Tweet
Guide to Running HBO Boxing... for Dummies
by John Chavez
Nov 05, 2010 -
It's been a while since "The Boxing Truth" has printed or even noted any opinions about the boxing world for the month of October. The sport has had one of the longest droughts in terms of high-level action that I can remember. It's the type of thing that happens when you have dummies running the programming at the "Heart and Soul" of boxing.
Therefore... I have decided to include a short passage from this new book I'm working on titled... "Running HBO Boxing for Dummies." It's a book I dedicate to Ross Greenburg and Kenny Smith... oops I mean Kerry Davis.
(Seriously though... that fool does look like Kenny Smith.)
Where do we start?
This **** is not complicated my friends.
ESPN Friday Night Fight shells out about $25,000 per show as a broadcast license fee to promoters while retaining all rebroadcast rights and international resale.
Showtime's Friday night series, Shobox shells out between $40,000 and $50,000 per show as a license fee for broadcast rights.
As far as I understand, that is generally the baseline market for television money being offered to American promoters for the rights to showcase their events.
I've seen multiple auctions take place over the course of my life both online and offline. The way it usually works is that people bid against each other in increments. This means that if someone wants to own Michael Marley's encrusted Red Sox hat at the baseball historian auction, they continue to bid one dollar more than their competitors. It usually goes from one... to two... to three. Not from one... to two... to twenty-seven.
An auction like that wouldn't make any sense to anyone with any semblance of intelligence. Why bid $27 when you can get the same product for $3.
Unfortunately boxing doesn't work like this.
There is a sickening desperation to unnecessarily offer more money than makes any sort of reasonable sense. As Thomas Hauser stated in his 3-part series, there are strange things occurring within the landscape of HBO Boxing and due to the political nature of certain characters within the sport, the madness continues to ensue year after year.
Once again, I will offer my futile attempt to teach all of these imbeciles the simplicity of running HBO Boxing effectively.
The sweet science has traditionally taken center stage on Saturday night which is an outdated model. If boxing wonders why it hasn't drawn any new young viewers to the sport, it must use it's miniscule brain to comprehend why this is such.
Only weirdos stay home on a Saturday night.
Let me repeat this... if you are between the ages of 18-25, you are not entirely the norm if you don't have something somewhat regularly planned for Saturday night. The same thing goes for Friday night.
If you attend college, it is most likely that you not only have an agenda for these prime nights of the week but it is also most likely that you do not have HBO in your dorm room or house. HBO is an unnecessary added cost that leads to an overly inflated cable package.
So in a futile attempt to reach the younger demographics, I'd suggest that HBO spread their programming around throughout the week to say... Tuesday or Wednesday.
Like I stated earlier, ESPN doles out $25,000 and Shobox $50,000. Why wouldn't it make sense for HBO to start programming fights at the $75,000 to $100,000 range?
Ok, lets be a little more generous and shell out $125,000 for each Tuesday double-header showcasing the brightest up-and-coming talent in competitive match-ups. Somewhat like Shobox on steroids and PEDs. If HBO Boxing were to offer this series twice a month, that would equate to a total of $3,250,000 per year. Double that cost for production... and you have $6,500,000 of high quality programming. (If you cannot produce a high-quality broadcast for $125,000 in production costs, you are doing something very stupid and wrong.)
Fights such as... Andre Berto vs. Freddie Hernandez would be perfect for a series such as this.
These types of events should take place in 5,000-8,000 seat venues located in major metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and the SF Bay Area. Since most promoters today are inept at marketing, HBO would be forced to take the reigns and lock down facilities that can offer them a good deal to regularly program boxing events within these areas.
This is the base for HBO Boxing programming... 26 Tuesday shows a year in major metropolitan areas at a total cost of $6,500,000. Being that HBO's budget exceeds $50 million, we still have plenty of money leftover to play with.
