Earlier this week, the LA Times’ Larry Pugmire wrote about the state of Al Haymon’s Premier Boxing Champions. In essence, the business strategy is not working thus far.
Pugmire looked over commission records, network ratings and the expenditures PBC has paid out. At this point, PBC is seeping money with no end in sight.
According to the Times story, Waddell & Reed, the investment firm that has backed PBC with $425-$525 million in capital. Waddell & Reed fund manager Ryan Caldwell assisted Haymon in pitching NBC Sports about bringing boxing to the network according to a Sports Business Journal report last spring. Per the SBJ story, three funds managed by Waddell & Reed contributed to the PBC (or at least an entity known as Haymon Boxing). Ivy Asset Strategy attributed $371.3 million to Haymon, WRA Asset Strategy provided $42.2 million and Ivy Funds VIP Asset Strategy contributed $18.5 million.
Waddell & Reed is going through tough times of its own. Its shares fell 14% after it announced weak financial results and the retirement of one of its top fund managers. The investment firm has lost out on big bets on gold and Chinese stocks which has caused investor concern. According to a recent Wall Street Journal report, Waddell posted a 22% decline in fourth-quarter earnings and the company announced plans to cut expenses.
We note that Michael Avery, the top fund manager set to retire at the end of June, was the portfolio manager of an Ivy Asset Strategy Fund. However, we do not know if he directly worked with or managed Haymon Boxing. Moreover, we do not assert that Mr. Avery was managing the same fund in which Haymon Boxing was a part.
Pugmire’s article indicates that Haymon paid NBC $2.5 million to telecast PBC’s premier on the network. In addition, CBS Saturday afternoon boxing telecasts in 2015 cost PBC $300,000 per hour. The telecasts usually took the form of two hour blocks which meant $600,000
An examination of 10 PBC cards in California and Nevada in 2015 shows that promoters paid $19.2 million in purses and state fees while only collecting $3.9 million from the gate per state information obtained by the LA Times.
The discrepancy can be highlighted by January’s fight between Danny Garcia and Roberto Guerrero at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The purse was disclosed at $3.2 million versus a live gate of $508,620.
Although PBC is receiving ad revenues from its broadcasts of $12.5 million over 27 fight telecasts and an undisclosed license fee from Spike TV, the input does not outweigh the heavy output thus far. Through 2015, PBC on Spike telecasts have averaged approximately 582,000 viewers through 9 events.
As we know, PBC is defending lawsuits in LA federal court from both Top Rank and Golden Boy claiming antitrust violations among other claims related to its business strategy. One of the claims brought up by the plaintiffs is a “loss leader” strategy in which Haymon knows that he is losing money on the short-term for long-term gains. Top Rank’s counsel estimates that the losses could amount to $200-$300 million.
Although PBC continues airing events on multiple networks and paying fighters that appear on the cards very well, it’s clear that they are losing a lot of money quickly. Was this the plan that they had projected?
Payout Perspective:
Although we do not examine the ratings in depth in this post, the NBC network ratings have plateaued since its initial debut. The ratings on a recent PBC on Fox were on par with what the UFC receives in the same time slot. The question becomes how much loss can PBC take. With the company funding this venture not doing well itself could there be a change of business strategy in the future?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The beginning of the end.
Theyll be on FOX or NBC.
UFCs dead
If you compute the numbers in the article…what’s the total cost? When they say the money was 400M spent ,in the press releases was it related to the court hearings announcement that it would proceed with the trial? Hahaha….
Floyd offered huge sum to come back….who manages Floyd? This person has huge leverage on networks….all of a sudden Floyd announces schafers return to boxing and TMT….will he be The promoter to avoid violating the Ali act that haymons is being accused and sued off? ( guilty off)
Hahaha…
“Theyll be on FOX or NBC.
UFCs dead”
Yet the article states the opposite.
“If you compute the numbers in the article…what’s the total cost? When they say the money was 400M spent ,in the press releases was it related to the court hearings announcement that it would proceed with the trial? Hahaha….”
When you compute..(or simply read) the numbers in the article, how much is left out of those 3 funds that were the source for PBC? 80m. HAHAHAHAHA!!! Topps is desperately trying to spin this one. HAHAHAHA!!!
“Floyd offered huge sum to come back….who manages Floyd?”
According to Floyd Mayweather, a proven compulsive liar. No one is going to pay him a huge anything. He just did 500k buys. HAHA! Even against Pac he would not get a fraction of what he was paid prior.
“This person has huge leverage on networks….all of a sudden Floyd announces schafers return to boxing and TMT….will he be The promoter to avoid violating the Ali act that haymons is being accused and sued off? ( guilty off)
Hahaha…”
Schaeffer is a fraud and another known compulsive liar. The only thing these idiots ever had was Mayweather, and even if he did come back (which he is not), they wouldn’t bring in half of what they were bringing in prior. Schaeffer can’t sell outside of Mayweather, never could, never would.
Haymon failed miserably on this proof of concept. All this did was prove that boxing can not sustain a long term presence on the networks.
2017, network tv combat sports schedule: UFC on FOX, PBC….crickets….. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
“If you compute the numbers in the article…what’s the total cost? When they say the money was 400M spent ,in the press releases was it related to the court hearings announcement that it would proceed with the trial? Hahaha….”
