diff --git a/lucene/CHANGES.txt b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
index 2e2cdb8da34..554880f2835 100644
--- a/lucene/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/lucene/CHANGES.txt
@@ -128,6 +128,8 @@ API Changes
 * LUCENE-9962: DrillSideways allows sub-classes to provide "drill down" FacetsCollectors. They
   may provide a null collector if they choose to bypass "drill down" facet collection. (Greg Miller)
 
+* LUCENE-8143: SpanBoostQuery has been removed. (Alan Woodward)
+
 Improvements
 
 * LUCENE-9960: Avoid unnecessary top element replacement for equal elements in PriorityQueue. (Dawid Weiss)
diff --git a/lucene/MIGRATE.md b/lucene/MIGRATE.md
index 47fdb03db52..e32cb2c3781 100644
--- a/lucene/MIGRATE.md
+++ b/lucene/MIGRATE.md
@@ -410,3 +410,8 @@ be as simple as no longer providing this boolean.
 ## SpanQuery and subclasses have moved from core/ to the queries module
 
 They can now be found in the o.a.l.queries.spans package.
+
+## SpanBoostQuery has been removed (LUCENE-8143)
+
+SpanBoostQuery was a no-op unless used at the top level of a SpanQuery nested
+structure. Use a standard BoostQuery here instead.
diff --git a/lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/TestUnifiedHighlighterMTQ.java b/lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/TestUnifiedHighlighterMTQ.java
index 96ed91336ee..b12ef3a9ee3 100644
--- a/lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/TestUnifiedHighlighterMTQ.java
+++ b/lucene/highlighter/src/test/org/apache/lucene/search/uhighlight/TestUnifiedHighlighterMTQ.java
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.document.FieldType;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.RandomIndexWriter;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanFirstQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanMultiTermQueryWrapper;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNearQuery;
@@ -563,10 +562,7 @@ public class TestUnifiedHighlighterMTQ extends LuceneTestCase {
 
     IndexSearcher searcher = newSearcher(ir);
     UnifiedHighlighter highlighter = randomUnifiedHighlighter(searcher, indexAnalyzer);
-    // wrap in a SpanBoostQuery to also show we see inside it
-    Query query =
-        new SpanBoostQuery(
-            new SpanMultiTermQueryWrapper<>(new WildcardQuery(new Term("body", "te*"))), 2.0f);
+    Query query = new SpanMultiTermQueryWrapper<>(new WildcardQuery(new Term("body", "te*")));
     TopDocs topDocs = searcher.search(query, 10, Sort.INDEXORDER);
     assertEquals(2, topDocs.totalHits.value);
     String snippets[] = highlighter.highlight("body", query, topDocs);
diff --git a/lucene/monitor/src/test/org/apache/lucene/monitor/TestSpanExtractors.java b/lucene/monitor/src/test/org/apache/lucene/monitor/TestSpanExtractors.java
index e4e802f12b7..6032c10d0bd 100644
--- a/lucene/monitor/src/test/org/apache/lucene/monitor/TestSpanExtractors.java
+++ b/lucene/monitor/src/test/org/apache/lucene/monitor/TestSpanExtractors.java
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ import java.util.HashSet;
 import java.util.Set;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.FieldMaskingSpanQuery;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanContainingQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanFirstQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanMultiTermQueryWrapper;
@@ -122,12 +121,6 @@ public class TestSpanExtractors extends LuceneTestCase {
     assertEquals(Collections.singleton(t3), collectTerms(swq));
   }
 