Next, we'd look to schedule 12 World Championship Boxing events per year at a cost of $2 million a piece... nothing more and nothing less.
If Tim Bradley or Joe Hipp scoff at the notion of fighting for such a wage, gladly encourage them to take a different route of broadcast dollars.
Being that the WCB series would showcase nothing but meaningful double-headers, yes... I stated double-headers, not this one fight crap that we get now... HBO would agree to produce a 30 minute countdown show to each main event on the broadcast.
The cost are as follows: $2 million fee per event, $200,000 production costs, and $300,000 30-minute countdown preview. This equates to $2.5 million multiplied by 12 which equates to $30 million a year.
So where are we... $30 million plus the $6.5 million equals $36.5 million dollars in total programming and production costs.
This would equate to 38 HBO boxing shows per year showcasing a total of 76 fights.
How difficult is that?
Not very.
Now for the most important part of the guide for dummies... a cap on Pay-Per-View events in which HBO puts it's stamp of approval on.
This should be limited to four per year in March, May, September, and December. HBO would incur the cost of production and 24/7 series which would equate to $6 million per year on direct PPV expenses. (Four-part 24/7 series = $1.3 million in production plus $200,000 on broadcast production.)
Now we sit at $42.5 million in total spending for HBO programming which leaves us with $7.5 million leftover.
What do we do with this extra money?
Spend it on lots of booze, drugs, high-priced hookers, and diamond-encrusted Bentley's?
Only if you're Michael Marley.
But seriously though... $7.5 million should be strategically contracted to Clear Channel's arm of outdoor advertising in the form of billboards. God forbid any of the promoters who receive their inflated license fees of today actually spend $20,000 or $50,000 to buy multiple ad spots on the freeway. The UFC isn't flourishing by some stroke of luck. They put serious marketing muscle behind their promotions and reap the rewards because of it.
Let's say $5 million was spent annually on billboard advertising. I've done enough research in this field to understand the the cost vary widely in terms of where they are placed and the size of the advertisement. The average monthly cost of a decently placed billboard near, not in a major metropolitan area can run about $10,000 a month. I've seen them as low as $2000 to as high as $75,000. With a packaged deal I believe that HBO could work out a 50 billboard a month deal strategically placed across the country to raise awareness of the major fights taking place on HBO.
(No need to buy radio or television commercials as they are dead in terms of effectiveness.)
Now $2.5 million is leftover from the budget that must be reinvested into the infrastructure of the sport here in America.
Due to the economic recession, many grants and funding in order to keep boxing gyms open has all but dried up so being the dummy... err I mean, visionary that you are, it's understandable that boxing at it's most important level needs some assistance.
From my own interaction, alot of these boxing gyms need only the basic assistance when it comes to rent, equipment, and maintenance in order to keep the facilities open. If $100,000 per year was allocated to 25 of the more active boxing gyms in the states, it would help their programs immensely ensuring that the next crop of home-grown fighters would have a place to perfect their craft. Expecting boxing to take care of itself at it's grass roots level is absurdly stupid as there is no incentive for anyone to open or run a boxing gym for financial gain. Our only purpose would be to aid those passionate characters within the sport to keep it going ensuring that they have the financial means to do so.
So there you have it.
$50 million dollars spent on HBO Boxing.
26 Tuesday double-headers.
12 WCB double-headers with a 30-minute countdown show.
4 Pay-Per-Views a year with a 4-part 24/7 series for each.
50 monthly billboards purchased strategically placed across the country each month.
Invest in 25 boxing gyms across America to ensure their success each year.
Forget all this madness, let's pay $3 million for Bradley-Alexander while guaranteeing both guys $3 million dollar paydays should they win, lose, or quit.
Let us continually engage in useless negotiations with powerless promoters in order to pat oneself on the back for a job well done.
Let us continue being stupid and cry when observers call us such.
