Sinclair vs the Khans - who has the most resources?

[bmfjules]

Searched and didn't find where anyone had asked this (apologies if it has been discussed) but does anyone know between Sinclair and the Khan Family, which company actually has access to the most resources in terms of finances, business/media infrastructure and ability to put the most eyeballs on a wrestling promotion?

Also, how much of a game changer would it be if Sinclair went all in (pun actually not intended) with Ring of Honor and started really opening the purse strings and going after big ticket free agents/getting ROH a strong TV position?

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

In my opinion Sinclair lost a lot of power after the failed merger, so I’m picking the Khans here. They’re terrible at both types of football management let’s hope they’re good at wrestling.

[Deleted]

Purely speaking on resources

Gotta go with Sinclair they got not only money but controll an assload of stations

According to they own or operate 193 stations in over 100 markets and are the largest owners of stations affiliated with Fox and ABC plus stations like comet

The Khans well they have money

[Mayonnaise]

Sinclair easily blows away the Khan family when it comes to having the resources to grow. I think they are in almost half the houses in America and if they succeed with buying the local sports channels Disney is being forced to sell, they'll be even closer. They're also experienced with not just TV production but wrestling production (though they do struggle at times). The question with them will always be about how much they want to put into ROH but they have upped that amount every year I think.

The Khans have money and a desire to be in the business but that's about it as of now.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Sinclair is on local affiliates, and I assume the Khans will get a cable deal. Despite a lower viewership I think AEW is gonna end up drawing more money because of that.

[OGBoardPoster2005]

Apr 29, 2019 19:30:54 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

In my opinion Sinclair lost a lot of power after the failed merger, so I’m picking the Khans here. They’re terrible at both types of football management let’s hope they’re good at wrestling.

To be fair to Khan, the Jags nearly reached a Super Bowl under him.

[OVO 40 hunched over like he 80]

Apr 29, 2019 20:30:38 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

Apr 29, 2019 19:30:54 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

In my opinion Sinclair lost a lot of power after the failed merger, so I’m picking the Khans here. They’re terrible at both types of football management let’s hope they’re good at wrestling.

To be fair to Khan, the Jags nearly reached a Super Bowl under him.

Well since they’ll never win a super bowl or the premier league, they’ll invent their own championship.

[Deleted]

Sinclair employs multiple former Trump officials like Epshteynn and Gorka

[toodarkmark]

Sinclair could give two bits about ROH. Its some content. I bet you there are executives in Sinclair who dont even know what ROH is or means.

Khans know what AEW is.

Having resources and having resources available are two different things.

[Shark]

Apr 29, 2019 21:21:57 GMT -5 toodarkmark said:

Sinclair could give two bits about ROH. Its some content. I bet you there are executives in Sinclair who dont even know what ROH is or means.

Khans know what AEW is.

Having resources and having resources available are two different things.

I was going to say this. Sinclair has more resources for ROH, but they are piss poor and utilizing them properly. Khan will use what resources he has to their fullest extent.

[bmfjules]

Apr 29, 2019 22:07:24 GMT -5 Shark said:

Apr 29, 2019 21:21:57 GMT -5 toodarkmark said:

Sinclair could give two bits about ROH. Its some content. I bet you there are executives in Sinclair who dont even know what ROH is or means.

Khans know what AEW is.

Having resources and having resources available are two different things.

I was going to say this. Sinclair has more resources for ROH, but they are piss poor and utilizing them properly. Khan will use what resources he has to their fullest extent.

That's kind of the nature of the thought I had in mind, though. More of a what if - let's just say that some executive pretty far up the food chain for whatever reason decides that if we're gonna have one of those phony rasslin promotions, then we ought to at least have the number one phony rasslin promotion and so he gives the okay to start spending money like a drunken sailor to that end. 

Of course, then you just basically have WCW redux with a giant company just pissing away millions of dollars per year (which they can write off) and then, worst case scenario, putting corporate suits in charge of the company so it would be a total crap shoot as to whether ROH would turn into WCW when it was on top of the world, or WCW when it was marketing PPVs around Robocop.

So even in the scenario that Sinclair decides to start spending big bucks, AEW having a backer who is a hardcore fan is an advantage that could definitely help them edge out ROH for that #2 spot behind WWE in a hypothetical three way war of the billion dollar companies. 

[Deleted]

Apr 29, 2019 22:19:48 GMT -5 bmfjules said:

Apr 29, 2019 22:07:24 GMT -5 Shark said:

I was going to say this. Sinclair has more resources for ROH, but they are piss poor and utilizing them properly. Khan will use what resources he has to their fullest extent.

That's kind of the nature of the thought I had in mind, though. More of a what if - let's just say that some executive pretty far up the food chain for whatever reason decides that if we're gonna have one of those phony rasslin promotions, then we ought to at least have the number one phony rasslin promotion and so he gives the okay to start spending money like a drunken sailor to that end. 

Of course, then you just basically have WCW redux with a giant company just pissing away millions of dollars per year (which they can write off) and then, worst case scenario, putting corporate suits in charge of the company so it would be a total crap shoot as to whether ROH would turn into WCW when it was on top of the world, or WCW when it was marketing PPVs around Robocop.

So even in the scenario that Sinclair decides to start spending big bucks, AEW having a backer who is a hardcore fan is an advantage that could definitely help them edge out ROH for that #2 spot behind WWE in a hypothetical three way war of the billion dollar companies. 

What I have in mind. Sure, Sinclair DOES have the capital to make Ring of Honor big, but the question is, will they? Or, will they they just keep putting in the same amount of effort in, year in and year out, and let this random asset they got do its own thing, and whether or not it succeeds or fails is inconsequential to their bottom line?