-  public void testSpanBoost() {
-    Term t1 = new Term("field", "term1");
-    SpanBoostQuery q = new SpanBoostQuery(new SpanTermQuery(t1), 0.1f);
-    assertEquals(Collections.singleton(t1), collectTerms(q));
-  }
-
   public void testFieldMaskingSpanQuery() {
     Term t1 = new Term("field", "term1");
     FieldMaskingSpanQuery q = new FieldMaskingSpanQuery(new SpanTermQuery(t1), "field2");
diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/SpanBoostQuery.java b/lucene/queries/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/SpanBoostQuery.java
deleted file mode 100644
index 4b2848fb1f7..00000000000
--- a/lucene/queries/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/SpanBoostQuery.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,118 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
- * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
- * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
- * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
- * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
- * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-package org.apache.lucene.queries.spans;
-
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.util.Objects;
-import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.BooleanClause;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.BoostQuery;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.QueryVisitor;
-import org.apache.lucene.search.ScoreMode;
-
-/** Counterpart of {@link BoostQuery} for spans. */
-public final class SpanBoostQuery extends SpanQuery {
-
-  private final SpanQuery query;
-  private final float boost;
-
-  /**
-   * Sole constructor: wrap {@code query} in such a way that the produced scores will be boosted by
-   * {@code boost}.
-   */
-  public SpanBoostQuery(SpanQuery query, float boost) {
-    this.query = Objects.requireNonNull(query);
-    this.boost = boost;
-  }
-
-  /** Return the wrapped {@link SpanQuery}. */
-  public SpanQuery getQuery() {
-    return query;
-  }
-
-  /** Return the applied boost. */
-  public float getBoost() {
-    return boost;
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public boolean equals(Object other) {
-    return sameClassAs(other) && equalsTo(getClass().cast(other));
-  }
-
-  private boolean equalsTo(SpanBoostQuery other) {
-    return query.equals(other.query)
-        && Float.floatToIntBits(boost) == Float.floatToIntBits(other.boost);
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public int hashCode() {
-    int h = classHash();
-    h = 31 * h + query.hashCode();
-    h = 31 * h + Float.floatToIntBits(boost);
-    return h;
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public Query rewrite(IndexReader reader) throws IOException {
-    if (boost == 1f) {
-      return query;
-    }
-
-    final SpanQuery rewritten = (SpanQuery) query.rewrite(reader);
-    if (query != rewritten) {
-      return new SpanBoostQuery(rewritten, boost);
-    }
-
-    if (query.getClass() == SpanBoostQuery.class) {
-      SpanBoostQuery in = (SpanBoostQuery) query;
-      return new SpanBoostQuery(in.query, boost * in.boost);
-    }
-
-    return super.rewrite(reader);
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public void visit(QueryVisitor visitor) {
-    if (visitor.acceptField(getField())) {
-      query.visit(visitor.getSubVisitor(BooleanClause.Occur.MUST, this));
-    }
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public String toString(String field) {
-    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
-    builder.append("(");
-    builder.append(query.toString(field));
-    builder.append(")^");
-    builder.append(boost);
-    return builder.toString();
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public String getField() {
-    return query.getField();
-  }
-
-  @Override
-  public SpanWeight createWeight(IndexSearcher searcher, ScoreMode scoreMode, float boost)
-      throws IOException {
-    return query.createWeight(searcher, scoreMode, SpanBoostQuery.this.boost * boost);
-  }
-}
diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadExplanations.java b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadExplanations.java
index ce1ba5d4f74..03e80d3fb16 100644
--- a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadExplanations.java
+++ b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/payloads/TestPayloadExplanations.java
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 package org.apache.lucene.queries.payloads;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNearQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanOrQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
@@ -49,26 +48,12 @@ public class TestPayloadExplanations extends BaseExplanationTestCase {
     }
   }
 
-  public void testPT2() throws Exception {
-    for (PayloadFunction fn : functions) {
-      SpanQuery q = pt("w1", fn);
-      qtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
-    }
-  }
-
   public void testPT4() throws Exception {
     for (PayloadFunction fn : functions) {
       qtest(pt("xx", fn), new int[] {2, 3});
     }
   }
 
