Great postBoxing Prospect wrote: ↑10 Sep 2020, 03:12 Whoever signed that deal (and Eddie Hearn's $1bn one) needs taking out back and shooting.
At $40m fight (his purse + $5m) they needed around 2m people to tune in at $20 a pop. The global viewer base for DAZN currently stands at about 8m.
Completely idiotic business.
I get loss leaders, and how they entice people in etc etc, or they act as a marketing tool etc. Completely get it. But they are meant to be manageable losses, affordable losses, losses that open the door to a profit. I also accept there were more in the way of incoming money (advertising, international rights where DAZN aren't currently in action etc, etc), but that was still a completely ridiculous sum of money for a 2-time a year participant in a niche sport, with an aging fan base, on a niche new service.
I can't help but repeatedly think that DAZN though their competition was ESPN/Showtime/Fox ETC, when really it was Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu. They marketed as if they were in the sports field, but really their competition was the streaming rivals, and they offer so much more, with flexibility.
Streaming in sport IS the way forward IMO, but it needs to be built up gradually, rather than have money men spunking all over the walls. The big splash of new media rarely pans out well. See Quibi as another example.
I think Dazn were realising that their boxing output at the time was not bringing in any new subscribers, it wasn't "moving the needle" as Arum said, so they "spunked" money ( 
) all over Canelo as a statement signing possibly to show some of the more stubborn big names in the sport that its fine to switch over to Dazn. The worldwide economic effects of covid will be felt for years and years to come and I can't see Dazn's business model ever paying off, it won't even be down to them, it'll be down to the money providers and the question of whether or not they want to keep funding it at this sort of rate, clearly that decision has been made, hence not wanting to pay Canelo forty million a pop.Looking at all the argy bargy over who'll fight Canelo next over the past few months, to me it has been a case of everyone looking at the total prize money and they all want a bigger slice. From the reports etc I think BJS was offered six million and Eddie wanted about ten, which means Canelo taking less, and nobody does that in boxing (as far as we know) except Lomachenko. Its just pure greed, there is a set amount of money and if you think you can beat Canelo, take the six million and have a crack at it. You then get Oscar trying to test the waters with worse opponents who'll take less money, just to wind up the others and apply pressure. It's a bit childish really because they can go running to the media to put across their side of the story yet don't just come out with the figures. People could make a proper view if it was a case of, ok total purse money is forty million, and Canelo won't (for example) split it $30m to $10m with BJS and wants it more $34m to $6m. Don't hide behind generic comments like "if you want to make champion money, beat the champion", just come out with the figures and then there is nowhere to hide.
Canelo is now between a rock and a hard place, his broadcaster wants to squeeze him, and his potential opponents do as well, and his relationship with Oscar is not great either according to reports. I know boxing is a business but they all need to grow up, appreciate times have changed and get an opponent picked and agree on the money. If it ends up in court who knows when Canelo will next get in the ring. We're in Sept so there is only so many weeks before you either rule in or rule out a fight by the end of this year. I'd love to see Smith and BJS unify before the end of the year, in the absence of Canelo actually fighting the winner of that fight would take centre stage at 160/168lbs and be the overwhelming choice to face Canelo next May and by holding two belts they'd have a strong hand in negotiations.