When you compute..(or simply read) the numbers in the article, how much is left out of those 3 funds that were the source for PBC? 80m.
“Floyd offered huge sum to come back….who manages Floyd?”
According to Floyd Mayweather, a proven compulsive liar. No one is going to pay him a huge anything. He just did 500k buys. HAHA! Even against Pac he would not get a fraction of what he was paid prior.
“This person has huge leverage on networks….all of a sudden Floyd announces schafers return to boxing and TMT….will he be The promoter to avoid violating the Ali act that haymons is being accused and sued off? ( guilty off)
Hahaha…”
Schaeffer is a fraud and another known compulsive liar. The only thing these guys ever had was Mayweather, and even if he did come back (which he is not), they wouldn’t bring in half of what they were bringing in prior. Schaeffer can’t sell outside of Mayweather, never could, never would.
Haymon failed miserably on this proof of concept. All this did was prove that boxing can not sustain a long term presence on the networks.
2017, network tv combat sports schedule: UFC on FOX, PBC….crickets…..
UFC would do awful numbers on HBO.
Premium channels is where its at.
D we still have almost 330 days left in the year and you’re already giving up and screaming “wait till next year!”
Mayweather, Haymon, and Schaeffers successes trump any illogical nonsense that D is spouting out.
“But he can only do 550k ppvs!”
It wasn’t even a year ago that Mayweather did 4.6M ppvs. In 2015 Mayweather pulled in over 5M ppvs.
Yikes.
PBC can simply turn things around by matching their stars in fights and not coddling them.
“UFC would do awful numbers on HBO.
Premium channels is where its at.”
Strikeforce would beat PBC on HBO or Showtime.
“D we still have almost 330 days left in the year and you’re already giving up and screaming “wait till next year!””
I never had faith to begin with, I knew this was a horrible idea to begin with and it is amusing watching it go down in flames. It doesn’t matter how much time is left in the year, they are imploding, and everyone who knows the subject realizes this.
“Mayweather, Haymon, and Schaeffers successes trump any illogical nonsense that D is spouting out.”
Illogical is presenting this argument and using this as some form of validity against anything that I’ve stated. It makes no sense anyway. They had success with one aspect of promotion- ppv with Floyd Mayweather headlining. That’s it. Name anyone else they promoted that were a major success in the sport of boxing. You can’t and with PBC turning into an utter failure, it is very clear Haymon has failed on network tv.
I don’t care if Mayweather fought Obama in a ring right now, he wouldn’t pull in half of the numbers (not the exaggerated or real number) that ppv did. He couldn’t do a massive ppv anymore. He would need a huge name like Canelo and even that would land where they did before.
In 2016, boxing as a whole will not hit 3m ppvs. YIKES!!!
FOX has ordered an additional 3 PBC shows, not a time buy by the way.
Out of the last 23 UFC ppvs, 16 have done 375k or less with 9 under 300k.
Your whole “Mayweather cant sell a ppv” is so idiotic that everyone knows you don’t believe it.
Haymon basically pulled a quick one on everyone with PBC.
Haymon has lost zero of his own money on this venture. Zero.
He also gets 15% of his fighters purses, hence the high payouts for PBC.
Is Haymon successful? Very.
D panicking hahahaha…UFC in dire need jones Cormier right away hahahaha…not tuneups jones we need cash…
HAHAHAHA!!!
Topps panicking, and accusing others of panicking because PBC is disintegrating and the UFC is setting records! No more boxing ppv…Topps is desperate!!! HAHAHA!!!
“PBC can simply turn things around by matching their stars in fights and not coddling them.”
More like, they can’t afford to put their stars head to head.
“PBC can simply turn things around by matching their stars in fights and not coddling them.”
Sure. But that won’t happen because Haymon fighters like to get millions for crushing cans. If you ask them to take a paycut to fight a real opponent they will leave. Haymon signed them in the first place by promising lots of money for soft touches.
D trying to convince everybody because he cant convince himself hahaha…needs assurance from everybody hahaha…
Topps is self destructing because of PBC’s demise, just attempting to spin it and desperately trying to convince HIMSELF it isn’t really happening. HAHAHA!!
Look at D’s comments…desperate hahahaha….so much effort hahaha
Haymon invested zero of his own money and receives 15% of purse earnings, is what someone told me.
Seems convenient to pay your fighters big money and having them fight soft match ups.
There have been good fights on PBC but main attractions need to fight main attractions to keep this going
“Look at D’s comments…desperate hahahaha….so much effort hahaha”
Says the guy who has posted 10x more than normal after reading 2015’s ppv numbers. He’s in self destruct mode!! HAHAHAHA!!!
The Greatest,
I agree. In the short term this is great for Haymon and his fighters. The fighters get paid well to fight in mis-matches, and Haymon takes a cut. In the long term it’s the same problem that has been brought up many times before – Haymon is not investing in the sport. He’ll make as much money as he can, and when PBC goes bankrupt, the sport is left with a black eye.
In the meantime, promoters who are running profitable operations are hurt and are left weaker by the time the bubble bursts.
So Haymon and his fighters rip off the hedge funds, and boxing slips a little deeper into the morass.
Because of haymon hbo and showtime,top ranks are all improving….golden boy has made so many equal match fights,top ranks signing more olympians,hbo has a lot of p4p in its roster…competition makes an industry better