-  public void testPT5() throws Exception {
-    for (PayloadFunction fn : functions) {
-      SpanQuery q = pt("xx", fn);
-      qtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {2, 3});
-    }
-  }
-
   /*
     protected static final String[] docFields = {
     "w1 w2 w3 w4 w5",
diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanBoostQuery.java b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanBoostQuery.java
deleted file mode 100644
index b3612ebd5e0..00000000000
--- a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanBoostQuery.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
- * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
- * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
- * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
- * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
- * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-package org.apache.lucene.queries.spans;
-
-import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.util.LuceneTestCase;
-
-public class TestSpanBoostQuery extends LuceneTestCase {
-
-  public void testEquals() {
-    final float boost = random().nextFloat() * 3 - 1;
-    SpanTermQuery q = new SpanTermQuery(new Term("foo", "bar"));
-    SpanBoostQuery q1 = new SpanBoostQuery(q, boost);
-    SpanBoostQuery q2 = new SpanBoostQuery(q, boost);
-    assertEquals(q1, q2);
-    assertEquals(q1.getBoost(), q2.getBoost(), 0f);
-
-    float boost2 = boost;
-    while (boost == boost2) {
-      boost2 = random().nextFloat() * 3 - 1;
-    }
-    SpanBoostQuery q3 = new SpanBoostQuery(q, boost2);
-    assertFalse(q1.equals(q3));
-    assertFalse(q1.hashCode() == q3.hashCode());
-  }
-
-  public void testToString() {
-    assertEquals(
-        "(foo:bar)^2.0",
-        new SpanBoostQuery(new SpanTermQuery(new Term("foo", "bar")), 2).toString());
-    SpanOrQuery bq =
-        new SpanOrQuery(
-            new SpanTermQuery(new Term("foo", "bar")), new SpanTermQuery(new Term("foo", "baz")));
-    assertEquals("(spanOr([foo:bar, foo:baz]))^2.0", new SpanBoostQuery(bq, 2).toString());
-  }
-}
diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanExplanations.java b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanExplanations.java
index 10835528bf6..1a1e2a7126d 100644
--- a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanExplanations.java
+++ b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanExplanations.java
@@ -46,11 +46,6 @@ public class TestSpanExplanations extends BaseSpanExplanationTestCase {
     qtest(new BoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
   }
 
-  public void testST3() throws Exception {
-    SpanQuery q = st("w1");
-    bqtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 0), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
-  }
-
   public void testST4() throws Exception {
     SpanQuery q = st("xx");
     qtest(q, new int[] {2, 3});
@@ -61,11 +56,6 @@ public class TestSpanExplanations extends BaseSpanExplanationTestCase {
     qtest(new BoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {2, 3});
   }
 
-  public void testST6() throws Exception {
-    SpanQuery q = st("xx");
-    qtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 0), new int[] {2, 3});
-  }
-
   /* some SpanFirstQueries */
 
   public void testSF1() throws Exception {
@@ -78,11 +68,6 @@ public class TestSpanExplanations extends BaseSpanExplanationTestCase {
     qtest(new BoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
   }
 
-  public void testSF3() throws Exception {
-    SpanQuery q = sf(("w1"), 1);
-    bqtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 0), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
-  }
-
   public void testSF4() throws Exception {
     SpanQuery q = sf(("xx"), 2);
     qtest(q, new int[] {2});
@@ -98,11 +83,6 @@ public class TestSpanExplanations extends BaseSpanExplanationTestCase {
     qtest(new BoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {2});
   }
 
-  public void testSF7() throws Exception {
-    SpanQuery q = sf(("xx"), 3);
-    bqtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 0), new int[] {2, 3});
-  }
-
   /* some SpanOrQueries */
 
   public void testSO1() throws Exception {
@@ -194,11 +174,6 @@ public class TestSpanExplanations extends BaseSpanExplanationTestCase {
     qtest(new BoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
   }
 
-  public void testSNot3() throws Exception {
-    SpanQuery q = snot(sf("w1", 10), st("QQ"));
-    bqtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 0), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
-  }
-
   public void testSNot4() throws Exception {
     SpanQuery q = snot(sf("w1", 10), st("xx"));
     qtest(q, new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
@@ -209,33 +184,12 @@ public class TestSpanExplanations extends BaseSpanExplanationTestCase {
     qtest(new BoostQuery(q, 1000), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
   }
 
