The HBO Budget Crisis and What it Means

[Sweet Jones]

Problem is finding sustainable onesUsed to be you could depend on HBO, and Sho to lesser extent to subsidize the very high purses many of these non draws command. Boxing was lucky like that for a fringe sport

As a promoter, that's YOUR JOB. Just because the teat you've been suckling off of for the past 30 years is running dry doesn't change that. Get off your arse and find new sources, or get out of the business.

Promoting is a hustle business. Get on your grind.

[Sweet Jones]

And that's because SHO has been basically under Haymon/Schaefer control since Stephen Espinoza took over in 2011.

And more recently, Haymon's hedge fund money has helped bump other promoters off networks like ESPN2 and FOX Sports 1, which were useful in helping build some fighters to the HBO/SHO level.

These time buys won't be around forever, so let's see what happens in a year or two if/when some of these networks open themselves up to other promoters.

No really sure what this means. Please clarify.

[-PBP-]

This isn't about HBO, it's about boxing. The network wouldn't matter if the sport was still healthy.
Boxing was fine till Haymon stole from GBP and completely halted all the progress and hype alot of fighters had. Don't act like we all on here weren't hyped and excited for Danny Garcia, we were closely following Thurmans progress etc, the hype was for real. He's also killed the progress of everyone else outside of his faction like Rigondeaux and Golovkin refusing to have his fighters fight these guys while overpaying them grossly. It's been said before, alot of people thought this was Haymon's strategy, to stranglehold the other promoters and HBO into unconsciousness.

Hell, since Haymons take over he's also had showtime in the fetal position by giving them nothing to showcase, showtime was a force when GBP were at their peak.

What do people say, that he has like 200 fighters? He took 200 fighters and has done nothing with them except put them in obscure venues against sht comp and has done no hype building. So like I said, he's got majority of the fighters, alot of these guys wil tell you I'll fight who Haymon tells me to fight, he can build the sport back up by putting on consistently good matchups to slowly bring peoples attention back. Everywhere I look it's UFC, it's thoroughly beating the crap outta boxing at the moment, but boxing has twice the potential of UFC with a ton more talent, the fights just need to happen.

I don't agree with that. HBO and Showtime don't have the budget to support the 200 or so fighters on his roster regardless. Boxing had good momentum in 2013 but Golden Boy lost a ton of money on those stacked cards they used to do. Plus, you had giant Mayweather PPVs to subsidize the budget which is why you got fights like Garcia vs Matthysse.

People talk about these inflated purses but is $1 million really inflated for a top fighter? So you cut fighter purses in half, you think that's going to make them step up their competition? Hell no. They'll just fight bums until a big fight emerges like they are doing now.

Boxing was so dependent on Floyd and Pac and resources weren't allocated to promote and support the new wave of talent.

[Nubia]

RIP HBO. Won't be missed.

[GOT BEEF?]

RIP PBC. Won't be missed.

Fixed that for you.

HBO is the premier platform of boxing. HBO is the FACE network of boxing and it ain't going nowhere. PBC is the one that blew over 500 million of their investors money. HBO is doing just fine.

[-PBP-]

Fixed that for you.

HBO is the premier platform of boxing. HBO is the FACE network of boxing and it ain't going nowhere. PBC is the one that blew over 500 million of their investors money. HBO is doing just fine.

More like RIP boxing. Luis Ortiz vs Tony Thompson is the premier headlining card for March regardless of network. I mean good god.

At least the Olympics are this summer.

[MrRolltide91]

I don't agree with that. HBO and Showtime don't have the budget to support the 200 or so fighters on his roster regardless. Boxing had good momentum in 2013 but Golden Boy lost a ton of money on those stacked cards they used to do. Plus, you had giant Mayweather PPVs to subsidize the budget which is why you got fights like Garcia vs Matthysse.

People talk about these inflated purses but is $1 million really inflated for a top fighter? So you cut fighter purses in half, you think that's going to make them step up their competition? Hell no. They'll just fight bums until a big fight emerges like they are doing now.

Boxing was so dependent on Floyd and Pac and resources weren't allocated to promote and support the new wave of talent.

That's why some of these fighters only fight twice a year.


People were too focused on floyd and manny, they wasn't even looking at the future of boxing.

[VicariousVice]

Considering I have HBO half for Boxing and don't have access to Showtime, this is not good, not good at all.

As a kid I always wanted to have HBO, but I realized, outside of Boxing or the occasional show(half their shows suck), it's really not that great.

If they basically stop airing good Boxing cards and then once GOT ends, HBO will be just another channel.

[original zero]

SMH.....right. That's why it takes two years to make a fight that should happen in week one. PBC lost half a billion in the first year, if all were under that umbrella, the sport would be toast in 2 years.

The average sports fan had never heard of Thurman or Porter in week one. Now both of them have been seen by MILLIONS of people. Their fight is much bigger now than it would have been in week one. So when you say what "should happen," you really mean what you personally would have preferred, not what was actually best for the fighters or PBC.

And you have *NO IDEA* what PBC has spent so far or what they have left. You claim they "lost half a billion." Ok, please explain how they could have possibly spent $500 million already.

I'll wait.

And the money that has been spent has been an investment in Haymon's stable. Even if Haymon ran out of money tomorrow, he still has his fighters locked up. Are you really claiming that Wilder, Garcia, Thurman, Jacobs, etc are less valuable than they were pre-PBC?!?

[Scipio2009]

PBC purses are not sustainable on free tv. That's why boxing moved to the premium networks in the first place. In the UK in the 80s/90s, mega fights could get 10-15 million viewers, 20-25% of the population. And it still made financial sense to go to Sky like Naz did because they could afford to pay much more.

The 5 figure purses you see on regular UFC cards would become much more commonplace if the premium networks got out of boxing. Only the big stars would see the big 7 figure guarantees on a regular basis.

I disagree, for two key reasons:

-The actual payout for a PBC fight card isn't as inflated as folks here seem to believe (the Santa Cruz-Martinez two-fight card, paired with the airing of Quigg-Frampton, likely didn't even end up with $2m being paid out [counting the 4 fighters' purses and the cost to air Frampton-Quigg]).

-Haymon's model leaves the fighters with picking up most of the money, rather than the promoter/organization (details of the UFC-Fox deal aren't all-the-way clear, but the rough outline is that the UFC got $100m per year to deliver ~40 fight cards per year; ~$2.5m per fight card); the UFC could pay out far more money to the fighters, they just choose not to.