If this guy has the ability to bid $3.1imillion on a fight's where there's likely not going to be a high return on investment. How can his business continue as an ongoing organisation if he's not generating a profit?
Don't know, really don't care, I just tune in for the fighters personally, I'm grateful he brought Boxing back to Network TV IN A BIG WAY though!
He is a Harvard Grad Businessman...HE KNOWS WTF HE IS DOING! Not only that but his Investors I'm sure are WEALTHY, they're not like us regular FOLKS who invest and is hoping for a quick return. These guys likely invest thinking LONG TERM not SHORT TERM. They're thinking about the Pot Of Gold that could potentially be at the end of this Rainbow which is that mega TV Deal from Networks to get PBC EXCLUSIVELY!
YOU HAVE TO SPEND MONEY TO MAKE MONEY!
If this guy has the ability to bid $3.1imillion on a fight's where there's likely not going to be a high return on investment. How can his business continue as an ongoing organisation if he's not generating a profit?
It's a long game that Haymon is playing here. Dirrell-Degale is a good fight, Dirrell was likely having qualms about going back to England, and there's still money to be made with the fight (site fee, event sponsors, ad revenue from the telecast).
Haymon Boxing/PBC put on another big fight, likely lose some money on the fight, but further cement the notion, in the mind of the casual sports fan, that the 'PBC' brand is the place for fans to go to see top-flight boxing. Won't really know if they make the money back till 2017, which seems fine by Haymon.
The network deals aren't profitable yet...
He has no network deals. What he is doing is buying time from the networks that is not profitable for them to create and air their own programming in. The reason it is not profitable for the networks is that Saturday night is basically a ratings black hole with little advertising revenue. NBC makes more money selling Haymon the time slots than by running their own programming.
Pretty much this except now that he's the one paying the fighters, taking a cut from their pay doesn't really mean much.
What is does mean is that he is in a conflict of interest and should be brought up on charges for violations of the Ali Act.
"WWE's new online streaming network has picked up only an estimated 700,000 subscribers, and WWE conceded that it could lose as much as $52 million this year. "
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/vince-mcmahon-s-losses---750-million-in-two-months-130951096.html
That article is almost a year old. They have about a million subscribers now. I don't think WWE is making anywhere near 10 million a month, but it is better now than it was then.
This is the big question.
I think its highly speculative at this point to assume anything.
I think the big TV deal could be part of the end game.
I think there could be a subscription based service at some point in this experiment too. I believe the WWE is making $10M a month off of their subscriber service right now that is less than a year old & still growing. The UFC is doing it too although they aren't a publicly traded company so idk how much money they are generating from it.
I think those things & maybe some PPV stuff is pretty much the go to plan. Thing is Al is not a conventional thinker. I think there is potentially something here everyone is somehow overlooking. Not unlike his outsourcing of promotional duties that no one was/is doing which is helping him sign so many boxers under the PBC banner. I think there could be a revenue stream people are underestimating or blind to currently out there that Haymon has already got dibs on.
"WWE's new online streaming network has picked up only an estimated 700,000 subscribers, and WWE conceded that it could lose as much as $52 million this year. "
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/the-turnstile/vince-mcmahon-s-losses---750-million-in-two-months-130951096.html
He (Al Haymon) hasn't lost a penny. He gets paid percentages from every fighter he "advises."
HAYMON BOXING, "Haymon Boxing Management, the world’s premier boxing management company. Headquartered in Las Vegas, NV, it represents the sports top fighters and athletes. The company represents some of the top athletes in the world and is focused on giving them the best possible management and assistance available." This is the entity that is taking the losses but its not his money, its investor capital that he is burning through...
Interesting how an "Advisor" has his name on a company that specifically states they are in the "Management" business.
I also believe Haymon knowingly overpays his fighters to 1)Keep them happy 2) draw in other fighters and or squeeze out smaller promoters by forcing them to themselves overpay beyond their means
With the new NBC network deal he isn't making a profit. He and his investors are currently spending millions to hope and entice advertisers to buy tv time slots in the future if they see potential. It's a big gamble he's taking.
he taking L right now for huge payoffs in the future. My bet is he using network tv to build up fighters and sell them PPV's and thats where he gonna recoup + along the way get sponors, advertisers, and hopefully somewhere down the road have the network pay him for the content/fight cards instead of him buying the time slots himself.
Not every deal or fight will be profitable. But what Haymon has done in recent years is massively increase his negotiating power by gaining control over a large number of the recognisable fighters in the sport. That gives him a mild 'network effect' with fighters and a lot of supplier power with boxing producers on the TV networks.
You have to differentiate between the position building moves Haymon has made and the profit seeking moves. To date much of what he's done has been about building his castle and dominating the boxing landscape. But naturally at some point it all has to reap dividends.
No one knows how long Haymon can apparently spend a lot more on cards or production than anyone else because no one knows how well financed he is, nor the kind of returns that he's generating as things stand. That piece of the picture is missing.
But eventually the power moves and position building has to stop and the profits have to roll in. The NBC/PBC thing is presumably where that's supposed to happen.
The network deals aren't profitable yet
This is the short answer...he doesn't (at least in terms of this venture)
Right now, he's in the business of spending investor's money just like he before when he indirectly used to spend Sho's and before that, HBO's.
but the equity group believes in him and willing to burn the money to build something major that ten years from now will be worth a lot more than 100 mil...
might be...and might not, in which case the investor's really will have burned their money just like HBO did all those years, and are now forced to work with a smaller budget
Al Haymon is also connected with a private equity group that basically gave him 100 million to bankroll the current TV deals... Eventually he will have to land the TV deal to be successful, but the equity group believes in him and willing to burn the money to build something major that ten years from now will be worth a lot more than 100 mil...
Similar to early investors in Facebook before it became huge