group (it's no longer a separate entity due to the Comcast merger), the ratings are actually there and they have access to a bit over 75 million people. You don't even need 10% of that to be successful. In fact, you can take 1% of that and be on par with good PPV numbers (750k buys.) Only thing is your card is going to have to be spectacular so you can charge for the advertising space/time which will allow you to recoup some of the costs.

If Haymon offers excellent fights then you'll see a shake up. If he offers bullshit cards...well...:hurt: :dead:
 

HERESY

THE HIDDEN HAND...
Apr 25, 2002
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Well, Showtime is owned by CBS so they have some pretty deep pockets as well. But most importantly, HBO may not have the deepest pockets but they are definitely the most committed to boxing of any network.
The bold is key in all of this. Whatever happens needs to be done by people who are committed to boxing and want to be invested in a long term partnership and not just a quick cash grab or muscle flexing.
 
May 13, 2002
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That's why I said "if they do it is another thing." If they want to capitalize and get in on the boxing revenue they are going to have to spend money. As part of NBC Sports Group (it's no longer a separate entity due to the Comcast merger), the ratings are actually there and they have access to a bit over 75 million people. You don't even need 10% of that to be successful. In fact, you can take 1% of that and be on par with good PPV numbers (750k buys.) Only thing is your card is going to have to be spectacular so you can charge for the advertising space/time which will allow you to recoup some of the costs.

If Haymon offers excellent fights then you'll see a shake up. If he offers bullshit cards...well...:hurt: :dead:
What we've seen from Haymon time and time again is low risk high reward for his fighters. It's been this way for years and I don't think there is any indication that will change.

As for NBC Sports, their ratings are low accross the board, they average waaay less than a million viewers on any given day, and many cable packages don't even include this channel. NBC Sports Total Day Average: 183,266 viewers. Prime time average is between 200,000 and 600,000 (the high end was due to its hockey coverage).
 
Feb 10, 2006
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Al of Haymon's fighters have been getting fucked up or lose big fights, tho. Especially this year. Fighters like Lara, Trout, Vasquez, Russell Jr, and Spence Jr will benefit from these type of network fights. They need that type of exposure so the audience can "appreciate" them more. Wouldn't you watch them on primetime TV? Network fights for someone like Lamont Peterson are perfect! Hype him enough so he can get a fight with Garcia on PPV, not Showtime, for like $50 bucks with a GBP logo and we will buy it monthly. Even if it get 100k buys, the fighters see ppv money and they would be satisfied.
 
May 13, 2002
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I think Haymon sucked all the blood dry from Showtime. Apparently, Showtime is only making two more cards this year besides the one Thats already set and Thats it. No more money left. All the $750,000 purses to fight Rod Salka's dried up the money well. HBO in contrast has at least 6 more cards (Golovkin-Rubio/Donaire-Walters, Hopkins-Kovalev, Crawford-Beltran, Canelo-Clotty, Bradley-Chavez, Pacquiao-Chris (ppv)). I hope Espinoza gets fired, this was a really bad year for Showtome boxing.
 
Feb 10, 2006
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No, I was not being sarcastic. Haymon is gonna do what UFC is doing now. He wants to be the next Dana White. Imagine if Haymon takes all his fighters to one network, who would fight on FNFs? We would be watching Haymon's fights instead. And its not about ppv's being low cuz there are too many ppvs, it's because the fights are not what we wanna see. The undercards are weak!
 
May 13, 2002
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Yeah it is. Floyd vs Maidana I had an awesome undercard and the PPV didn't sell well (for Floyd's standards). The rematch had an absolutely horrible undercard and it did roughly the same.

I'm telling you, if that's Haymons plan I'm done. I'm tapping out. No way I'm paying $50-$60 to watch Garcia vs Peterson lol
 

HERESY

THE HIDDEN HAND...
Apr 25, 2002
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What we've seen from Haymon time and time again is low risk high reward for his fighters. It's been this way for years and I don't think there is any indication that will change.
Then it's doomed before it starts.