-  public void testSNot6() throws Exception {
-    SpanQuery q = snot(sf("w1", 10), st("xx"));
-    bqtest(new SpanBoostQuery(q, 0), new int[] {0, 1, 2, 3});
-  }
-
   public void testSNot7() throws Exception {
     SpanQuery f = snear("w1", "w3", 10, true);
     SpanQuery q = snot(f, st("xx"));
     qtest(q, new int[] {0, 1, 3});
   }
 
-  public void testSNot8() throws Exception {
-    // NOTE: using qtest not bqtest
-    SpanQuery f = snear("w1", "w3", 10, true);
-    f = new SpanBoostQuery(f, 0);
-    SpanQuery q = snot(f, st("xx"));
-    qtest(q, new int[] {0, 1, 3});
-  }
-
-  public void testSNot9() throws Exception {
-    // NOTE: using qtest not bqtest
-    SpanQuery t = st("xx");
-    t = new SpanBoostQuery(t, 0);
-    SpanQuery q = snot(snear("w1", "w3", 10, true), t);
-    qtest(q, new int[] {0, 1, 3});
-  }
-
   public void testSNot10() throws Exception {
     SpanQuery t = st("xx");
     SpanQuery q = snot(snear("w1", "w3", 10, true), t);
diff --git a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanSearchEquivalence.java b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanSearchEquivalence.java
index 0e215d5df76..3d4f84bc787 100644
--- a/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanSearchEquivalence.java
+++ b/lucene/queries/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queries/spans/TestSpanSearchEquivalence.java
@@ -463,18 +463,4 @@ public class TestSpanSearchEquivalence extends SearchEquivalenceTestBase {
     Query q2 = spanQuery(new SpanContainingQuery(nearQuery, termQuery));
     assertSameSet(q1, q2);
   }
-
-  public void testSpanBoostQuerySimplification() throws Exception {
-    float b1 = random().nextFloat() * 10;
-    float b2 = random().nextFloat() * 10;
-    Term term = randomTerm();
-
-    Query q1 = new SpanBoostQuery(new SpanBoostQuery(new SpanTermQuery(term), b2), b1);
-    // Use AssertingQuery to prevent BoostQuery from merging inner and outer boosts
-    Query q2 =
-        new SpanBoostQuery(
-            new AssertingSpanQuery(new SpanBoostQuery(new SpanTermQuery(term), b2)), b1);
-
-    assertSameScores(q1, q2);
-  }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/ComplexPhraseQueryParser.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/ComplexPhraseQueryParser.java
index 34b97fe11f9..4dad705b876 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/ComplexPhraseQueryParser.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/ComplexPhraseQueryParser.java
@@ -24,7 +24,6 @@ import java.util.Objects;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNearQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNotQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanOrQuery;
@@ -380,10 +379,8 @@ public class ComplexPhraseQueryParser extends QueryParser {
       for (BooleanClause clause : qc) {
         Query childQuery = clause.getQuery();
 
-        float boost = 1f;
         while (childQuery instanceof BoostQuery) {
           BoostQuery bq = (BoostQuery) childQuery;
-          boost *= bq.getBoost();
           childQuery = bq.getQuery();
         }
 