I mean, let's look at a recent example of Sinclair just pissing money for the sake of pissing money (trust me, this is going somewhere); Kids Click. I'm sure all of us are familiar with the fact that Saturday Morning Cartoons died a slow death when networks realized that, rather than spend money on in-house projects, they could make something based off of a comedian, and then decided to syndicate foreign cartoons (not just the obvious example of anime, but European cartoons as well)? After CW's Vortexx was shut down, effectively the last of the dinosaurs, any network decided that to fill this void, they'd just syndicate programming that would fit the "Educational and Informative" guidelines that the FCC put into effect for stations. Sinclair decided that they would try and revive this dead concept with Kids Click, and they'd syndicate it on both their own stations and also Tribune's own This TV, which was something they were hoping would butter up the merger deal with Tribune Broadcasting before that was thankfully turned down. Kids Click didn't bother with the FCC guidelines, so they could put whatever stuff they wanted, and what they did was they put all their eggs into one basket, and that being syndicating the first season of "Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir" (this was largely the reason for Kids Click existing, seriously), along with a bunch of other assets other countries had that were dirt cheap. And the thing struggled for just under three years before they killed the concept at the end of March.

If Sinclair decides they want Ring of Honor to suddenly be this cornerstone of all their regional sports stations, they'll put it on those regional sports stations. Otherwise, it's just going to stay on at those ungodly hours on your local Fox affiliate, where you'll see Eli Isom getting squashed by Shane Taylor as your main event.

[Mayonnaise]

Apr 29, 2019 21:21:57 GMT -5 toodarkmark said:

Sinclair could give two bits about ROH. Its some content. I bet you there are executives in Sinclair who dont even know what ROH is or means.

Khans know what AEW is.

Having resources and having resources available are two different things.

From their third quarter conference call last year:

www.pwtorch.com/site/2018/11/07/roh-brought-up-during-sinclair-broadcasting-third-quarter-conference-call-ceo-president-ripley-gives-praise-to-the-company/

Aaron L. Watts – Deutsche Bank Securities, Inc.

Okay, great. And then, maybe just one more bigger picture. I think, somewhat unique from some of your peers, you’ve put a lot of money to work in non-local content initiatives via Tennis Channel, college football, wrestling. As you said today, can you maybe give us your vantage point on how you would say those investments are working out versus maybe your initial expectations? And, do those experiences affect your mindset about acquiring more content platforms of a similar vein going forward, you’re obviously sitting on a lot of cash in an enviable position on that front. So, just curious about that that experience.

Christopher S. Ripley – Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc.

Sure. So, look I think saying that we’ve invested a lot of money is maybe a slight mischaracterization. Beyond Tennis, we really haven’t spent significant dollars on content and Ring of Honor, I think, we bought for a couple hundred thousand dollars. And it’s, we think that’s an unpolished gem that ultimately should be something in the same light as WWE. We actually sold out Madison Square Gardens for an event next year which is pretty (00:24:46) in 11 minutes. So, we know that that that brand has potential. It just – it hasn’t, we haven’t quite found the right dials to turn yet, but we keep increasing the grass roots support on it and it has just a very, very loyal and avid fan base which is what you really need to explode a brand.

I know it's easy to call it corporate speak but that is the strategy ROH has taken since they bought it and it has worked. ROH has grown by a lot since Cary sold it and Sinclair isn't, well, isn't Panda Energy.

[honsou]

Its not really a matter of resources. Sinclair even now just sees ROH as cheap programing to put on the local stations

[Dub H]

Well the Khans conquered almost all of Asia so I will go with then.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Sinclair has way more BUT you also have to consider that the Khans are likely willing to spend more money on AEW than Sinclair ever has on ROH and that could make a signficant difference. 

Also, keep in mind that even with limited resources, the Sinclair deal literally saved ROH from going bankrupt and they've drawn their biggest crowds ever in the past couple years. Having someone to foot the bill is so crucial if you want to build up a promotion. Probably more so than any creative ideas or whatever. 

[corndog]

Apr 29, 2019 20:30:38 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

Apr 29, 2019 19:30:54 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

In my opinion Sinclair lost a lot of power after the failed merger, so I’m picking the Khans here. They’re terrible at both types of football management let’s hope they’re good at wrestling.

To be fair to Khan, the Jags nearly reached a Super Bowl under him.

The Jaguars aren't in terrible shape, especially since they got Nick Foles.

[salz4life]

Apr 29, 2019 20:33:44 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

Apr 29, 2019 20:30:38 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

To be fair to Khan, the Jags nearly reached a Super Bowl under him.

Well since they’ll never win a super bowl or the premier league, they’ll invent their own championship.

Khan will buy the League Cup.... LOL

[Cyno]

Apr 29, 2019 20:30:38 GMT -5 OGBoardPoster2005 said:

Apr 29, 2019 19:30:54 GMT -5 OVO 40 hunched over like he 80 said:

In my opinion Sinclair lost a lot of power after the failed merger, so I’m picking the Khans here. They’re terrible at both types of football management let’s hope they’re good at wrestling.

To be fair to Khan, the Jags nearly reached a Super Bowl under him.

The Jags were one Blake Bortles away from making the Super Bowl. If they had even an average QB under center instead of a scrub like Bortles, they probably would've won that game.

And yeah, Sinclair has a lot more resources than the Khans, but the Khans seem more willing to make AEW a big part of their business. With Sinclair, ROH is just another item in their portfolio. For being owned by a giant media conglomerate, you'd think ROH would have production values that far exceed the "slightly better than local access indie fed" level that they currently have.

[mcmahonfan85]

Sinclair has more resources, but the Khans will utilize their's better because they're personally invested in the company instead of seeing it as a low cost way of generation content