Is Espinoza going to lead Showtime to ruin?

[Porter's Dad]

GBP's ex attorney running Showtime Sports and turning into a defacto GBP channel always felt dubious to me.

But now this **** is getting ridiculous. He's getting played by Haymon so bad that he is willing to overpay Adonis for a Fonfara fight, then most likely a Hopkins fight (while depriving us of a Kovalev fight, all cos Al doesn't want Adonis in there with Kovalev).

How can Showtime sustain this model financially? Giving Mayweather gigantic guarantees regardless of the opponent, giving TV dates to whack-ass TMT fighters like J'Leon and Ishe, all the fighters who have signed up to Haymon will be demanding dates too.

I really wish someone higher up at Showtime got involved in this ****. It's a bunch of dudes - Haymon, Mayweather, and most likely Espinosa himself - getting ****** rich while leading the channel up dangerous, unsustainable path.

Only a few years ago that Showtime were doing fights like the Vasquez-Marquez trilogy and the Super Six.

Now look at this ****.

[-PBP-]

Long term investing. You take losses for a certain number of years where your taking market share away from HBO. Their goal is to be the premier boxing network. During the first few years, they will aggressively try and collect talent and gain new subscribers.

The issue they may run into is I don't think boxing is popular enough for them to close the subscriber gap though. I think at least 75% of boxing viewership is casual fans that have HBO for movies and series and just check for boxing no matter who they are showing.

[jas]

there is an obvious conflict of interest seeing as he used to be a lawyer for GBP.

[al-Xander]

He's inexperience. He has the wrong impression that networks survive on PPV buys, instead of subscription. Fights are getting extremely rare for subscribers.

He sold his soul to the greedy Mayweather team Haymon and Schaefer with very little compensation for Showtime. It's as if he's just hired to enrich the greedy team.

[Porter's Dad]

Long term investing. You take losses for a certain number of years where your taking market share away from HBO. Their goal is to be the premier boxing network. During the first few years, they will aggressively try and collect talent and gain new subscribers.

The issue they may run into is I don't think boxing is popular enough for them to close the subscriber gap though. I think at least 75% of boxing viewership is casual fans that have HBO for movies and series and just check for boxing no matter who they are showing.

Dude, they ain't gonna overtake HBO. Mayweather, around whom so much is leveraged against, is retiring in a few fights. I don't even think their mission statement is to overtake HBO anymore, Showtime has become a political tool in the cold war.

I've got a feeling that HBO are letting Showtime overpay on **** like Adonis and Mayweather's guarantees because when the dust settles, Showtime will be in deep **** financially.

Funny how Showtime and GBP can barely turn in a profit, while Haymon and Mayweather are rolling in the money.

[thuggery]

I agree with others saying he basically sold his soul and gave his ass to Mayweather, Haymon, and possibly Schaefer. They basically run his network. It's pretty disturbing and hopefully it backfires on him soon enough.

[Beercules]

When Mayweather Maidana flops hopefully he will have a revelation.

[al-Xander]

Espinoza is not even doing business with other promoters. Take Gamboa, for example, who left Arum. He can't even get near Showtime's doorstep. What is the rift between Haymon/Schaefer and 50 cent got to do with Showtime?

The man should be fired.


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"They have a guy [Stephen Espinoza] in charge of Showtime Sports, he signed Mayweather; if you're a subscriber for Showtime, what the hell difference does it mean to you? Mayweather isn't on Showtime, he's on pay-per-view. If you have a subscription, you can't see a Mayweather fight on Showtime. It's ridiculous." - BA

[( . Y . )]

Hopefully ESPN starts getting bigger fights

[Da Machine]

No one really knows the numbers behind any of it or what is truly going on.