i mean...i dont know exactly what is going to go down here.....but i can say tihs.....schaefer isnt dumb....haymon aint dumb....by any stretch.....theres more business sense in their left thumbs than in the brains of oscars entire family tree.......now of course you can always hire business people....and thats what oscar is going to do.....because he certainly aint gonna do it on his own bruce binklow golden boys COO and main marketing guy is also expected to be leaving i dont think schaefer is just leaving with no plan....i dont think haymon is going to stop working with GB with just no plan.......these guys arent short sighted and dumb
You won't find anyone who's given Haymon more credit for his power and influence in boxing than I have. Honestly, this is a mistake for Al in the long term. I know he's brilliant. You know the problem with brilliant guys? It's awfully easy to let confidence slide into hubris and have plans blow up in their faces. I'll tell you right now, as an analyst, it was clear to see that Haymon had the sweetest spot any businessman hopes for- risk-free cash. He let the promoters take on the financial risk and he cashed in on both sides of the cold war like a shrewd arms merchant. It didn't matter if he made enemies with other powerful boxing people. Ratings didn't matter. Overhead and expenses. He was still going to get paid. But that wasn't enough for him. Now, he's opened himself up to Duva's lawsuit. He's given the networks pricing power by creating a third powerful promotional company (oligopolies split an extra way means less share for everyone). He's going to have to eventually do business, or try to, with other houses unless he wants to change his business plan and invest a lot of money (his prior plan was brilliant- no overhead from him!) in building and maintaining a stable internally. The promoters took care of that before. Now he's one of them. He's riding on a fighter who doesn't have many paydays left. What we're seeing is a brilliant man who had the goose that laid the golden egg, and he'll be brought down by his own arrogance. This was a serious misstep if Haymon wanted to stay in the sport and maximize his profit margins and influence out of sight. Honestly, this only makes sense if Haymon simply walks away when Floyd retires and leaves everyone else holding the bag.
But it's far from clear whether he will in fact be taking on some of the risk himself. Again, he could simply outsource his guys to third party promoters as he did before tightening the alliance with Schaefer. He'll continue to get network dates regardless of who the promotional front is, and the smaller promoters will likely happily feast on Showtime dates since Hershman's "open competition" at HBO hasn't really benefited anyone save Duva and Pelullo.
Interesting post. You make some good points. I see Richard/or someone else being the promoter PBF being the face and Haymon just being the advisor/manager. Haymon did have a great business model I don't think he will stray this time too far from it.
i agree....good post...you may be right....we shall see at the same time....al may be able to build someone else up....he knows how to work it.....he could have another floyd at some point....although those guys are farrrrr from a dime a dozen......
Shaw Goosen or Dibella will not jump ship. They don't have the company infrastructure or stable of fighters to get business isolated. Realistically its Haymon's move. Either find a new leech (TMT maybe) or start your own promotional venture. From what I've read, fighters are either with GBP or not. That is the question...if they are with GBP it doesn't matter if they are with haymon. they should agree to what gbp presents them or they get sent to back of line....haymon has no leverage/bargaining power here. Once Haymon makes the next move, we'll see what happens. I am also wondering if Showtime doesn't take the leap themselves and promote the fights as the promoter instead of hiring a third party to do it. But that would mean they'd have to take the monetary risk of staging the event. I suspect this is most likely scenario.
This may be the case, but I for one am all for changing the current status quo. The current model works for the fighters and a few key individuals but not the fans of boxing.