@@ -396,9 +393,6 @@ public class ComplexPhraseQueryParser extends QueryParser {
         if (childQuery instanceof TermQuery) {
           TermQuery tq = (TermQuery) childQuery;
           SpanQuery stq = new SpanTermQuery(tq.getTerm());
-          if (boost != 1f) {
-            stq = new SpanBoostQuery(stq, boost);
-          }
           chosenList.add(stq);
         } else if (childQuery instanceof BooleanQuery) {
           BooleanQuery cbq = (BooleanQuery) childQuery;
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/surround/query/SpanNearClauseFactory.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/surround/query/SpanNearClauseFactory.java
index 4a7820b3967..6574b95fa65 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/surround/query/SpanNearClauseFactory.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/surround/query/SpanNearClauseFactory.java
@@ -56,7 +56,6 @@ import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Iterator;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanOrQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanTermQuery;
@@ -115,11 +114,6 @@ public class SpanNearClauseFactory { // FIXME: rename to SpanClauseFactory
     if (!(q instanceof SpanQuery))
       throw new AssertionError("Expected SpanQuery: " + q.toString(getFieldName()));
     float boost = 1f;
-    if (q instanceof SpanBoostQuery) {
-      SpanBoostQuery bq = (SpanBoostQuery) q;
-      boost = bq.getBoost();
-      q = bq.getQuery();
-    }
     addSpanQueryWeighted((SpanQuery) q, boost);
   }
 
@@ -129,10 +123,6 @@ public class SpanNearClauseFactory { // FIXME: rename to SpanClauseFactory
     int i = 0;
     while (sqi.hasNext()) {
       SpanQuery sq = sqi.next();
-      float boost = weightBySpanQuery.get(sq);
-      if (boost != 1f) {
-        sq = new SpanBoostQuery(sq, boost);
-      }
       spanQueries[i++] = sq;
     }
 
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/BoostingTermBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/BoostingTermBuilder.java
index 51d1775c2c5..13b86b1b8a7 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/BoostingTermBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/BoostingTermBuilder.java
@@ -20,7 +20,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.payloads.AveragePayloadFunction;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.payloads.PayloadDecoder;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.payloads.PayloadScoreQuery;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanTermQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
@@ -36,12 +35,9 @@ public class BoostingTermBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
     String value = DOMUtils.getNonBlankTextOrFail(e);
 
     // TODO make function and decoder pluggable somehow?
-    SpanQuery btq =
-        new PayloadScoreQuery(
-            new SpanTermQuery(new Term(fieldName, value)),
-            new AveragePayloadFunction(),
-            PayloadDecoder.FLOAT_DECODER);
-    btq = new SpanBoostQuery(btq, DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f));
-    return btq;
+    return new PayloadScoreQuery(
+        new SpanTermQuery(new Term(fieldName, value)),
+        new AveragePayloadFunction(),
+        PayloadDecoder.FLOAT_DECODER);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanBuilderBase.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanBuilderBase.java
index f0bdb11fa75..311bcd75289 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanBuilderBase.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanBuilderBase.java
@@ -17,7 +17,9 @@
 package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery; // javadocs
+import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.ParserException;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.BoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 
@@ -26,6 +28,11 @@ public abstract class SpanBuilderBase implements SpanQueryBuilder {
 
   @Override
   public Query getQuery(Element e) throws ParserException {
-    return getSpanQuery(e);
+    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
+    SpanQuery q = getSpanQuery(e);
+    if (boost == 1.0f) {
+      return q;
+    }
+    return new BoostQuery(q, boost);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanFirstBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanFirstBuilder.java
index f240bb74b08..7467d625c18 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanFirstBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanFirstBuilder.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
  */
 package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanFirstQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
@@ -38,9 +37,6 @@ public class SpanFirstBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
     Element child = DOMUtils.getFirstChildElement(e);
     SpanQuery q = factory.getSpanQuery(child);
 
-    SpanFirstQuery sfq = new SpanFirstQuery(q, end);
-
-    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-    return new SpanBoostQuery(sfq, boost);
+    return new SpanFirstQuery(q, end);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNearBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNearBuilder.java
index e3daaa78d65..9f7ed346cb7 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNearBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNearBuilder.java
@@ -18,7 +18,6 @@ package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNearQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
@@ -47,8 +46,6 @@ public class SpanNearBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
       }
     }
     SpanQuery[] spanQueries = spans.toArray(new SpanQuery[spans.size()]);
-    SpanQuery snq = new SpanNearQuery(spanQueries, slop, inOrder);
-    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-    return new SpanBoostQuery(snq, boost);
+    return new SpanNearQuery(spanQueries, slop, inOrder);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNotBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNotBuilder.java
index b273a63ec48..01ff0d31484 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNotBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanNotBuilder.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
  */
 package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNotQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
@@ -43,9 +42,6 @@ public class SpanNotBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
     SpanQuery include = factory.getSpanQuery(includeElem);
     SpanQuery exclude = factory.getSpanQuery(excludeElem);
 