As for NBC Sports, their ratings are low accross the board, they average waaay less than a million viewers on any given day, and many cable packages don't even include this channel. NBC Sports Total Day Average: 183,266 viewers. Prime time average is between 200,000 and 600,000 (the high end was due to its hockey coverage).
Yet there ratings are higher than Fox Sports 1. More importantly though is that a boxing card they had in 2013 had over 216k views. The problem with the channel, like many other outlets (tv, internet, radio, etc) is the lack of compelling content. So if they want to get the ratings up, they are going to have to spend the money to get good content.

Per this link they can hit good numbers but the problem is keeping the numbers. Again, you can't do it if you don't have content that people are going to go nuts for. In addition, they should probably go ahead and offer it in most or all packages if they want it to take off.

Ratings - U.S. Record 3.3 Million Tune in to NBC Sports Group's Opening Weekend of Premier League Coverage | TheFutonCritic.com


ETA: Now apply the info in this link to boxing.

http://adage.com/article/special-report-2014-sports/nbc-sports-network-niche-stay-game/291183/
 
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May 13, 2002
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Well yeah, Fox Sports 1 sucks too so it's no surprise there. Soccer had experienced a huge boom in popularity in the US over the past few years and especially with this past World Cup. But even then, 3.3m is the highest ratings they've had. So you gotta ask yourself where the money is going to come from. Advertising? A 30 second add during Sunday Night football which has 27 million people watching costs about $500k. So you figure a 30 second add for slot with roughly a million viewers is going to be a fraction of that.

Now, if he can get shows on NBC, that's gold right there. Duva's daytime show, Cunningham vs I forgot who did 4.4 million on NBC. So imagine some high profile guys with some promotion behind it could possible do 10 mill or more, depending on the star power. According to Duva he "might have four NBC shows" so we'll have to see the details if/when it's announced. Thats what boxing needs, boxing on regular NBC not this NBC Sports/Fox1 small time shit.
 

HERESY

THE HIDDEN HAND...
Apr 25, 2002
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Well yeah, Fox Sports 1 sucks too so it's no surprise there. Soccer had experienced a huge boom in popularity in the US over the past few years and especially with this past World Cup. But even then, 3.3m is the highest ratings they've had. So you gotta ask yourself where the money is going to come from. Advertising? A 30 second add during Sunday Night football which has 27 million people watching costs about $500k. So you figure a 30 second add for slot with roughly a million viewers is going to be a fraction of that.
The money can come in the form of cross branding, tie ins, merch, advertising (in ring and on tv) etc. And ad's for the Super Bowl are actually in the millions ($4 million is the average now.) If big names are fighting on the card then you can recoup some of that money back from advertising.

Now, if he can get shows on NBC, that's gold right there. Duva's daytime show, Cunningham vs I forgot who did 4.4 million on NBC. So imagine some high profile guys with some promotion behind it could possible do 10 mill or more, depending on the star power. According to Duva he "might have four NBC shows" so we'll have to see the details if/when it's announced. Thats what boxing needs, boxing on regular NBC not this NBC Sports/Fox1 small time shit.
Bro, who are we talking about? Al Haymon right? You think this guy is going to shell out $20 million and not have something up his sleeve?

And all of this shows how much of a hypocrite Duva was/is when Stevenson and Al Haymon are in the loop.
 
May 13, 2002
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I personally don't believe Al Haymon is putting $20m of his own money into anything, other people's money maybe but not his.

How is Duva being a hypocrite here? I think she did what she could but her stable was always very limited. Adamek, Kovalev, Curtis Stevens, Cunningham. Thats all she really had. I was shocked she got this deal when it made a couple years ago because she simply isn't big time with no big names. She's done good with Kovalev though.
 
Feb 10, 2006
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The difference between Duva and Haymon is that she runs a promo company and Haymon doesn't. Haymon can get some of his fighters with different promo companies to create network worthy fights. And depending on what the fights are, someone like GBP will want to put their banners up. He's gonna start making the promo companies pay him and he'll get his money back, quick. Let's say Lara vs Smith happens, you don't think ODH would want his banner up there along with TMT? That's network worthy, right? He's gonna do it and it might work