Should the pros help fund ABAE?

[Mario]

I must admit i didn't pay too much attention when the mud slinging and name calling started between the ABA and the olympians, just sour grapes i thought from the ABA after losing their best boxers, who would inevitably turn over after the summer. But when i was reading what Richard Caborn said earlier on there was one thing that stood out for me.

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Caborn added that the professional game owed it to boxing to pay money to the amateur game, just as the Premier League does with football.

"The investment was at the expense of other boxers at the grass-roots.

"I would hope promoters and the professional bodies should make investment back into grass-roots boxing."
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Now i know this isn't quite the point Caborn was making, but the amateur clubs nurture these lads for maybe 10, 15 years, give their free time to train them, travel all over the place taking them to shows etc etc, then these big promoters come in after all the hard work is done and reap the rewards without giving anything back.

So the question is, should promoters help fund the amateur game that they profit from so much? And if so, to what extent?

[Mario]

Oh and here's the story in full....

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528, ... 49,00.html

[dondada]

Yes, they should. What happened to the joint am and pro shows that allegedly suggested when he was trying to get Khan's signature?

Strange that nothing ever happened, hey?

Lots of people spend years doing graft for nothing only for pro promoters to come along and earn money off their backs without putting a bean back in.

[boxingchat]

Why should they? The ABA get lottery funding and don't want a relationship with the Pro-Side in any way. They are the reason the joint shows didn't materialise and they are the reason all the amatuers turn over - They want to make a living.

Why should a professional businesses subsidise an amatuer business? Do Sainsbury's support the Corner Shops?

As for the comment regarding football. The FA do nothing for grass roots football below a certain level and the difference being is, they sell the TV rights to the game and not the clubs themselves.

The FA do sweet FA for youth football and even fine clubs for cancelling games due to poor weather on parks pitches that they have no control over. They even fine kids for bookings and sendings off as young as 11 and charge a club £10 if some kid wants to leave their club and sign for another.

Don't make the Football Association look like the perfect blue print for sport as they are not. Smaller clubs have to subsidise eveything they do until they get to 'elite' level and then they get the token drippings from the FA. There are thousands of clubs in Football who receive nothing yet if they develop a player who ends up playing for England or a Pro-Club what do they get. Nothing! because a big club has bought their mum a new kitchen or their dad a new Car and taken them away to rtheoir academy for a tenner! - How much do toiyu think Beckhams Youth club have benefitted from his transferrs and England appearances? Maybe a new set of goal posts if they're lucky.

It's all bollocks - Boxing is no different, and in many ways better, than football in how it is run. Promters give 10% of their TV revenue to the Board who stockpile it in their bottomless benevolant fund which very rarely sees the light of day and the interest is doled out if they are feeling generous.

Whats to stop the amatuers promoting Boxing in the same way a professional promoter does? Nothing at all. warren promoted Khans last fight on ITV and no doubt both he, Kindalin and Khan all benefitted. Why couldn't the ABA have done that without his help -Theyre was nothoing stopping them other than their age-old boring fart in a Blazer and tie mentality?

Look how they're treating Terry Edwards? If he as england's Footabll Manager we'd all be up in arms about it. he regularly brings medals back and has helped develop good fighters and what thanks has he got for it, constantly undermined by directors of nonothings and performance directors who don't even know the game.

It's all bullshit!

[Phenomenal-Nutrition]

Good post BC

[Coco]

Yeah about right

[Gray-Fox]

The pros shouldn't fund the amateurs AT ALL.

BC hit the nail on the head.

[My T Sharp]

Good post BC.

The people at the lower level of any sport end up paying a small fortune, but its all for the love of the game.

[jimglen]

YES;

and support other fighters too - like a proper well planned pension fund, that ALL pay into and the Highest Earners in the game INCLUDING Promoters, Managers, Trainers and the like pay much, much more!!!

[Poncey]

Very much so. Footballers have to, so why not boxers?! In America the State Athletic Commission contributes $1 of every ticket sold to the amateur association's fund. In Nevada it's chicken feed, but apparently it's a blanket rule. Should be percentage of ticket value. But at least it's something.

[standing8]

No way,Im understood that the ABA get 3million a year in government funding

do people really think the BBBOC is mega cash rich???

Its got enough fund's for a few head injury claims,and thats it!!

[Maelstrom]

Nice post Mr. Ayling.

Firstly, the ABA wont exist as from March - lets hope the new outfit is organised.

Secondly, the amateur game has more than enough money. Do you know how much the top amateur boxers get paid as a 'salary' these days. How can a paid fighter even be classed as amateur anyway?

[dondada]

Why should they? The ABA get lottery funding and don't want a relationship with the Pro-Side in any way. They are the reason the joint shows didn't materialise and they are the reason all the amatuers turn over - They want to make a living.

Why should a professional businesses subsidise an amatuer business? Do Sainsbury's support the Corner Shops?

Your analogy is utter shite. Sainsbury's don't get their goods from the corner shops, do they, FFS?

I don't give a monkey's about football - we're talking boxing here.

The ABA are a bunch of tits at times and you need to divorce them from grass roots gyms many of who are also frustrated with the ABA.

I'm talking about little gyms who could occasionally do with a few quid or second hand equipment from the pros, not the lottery funded lads.

Then again, maybe this happens more often than I'm told.