Guide to Running HBO Boxing for Dummies... buy it at your nearest brothel.
truth@theboxingtruth.com
by John Chavez
Nov 05, 2010 -
It's been a while since "The Boxing Truth" has printed or even noted any opinions about the boxing world for the month of October. The sport has had one of the longest droughts in terms of high-level action that I can remember. It's the type of thing that happens when you have dummies running the programming at the "Heart and Soul" of boxing.
Therefore... I have decided to include a short passage from this new book I'm working on titled... "Running HBO Boxing for Dummies." It's a book I dedicate to Ross Greenburg and Kenny Smith... oops I mean Kerry Davis.
(Seriously though... that fool does look like Kenny Smith.)
Where do we start?
This **** is not complicated my friends.
ESPN Friday Night Fight shells out about $25,000 per show as a broadcast license fee to promoters while retaining all rebroadcast rights and international resale.
Showtime's Friday night series, Shobox shells out between $40,000 and $50,000 per show as a license fee for broadcast rights.
As far as I understand, that is generally the baseline market for television money being offered to American promoters for the rights to showcase their events.
I've seen multiple auctions take place over the course of my life both online and offline. The way it usually works is that people bid against each other in increments. This means that if someone wants to own Michael Marley's encrusted Red Sox hat at the baseball historian auction, they continue to bid one dollar more than their competitors. It usually goes from one... to two... to three. Not from one... to two... to twenty-seven.
An auction like that wouldn't make any sense to anyone with any semblance of intelligence. Why bid $27 when you can get the same product for $3.
Unfortunately boxing doesn't work like this.
There is a sickening desperation to unnecessarily offer more money than makes any sort of reasonable sense. As Thomas Hauser stated in his 3-part series, there are strange things occurring within the landscape of HBO Boxing and due to the political nature of certain characters within the sport, the madness continues to ensue year after year.
Once again, I will offer my futile attempt to teach all of these imbeciles the simplicity of running HBO Boxing effectively.
The sweet science has traditionally taken center stage on Saturday night which is an outdated model. If boxing wonders why it hasn't drawn any new young viewers to the sport, it must use it's miniscule brain to comprehend why this is such.
Only weirdos stay home on a Saturday night.
Let me repeat this... if you are between the ages of 18-25, you are not entirely the norm if you don't have something somewhat regularly planned for Saturday night. The same thing goes for Friday night.
If you attend college, it is most likely that you not only have an agenda for these prime nights of the week but it is also most likely that you do not have HBO in your dorm room or house. HBO is an unnecessary added cost that leads to an overly inflated cable package.
So in a futile attempt to reach the younger demographics, I'd suggest that HBO spread their programming around throughout the week to say... Tuesday or Wednesday.
Like I stated earlier, ESPN doles out $25,000 and Shobox $50,000. Why wouldn't it make sense for HBO to start programming fights at the $75,000 to $100,000 range?
Ok, lets be a little more generous and shell out $125,000 for each Tuesday double-header showcasing the brightest up-and-coming talent in competitive match-ups. Somewhat like Shobox on steroids and PEDs. If HBO Boxing were to offer this series twice a month, that would equate to a total of $3,250,000 per year. Double that cost for production... and you have $6,500,000 of high quality programming. (If you cannot produce a high-quality broadcast for $125,000 in production costs, you are doing something very stupid and wrong.)
Fights such as... Andre Berto vs. Freddie Hernandez would be perfect for a series such as this.
These types of events should take place in 5,000-8,000 seat venues located in major metropolitan areas such as New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and the SF Bay Area. Since most promoters today are inept at marketing, HBO would be forced to take the reigns and lock down facilities that can offer them a good deal to regularly program boxing events within these areas.
This is the base for HBO Boxing programming... 26 Tuesday shows a year in major metropolitan areas at a total cost of $6,500,000. Being that HBO's budget exceeds $50 million, we still have plenty of money leftover to play with.
Next, we'd look to schedule 12 World Championship Boxing events per year at a cost of $2 million a piece... nothing more and nothing less.
