The HBO Budget Crisis and What it Means

[Luiz]

Boxing's mess still work around the world but in US it seems losing big time.

[original zero]

Of course, that's exactly what we've all been waiting for.

The guy who:

- refuses to speak or let his picture be taken

- has fractured the sport to the point where it is now

- seems to be completely and utterly clueless about matchmaking and creating stars not called Floyd Mayweather

- exploits organisations than leaves them massively damaged (HBO, GBP, Showtime)

- has done his best to kill the competitive fighting spirit in his fighters by giving them a continuous bunch of soft touches

Why does it matter if a fighter's manager gives interviews or takes photographs?

The sport was already fractured and Haymon has gotten a ton of networks & promoters united together. Once HBO is out of the picture, this will be the least fractured the sport has ever been in our lifetimes.

Millions have tuned in to watch Deontay Wilder, Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, etc. He seems to be doing just fine building stars.

Please explain how HBO, GBP or Showtime have been exploited. Do you know what the word exploited even means? Oscar was offered a TON of money for GBP btw. He's been massively damaged because he was too ****** to sell.

Wilder is about to fight Povetkin. Khan is about to fight Canelo. Thurman is about to fight Porter. Chavez is about to fight Jack. Wade is about to fight GGG. Martin is fighting Joshua. Soft touches?

[bojangles1987]

Lawsuits can be dropped if it makes sense to do so. All any of these guys care about is money. Arum would work out a deal with Haymon by tomorrow if he had to.

What would be really crazy is if HBO decided to not expand its budget and the bottom falls out of PBC. That would be the real game changer.

Makes you wonder if boxing might revert in the next 20 years to what it used to be, where guys fought every two months because that was the only way to make a living. If the purses these guys are making has to be slashed considerably out of necessity, then fighters may not have a choice.

[screwhead1]

It's the youth. I think the only thing Larry merchant has ever said relevant is that the best heavyweights are too busy throwing footballs and shooting baskets. The amateurs needs to be televised and a real circuit thrown in the limelight. When I was hitting the gyms throughout Houston, there were fights every freaking day and folks were seeing talent left and right. Problem is that if you didn't go to the gym that day, you wouldn't know **** about it.

HBO needs to go. All the exclusive **** needs to get chopped out so we can at least see who wants to fight who. Even with a lot of feasible match ups, we wouldn't know cause the trainers aren't even allowed to talk to each other because they signed a contract.

[Aztekkas]

If HBO's boxing broadcasts dwindles away further I'm sure another entity will emerge and attempt to replace it(excluding PBC). Many folks are hoping for HBO to die off so we can get most fighters under one umbrella so we can hopefully get the best fights made but personally I believe that's a fallacy. Just look at PBC and the limited amount of true quality fights it's produced with its enormous amount of talent. It has the potential to make some incredibly competitive fights yet we have been forced to settle with lukewarm fights.

Not only that but the PBC brand itself has apparently been struggling with ratings and selling tickets themselves.. Something tells me it's a wider issue that encompasses the sport as a whole in the US, perhaps the lack of intrigue it generates amongst the general public is steadily deteriorating the sport as a whole.

Also, if it weren't for the investors money the PBC would also be in a difficult situation themselves. HBO depends on their subscribers and pays with their own budget for many of these cards, so again I personally believe the issue is far beyond the PBC and HBO themselves and roots further into the public simply not caring enough for the sport to make it as profitable as it once was.

Us diehard fans know the difference between a good fight and a mismatch, casuals don't. So they genuinely don't know what to expect aside from two men bashing each other's brains in. We enjoy the brutality of the sport as well as the technical aspects that can be displayed in boxing's chess matches, casuals simply love a conclusive knockout or a 12 round brawl. In essence the sport takes time to pick up, understand and enjoy. The sport is somewhat of an acquired taste and the general public will simply not give it the time it requires to learn it and maximize the entertainment value it can produce.

[-PBP-]

My biggest hope for the post-Mayweather and Pacquiao era is that the rivalry between those two didn't bleed too much into the Arum/Haymon rivalry. We desperately need those two to start getting along immediately. Pac leaving is hopefully the last obstacle preventing it.

No matter how people may not want to hear it, PBC might soon be the only thing keeping boxing alive in the United States. Hopefully Arum's pride doesn't blind him to that.

The thing with PBC is there is no way they can pay those purses without a network deal. Although I don't believe the Reddit rumor I tend to think they are going through something similar.

I know college basketball has many of the networks on lock right now so maybe we will see a pickup in the spring.

[Rich2123]

There's a decent chance that HBO gets out of boxing and the PBC fails.

I would bet that HBO stays in boxing somewhat and the PBC stays alive, but winds up on one channel (or maybe some other platform) and doesn't turn into the big takeover they want it to be.

But you know what will happen if both fail? Someone else will come in and show boxing. It won't be the end of the world either way.

[Scipio2009]

I've been reading a lot lately and it seems this HBO budget issue is becoming serious. I'm not a business expert but the main issue is Time Warner made some budget cuts and HBO sports took a significant hit.

This is coming up in a lot of articles:

1. HBO has no interest in Cotto's next fight unless it's PPV

http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/p...lanning-stages

2. Per Bob Arum, they are not interested in pushing Lomachenko or Postol. This is somewhat confirmed here:

http://espn.go.com/blog/dan-rafael/p...o-walters-card

So now, they will likely pass on one of the best cards of the year: Walters/Lomachenko and Postol/Granados. It's become the network of mismatches and the upcoming schedule is full of them. Rumor is Showtime might be picking that card up.

Why should we care?

They have nearly the entire top 10 p4p list to exclusive network deals but can't afford to bring in top competition for them. Then you have PBC across the street paying big bucks so would want to fight on HBO anyways.

Are they just going to continue to shove Kovalev, Golovkin and Crawford down our throats in these one sided mismatches?

So basically, it's not looking good. What are your thoughts?

HBO, simply put, needs to have one of Kovalev/Golovkin/Crawford become a PPV star, for no other reason than to subsidize the boxing budget (HBO, if public info is true, pocketed the HD fee for Cotto-Alvarez, which was said to have done 900k PPV buys; a cool $9m to HBO, partially offset by whatever money HBO spent to market Cotto-Alvarez).

Until that happens, with TimeWarner's clear waining interest in carrying boxing, HBO's boxing coverage will continue on as it's been for a while now; HBO will continue to try and build stars in showcase fights, hoping against hope that Jim Lampley can talk his way into turning one of their chosen fighters into a star attraction.

[R_Walken]

It means PBC is now the #1 entity in boxing

HBo may have the top end talent but is getting drowned out and have no real competition to put them up against unless it's PPV and this trend will continue.

[Fetta]

We can have a bake sale