Cary Silkin Opens Up About How Much Money He Lost Running Ring Of Honor
Former ROH owner Cary Silkin has gone into detail on how much money the promotion was losing when he was at the helm. Silkin served as the ROH owner from 2004 through 2011. The company was acquired by Sinclair Broadcast Group on May 21, 2011.
While the era of ROH under Silkin's watch was highly praised, it wasn't exactly a financial success. During an interview with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman, Silkin said he thought the deal with HDNet, thanks to Mark Cuban, was going to be a breakthrough.
"The problem was and I didn't know at the time, I should have done some more research, but I wouldn't have turned them down, no matter what, but they only had... five percent of the country could see them."
Silkin revealed that ROH lost "a lot" of money when he ran the company. He confirmed that ROH lost millions of dollars, but not tens of millions.
"No, but here's the thing, Nick, I knew we had a good thing. I knew it, I knew it, I knew it. I'd been watching wrestling since the late '60s and I'm not an expert about anything, but I knew we had a good thing. I also knew that we're not going to be able to compete with WWE. Why did I keep it open, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11? Because I knew we had a good thing. It was also passion, my passion for the product."
Silkin admitted his "ego" also played a role in keeping the promotion alive. Silkin said that while ROH didn't do so well business wise, he feels the company gave a "solid platform" for talent such as Seth Rollins, who was known as Tyler Black in ROH, to seen and ultimately wind up in WWE.