If Tim Bradley or Joe Hipp scoff at the notion of fighting for such a wage, gladly encourage them to take a different route of broadcast dollars.
Being that the WCB series would showcase nothing but meaningful double-headers, yes... I stated double-headers, not this one fight crap that we get now... HBO would agree to produce a 30 minute countdown show to each main event on the broadcast.
The cost are as follows: $2 million fee per event, $200,000 production costs, and $300,000 30-minute countdown preview. This equates to $2.5 million multiplied by 12 which equates to $30 million a year.
So where are we... $30 million plus the $6.5 million equals $36.5 million dollars in total programming and production costs.
This would equate to 38 HBO boxing shows per year showcasing a total of 76 fights.
How difficult is that?
Not very.
Now for the most important part of the guide for dummies... a cap on Pay-Per-View events in which HBO puts it's stamp of approval on.
This should be limited to four per year in March, May, September, and December. HBO would incur the cost of production and 24/7 series which would equate to $6 million per year on direct PPV expenses. (Four-part 24/7 series = $1.3 million in production plus $200,000 on broadcast production.)
Now we sit at $42.5 million in total spending for HBO programming which leaves us with $7.5 million leftover.
What do we do with this extra money?
Spend it on lots of booze, drugs, high-priced hookers, and diamond-encrusted Bentley's?
Only if you're Michael Marley.
But seriously though... $7.5 million should be strategically contracted to Clear Channel's arm of outdoor advertising in the form of billboards. God forbid any of the promoters who receive their inflated license fees of today actually spend $20,000 or $50,000 to buy multiple ad spots on the freeway. The UFC isn't flourishing by some stroke of luck. They put serious marketing muscle behind their promotions and reap the rewards because of it.
Let's say $5 million was spent annually on billboard advertising. I've done enough research in this field to understand the the cost vary widely in terms of where they are placed and the size of the advertisement. The average monthly cost of a decently placed billboard near, not in a major metropolitan area can run about $10,000 a month. I've seen them as low as $2000 to as high as $75,000. With a packaged deal I believe that HBO could work out a 50 billboard a month deal strategically placed across the country to raise awareness of the major fights taking place on HBO.
(No need to buy radio or television commercials as they are dead in terms of effectiveness.)
Now $2.5 million is leftover from the budget that must be reinvested into the infrastructure of the sport here in America.
Due to the economic recession, many grants and funding in order to keep boxing gyms open has all but dried up so being the dummy... err I mean, visionary that you are, it's understandable that boxing at it's most important level needs some assistance.
From my own interaction, alot of these boxing gyms need only the basic assistance when it comes to rent, equipment, and maintenance in order to keep the facilities open. If $100,000 per year was allocated to 25 of the more active boxing gyms in the states, it would help their programs immensely ensuring that the next crop of home-grown fighters would have a place to perfect their craft. Expecting boxing to take care of itself at it's grass roots level is absurdly stupid as there is no incentive for anyone to open or run a boxing gym for financial gain. Our only purpose would be to aid those passionate characters within the sport to keep it going ensuring that they have the financial means to do so.
So there you have it.
$50 million dollars spent on HBO Boxing.
26 Tuesday double-headers.
12 WCB double-headers with a 30-minute countdown show.
4 Pay-Per-Views a year with a 4-part 24/7 series for each.
50 monthly billboards purchased strategically placed across the country each month.
Invest in 25 boxing gyms across America to ensure their success each year.
Forget all this madness, let's pay $3 million for Bradley-Alexander while guaranteeing both guys $3 million dollar paydays should they win, lose, or quit.
Let us continually engage in useless negotiations with powerless promoters in order to pat oneself on the back for a job well done.
Let us continue being stupid and cry when observers call us such.
Guide to Running HBO Boxing for Dummies... buy it at your nearest brothel.
truth@theboxingtruth.com
What u guys think?
Comment