Is Dan Henderson's Contract Sinking Strikeforce?

Quote :: Dan Henderson is one of the sport's highest paid fighters.
Unfortunately, he doesn't pack the same punch at the box office he does
with his famous right hand. Jonathan Snowden looks at whether his
outlandish contract is sinking MMA's second largest promotion.

Jul 21, 2011 - Top fighters in
mixed martial arts, as a group, are grossly underpaid. The big events
draw thousands of spectators to arenas nationwide. Pay per view adds
millions more. When you factor in concessions, advertising, site fees,
and all the other revenue streams, each event makes the Fertitta
brothers and Dana White very, very wealthy. Most fighters, on the other
hand, only see a fraction of that revenue, especially when compared to
top athletes in other sports.
I say all that to make my general position known in advance. I'm pro
fighter. They are the men and women risking their well being, they are
the ones who are providing the entertainment, putting it all on the line
for fame, glory, and yes, money. To me, that means they deserve a fair
shake and then some.
With that out of the way, I think it's fair to point out that Dan Henderson makes too much money. For the services he provides, he's not just a little overpaid - he's grotesquely overpaid. He's the Allan Houston of MMA fighters, an athlete paid like a star when he's really filling a supporting role. ESPN reports that Henderson will bank $800,000 for his main event tilt later this month against Fedor Emelianenko.
It's actually fairly incredible. With the exception of UFC 75, the
first high profile main event ever shown on free television in America,
Henderson has a dubious history of attracting paying customers to the
box office or viewers to the television set. Yet, he will make more for a
bout on Showtime than many UFC main eventers will make for headlining
wildly successful pay per views. A star in the Pride promotion in Japan
for much of the last decade, Henderson is one of MMA's most successful
fighters historically. He's won titles in two weight classes and
competed with the sport's very best. But he's never carved out a large
fanbase, isn't a sustained household name, and wasn't considered
capable, as he crept into his 40's, of headlining a pay per view for the
UFC.
UFC President Dana White watched in amazement as Strikeforce
engaged in a bidding war with seemingly no one for Hendo's services.
White was happy to let a supporting player go with a superstar's price
tag. He knew that Henderson would never be worth that kind of money - as
usual he was right.
On CBS, headlining against Jake Shields,
Henderson attracted barely half of the audience Emelianenko had drawn
in Strikeforce's first fight card on network television. In bouts with
Rafael Feijao and Renato Sobral,
Henderson performed like any other Strikeforce fighter in the ratings.
He didn't add viewers, despite cashing the pay check of the kind of
fighter who should.
With Emelianenko leading the way, and Nick Diaz
gaining ground, Henderson faded into the background as just another
fighter. Now Fedor is floundering, twice a victim of larger grapplers in
the Strikeforce heavyweight division. While his last fight was still a
box office success, there are legitimate questions about how consecutive
losses will affect his drawing power.
The entertainment industry is complicated - predicting trends and
creating stars are both a sophisticated alchemy. And really, that's what
the fight business is - entertainment. As a fighter, Dan Henderson was
one of the best. As an entertainer, he's arguably fallen short. Strikeforce, long speculated to be on the chopping block after being purchased by the UFC's parent company Zuffa,
continues to struggle with this idea, letting its biggest stars walk
away, while using resources on fighters like Henderson who pack
questionable box office punch.

SBNation

So what do you think, could Hendo's contract be sinking Strikeforce?
I personally don't think it matters at this point. Zuffa is just has to ride out this Showitme contract before they can absorb Strikeforce into UFC.

Yea, SF doesn't have the bank to pay Hendo that much right now...but zuffa does. His contract is significant, but it's nowhere near crippling now that they got bought out.

Was Hendo's contract sinking Silicon Valley Sports & Entertainment?
Most likely, which could have played a large role in the sale of their share....

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