Thurman/Guerrero card brings in 3.4 million viewers

[Kirkland Laing]

I wonder how the money works out for this? We know with ppv it's in the buys. But how does regular network TV get that money in for boxing shows? Gatta be more than just spot advertisements.

I'll guess the money's come from the Live Gate Sales and Advertising Dollars. There are sponsors for the event itself as well. Typically Beer & other Spirits, Energy/Sport drinks & Sport attire and the Networks themselves. I only see mega fights having a site venue bid. Otherwise the promoter pays the venue and to get the fight aired. I'm not sure how the ad dollars are divided up. Al Haymon reportedly made a deal with NBC to air 24 fights. The same formula that the networks use applies to Al Haymon's investment bid to get boxing back on aired TV. With the rating received, it cost advertisers between $50k-$60k for a 30 second spot. I would think just looking at the number in general that Al Hamon needs to clear a bit more that 1 million per fight on average to make any money. With only 4 of the 24 fights on prime-time with a 1-ish rating, that number doesn't look very attainable.

Purses for Saturday night's fights.

Thurman $1.5 million
Guerrero $1.225 m
Broner $1.25m
Molina $450k
Mares $500k
Reyes $20k

So Haymon isn't even coming close to covering the purses with TV revenue and forget the gate money, half the arena was curtained off and most of the people there were comped. Non- TV advertising is buttons. The lighting rig above the ring cost a million dollars and the production of the event cost a bomb too.

Haymon is getting bankrolled by a bunch of private equity firms and big investors. This isn't a philanthropic endeavour, everybody involved is trying to turn PBC into another UFC so they can eventually run either PPVs or their own subscription channel or both. They're eating a big initial loss to build a potential customer base and then they're going to try and monetise it. So enjoy the free stuff while it lasts and eventually becomes either another UFC-type thing or blows up.