By William Trillo
As defined by www.phrases.org:
To ‘take a back seat’ is take a subordinate or reclusive position.
By now, anyone who pays even the slightest amount of attention to boxing news is well aware that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez has filed a law suit against his promoter Oscar De La Hoya from Golden Boy Promotions and the broadcast partner DAZN for breach of contract to the tune of some $280 million dollars. The 11-fight deal that was drawn up between Alvarez, Golden Boy and DAZN is unraveling quickly.
No kidding?
Before you read on further let me warn you this article is not going to go over how the lawsuit reads or what the significant players are saying or not saying. If you want to get those facts, there are numerous articles out there for you to review.
Instead I am going to take you back to the days just after this huge $365 million eleven fight deal was proudly announced by the major players. You could not have puffed up their chests any further. All, I repeat ALL parties involved were strutting around with some pretty pompous looks on their faces as they felt they had become God’s Gift to Boxing.
Immediately DAZN started shilling their platform expecting fans to start paying a monthly fee for their services that would give them access to all Canelo fights. Originally the price for the service was $9.99 per month. Since then they have tried $19.99 per month and/or $99 per year as they scramble to attract subscribers.
I’m sorry but no matter how hard I tried to crunch those numbers it seemed virtually impossible for anyone to expect they were going to attract enough subscribers to cover even a tiny portion of that $365 million. And yes, I know there are sponsorships involved here but as far as my arithmetic would take me, I smelled Baloney.
In an article I penned shortly after all this went down, I asked a very seasoned and well respected boxing journalist about my concern that this was a lot of smoke and mirrors, to which he replied, “ Yeah, there’s a bit of Fools Gold at play here.”
Another boxing journalist who also moonlights as a Forensic Accountant said this looked like a Pyramid Scheme to him.
I had to agree with both, this looked like a Ponzi Scheme of epic proportions to me as well.
So, this begs to ask, didn’t this thought cross anyone’s mind when DAZN threw that $365 million contract under their noses? I mean really, didn’t it seem just a tad ridiculous to go into a contract like this with a company who was barely just cutting their teeth in the boxing world? No one thought to themselves, “Hmmm, they are in their infancy stages, maybe we should be realistic and lower expectations for everyone here.”?
HECK NO THEY DIDN’T.
And in the ultimate “Counting Your Chickens Before They Are Hatched” blunder, the major players all signed on the dotted line.
That my friends is how Common Sense was relegated to the backseat and Greed took over the wheel.
Now everyone is pointing fingers and laying blame. But none of them are cashing any checks, ‘cuz there ain’t no money to go around.
So whose fault is that?
DAZN says it could not pay Canelo for challengers they did not approve of. Considering they approved of Canelo’s first fight of their contract to be against Rocky Fielding that is a laughable notion at best.
And now?
Well Canelo’s not fighting anytime soon so the likelihood of DAZN’s subscribership going anywhere but down, way down, is the reality. I mean seriously, is there any other reason to throw your money in their direction right now?
Probably not.
Had enough?
No?
Well how about we throw in The Pandemic to this equation?
I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that no one is going to be sympathetic to Canelo’s or Golden Boy’s cause right now. Businesses are shutting down; people have lost their jobs and there is no end in sight. Expecting anyone to be sympathetic to your cause smacks of arrogance.
If ever there was a time to humble yourselves a bit and take a huge cut in pay, this would be it. Trust me on this, that would go a long way and the boxing public would remember that. You could do yourselves a huge favor here, but that does not appear to be your intentions. My guess is this litigation is going to lock Canelo up for a long time and in the end, everyone will lose.
It’s a shame no one had the foresight to look at that original deal two years ago and realize this was just too good to be true. It’s a shame someone didn’t pull Oscar aside and warn him this was more likely to blow up in his face than not. The truth is it was extremely easy to see.
It’s also a shame someone didn’t take DAZN brass to a chalkboard and show them no matter how hard you try there are not going to be enough paying viewers to make $9.99 per month go into $365 million. Not now, not ever. Do your Guzintas Jethro, it doesn’t work.
And lastly, it’s a shame Canelo has made it perfectly clear he wants all his money and he doesn’t care about the pandemic, his promoter or the fans.
Yes, it is a shame, but greed is a funny thing, “…it is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” – Erich Fromm, Escape From Freedom
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