The world is living in some extraordinary times at the moment.
Markets are reeling from the effects of the current global pandemic.
Organizations around the Earth are laying off or furloughing employees to in a bid to survive.
ESPN the biggest sports network in America and arguably in the world who are owned by Disney did not renew their contract with long-time boxing writer Dan Rafael.
It is never nice to see someone lose their job.
Now Disney from a bigger picture perspective have made a move that has sadly impacted many more American workers.
It has been widely reported that over 100,000 Disney employees have been furloughed.
However it has been also reported that Disney are still astonishingly paying out a large dividend to shareholders and executives in the region of $1.5 billion dollars.
I’d suggest from a business perspective this is not going to be good for Disney in the long-run. No way.
As well as their balance sheet and operations their image and brand is taking a terrible hit.
People will think twice about investing into their once reputable brand in the future.
Even an heiress of the company of the great creator Walt has had this to say on what her grandfather’s creation has now become:
I would suggest to gentlemen at Disney to think carefully about the long-term consequences of their actions.
To look at the bigger macroeconomic picture for a second.
It is my opinion that the capitalism system in the West is going through perhaps the biggest change it has ever seen.
The world and business will be a far different place this year or next when it comes out of this crisis.
This insight from an American gentleman on Wall Street might offer a more easy to understand explanation:
Okay, let’s go back for a second.
What that means for a sport like boxing shown on ESPN (owned by Disney) is unknown at this time.
Disney already pay out a lot of money to UFC of which realistically Conor McGregor is their main man in.
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McGregor, who on his own drove a crazy amount of signs ups to the new ESPN+ app in his last fight, I would hope is sharing in some of current shareholder payout.
It could take some time if ever for Disney’s brand to recover from this unless they make a wise and quick reconsideration.
I would also suggest to the powers that be at Disney that boxing is a hugely important sport for society and sports fans for these reasons.
Boxing is in a great place at the moment too.
Before the pandemic hit the world Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder had breathed new life back into the heavyweight division in recent years.
Their two fights in recent times got American sports fans and indeed world sports fans talking about heavyweight boxing again.
Time will tell how boxing and the networks that show the sport emerge from the current pandemic.
At the moment everyone is just guessing at when things will be back as regards time lines.
