Comments Thread For: Top TV Execs on Al Haymon's PBC Business Plan

[MDPopescu]

When done right combat sports appeals to the beer swilling young males who advertisers love.

If all boxing was under one banner (unlikely I know) then advertisers would have no problem with signing deals. Problem is the sport is so diluted in terms of talent its impossible to unlock boxings potential commercially

... If grandma had wheels, she would have had been a railway train...

[Eastcoast]

I question some of Haymon's decision making. The PBC could've really used the May/Pac fight to launch the brand more. Instead of having a horrible fight with Santa Cruz that was made at the last second he could've had some exciting fighters in exciting fights like Spence, Kytrov, and Thurman. Then afterwards they should've had the May/Pac replay on CBS and pair it with a PBC show, again with some of your more exciting fighters. Two major lost opportunities.

I think he's losing another major opportunity not having Porter/Broner in Ohio at a higher weight.

[Tom Cruise]

Haymons/ Haymons teams matchmaking has been poor so far imo.

Hasn't been that many matchups that will get the fans excited. Looks like this will carry on with Thurman vs Collazo, Khan vs. Algieri, Wilder vs. Molina etc

Then with Chavez jr he matched him way too tough and ended up getting a cash cow beaten.

I really want Haymon to have success with this as boxing would benefit from more exposure. Just not sure he is getting it right at the moment. Time will tell. He hasnt had an opportunity yet to make a big PBC oriented fight (ie. Two guys who have a few wins on network PBC, fighting each other on network tv).

[bigdunny1]

PBC so far reminds me of the XFL. They had tons of money and lots of smart savy investors all involved on both sides. They had a 2 year plan to start as well. But it was a very expensive product that couldn't sustain it's losses. They spent too much money on production and promotion and didn't focus enough on the quality of the product. Haymon is spending his investors money left and right but the one thing he didn't do is make sure PBC has high quality fights. That's how you generate buzz and get the fans. Right now we are seeing way too many shows on too many networks all on different days and times and most of the fights are blatant mismatches. Many shows with headline fights that really should be on the undercard of better fights. He is more concerned with quantity instead of quality.

He has a strong stable fighters and could of easily made all his top fighters face each other. There is no reason Thurman, Broner, Garcia, Khan are all under PBC yet not fighting each other. Instead they are all fighting separate fights against weaker competition. He probably should of also lowered the amount of cards and networks he's dealing with to start the first year so that when a PBC show does come on it's loaded with good fights. Now you have a PBC event every week or a couple a week and not enough time to properly promote each event so you are getting a lot of bad shows. That hurts the brand he is trying to establish. If you catch a bad show on SpikeTV that's under the brand name PBC and that's your first exposure to PBC you are not going to tune back in when a month later when a good PBC fight is on NBC.

Unlike PBC XFL actually debuted to monster ratings but the first game was terrible quality and the second week ratings dropped big time because the Casual fans did not tune back to see if the quality got better. And by week 3 the ratings plateaued. The ratings from then on would of been good enough to get a year 2 but the cost of each event was so insanely high that they were losing money and no TV sponsors jumped on board to help recoup some of the losses. They ended up losing more money then they expected in year 1 and folded at the end of the season. Right now PBC is just super expensive infomercial that is sucking a hole in his investors wallet.

[sicko]

When done right combat sports appeals to the beer swilling young males who advertisers love.

If all boxing was under one banner (unlikely I know) then advertisers would have no problem with signing deals. Problem is the sport is so diluted in terms of talent its impossible to unlock boxings potential commercially

The Sport of Boxing don't pull advertisers...Certain Fighters Do! Sponsors call for Pacquiao and Mayweather events to be apart of that but a regular boxing event not so much

[Barcham]

Pointless to ask network execs who have a stake in the success of failure of this to give their 'honest' opinion on it. The question needed to be asked of top advertising execs, those who would have to support this enterprise for it to succeed. They are the ones who will tell you if it can succeed or fail.

The Sport of Boxing don't pull advertisers...Certain Fighters Do! Sponsors call for Pacquiao and Mayweather events to be apart of that but a regular boxing event not so much

Even May-Pac did not pull in a ton of money from advertisers. How much did Tecate pay for the beer advertising rights? Something like 5 million? That was peanuts for the biggest financial fight the sport has ever seen considering their brand name was visible through the entire evening. Budweiser probably pays more than that for a 30 second ad on the Superbowl.

[DreamerUSA]

The problem is simple imo. Promoters/networks not working with each other is going to kill this in the end. Haymon's plan would almost certainly work if we could actually get the fights that really matter. As always though, the problem is the politics of boxing.

The other thing is the headlining of some of these events. Dirrell vs. Degale is a great and important fight at 168, but it is'nt headline worthy.

[DSG's#1Hater]

Why is the UFC model keep getting brought up? Their business is like 90% PPV. PBC is 100% cable and broadcast TV.

[crazed_z06]

I think its great haymon is trying to get boxing back on free t.v., however he is not doing himself or boxing itself any favors by continuing to put on cards that aren't that great. Dont get me wrong they have been better than the crap that was on ShowTime last year, however HBO is doing it right by making all these great cards. HBO is having massive success with their cards so far this year, you would think haymon would see that and try to do the same, but I don't think its meant to be that haymon will be the one to make boxing real popular again. He has enough fighters that he could blow out the competition, but lets face it hes not as smart as he gets credit for.

To have compelling fights, you have to risk fighters. That is the antithesis of Al Haymon's boxing model. His whole agenda is to give his fighters maximum protection while also maximizing money making.
That worked for Floyd and maybe a few other guys, but generally that's going to be a losing strategy.

Casuals do not want to see beautiful displays of the sweet science. They want to see punches being thrown. That means you're going to have to throw some guys to the wolves and let them go to war.

[Fetta]

They sound like they believe in him.

I do and i think PBC is great for the sport. In a world of football, baseball, basketball, hockey, and soccer, i think its awesome that young kids have the opportunity to get interested early in boxing. Build that talent pool.

Seems shows are now starting to flow more. Up to the fighters to show the fans they are worth watching.