-    SpanNotQuery snq = new SpanNotQuery(include, exclude);
-
-    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-    return new SpanBoostQuery(snq, boost);
+    return new SpanNotQuery(include, exclude);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrBuilder.java
index 7999e54fc93..207451336e8 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrBuilder.java
@@ -18,10 +18,8 @@ package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanOrQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
-import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.ParserException;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
@@ -45,8 +43,6 @@ public class SpanOrBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
       }
     }
     SpanQuery[] clauses = clausesList.toArray(new SpanQuery[clausesList.size()]);
-    SpanOrQuery soq = new SpanOrQuery(clauses);
-    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-    return new SpanBoostQuery(soq, boost);
+    return new SpanOrQuery(clauses);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrTermsBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrTermsBuilder.java
index eef8e84dee6..6dc13db7773 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrTermsBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanOrTermsBuilder.java
@@ -23,7 +23,6 @@ import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.TokenStream;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.tokenattributes.TermToBytesRefAttribute;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanOrQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanTermQuery;
@@ -57,9 +56,7 @@ public class SpanOrTermsBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
         clausesList.add(stq);
       }
       ts.end();
-      SpanOrQuery soq = new SpanOrQuery(clausesList.toArray(new SpanQuery[clausesList.size()]));
-      float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-      return new SpanBoostQuery(soq, boost);
+      return new SpanOrQuery(clausesList.toArray(new SpanQuery[clausesList.size()]));
     } catch (IOException ioe) {
       throw new ParserException("IOException parsing value:" + value, ioe);
     }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanPositionRangeBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanPositionRangeBuilder.java
index ec2d94c05ce..085e42b4d93 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanPositionRangeBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanPositionRangeBuilder.java
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
  */
 package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanPositionRangeQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
@@ -39,9 +38,6 @@ public class SpanPositionRangeBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
     Element child = DOMUtils.getFirstChildElement(e);
     SpanQuery q = factory.getSpanQuery(child);
 
-    SpanPositionRangeQuery query = new SpanPositionRangeQuery(q, start, end);
-
-    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-    return new SpanBoostQuery(query, boost);
+    return new SpanPositionRangeQuery(q, start, end);
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanTermBuilder.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanTermBuilder.java
index 5938ad20ba5..bb95ad3890b 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanTermBuilder.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/java/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/builders/SpanTermBuilder.java
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@
 package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.builders;
 
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
-import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanBoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanTermQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml.DOMUtils;
@@ -31,9 +30,6 @@ public class SpanTermBuilder extends SpanBuilderBase {
   public SpanQuery getSpanQuery(Element e) throws ParserException {
     String fieldName = DOMUtils.getAttributeWithInheritanceOrFail(e, "fieldName");
     String value = DOMUtils.getNonBlankTextOrFail(e);
-    SpanTermQuery stq = new SpanTermQuery(new Term(fieldName, value));
-
-    float boost = DOMUtils.getAttribute(e, "boost", 1.0f);
-    return new SpanBoostQuery(stq, boost);
+    return new SpanTermQuery(new Term(fieldName, value));
   }
 }
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/TestComplexPhraseQuery.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/TestComplexPhraseQuery.java
index 1f3904ade50..6ad454d5dae 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/TestComplexPhraseQuery.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/complexPhrase/TestComplexPhraseQuery.java
@@ -20,11 +20,17 @@ import java.util.HashSet;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.MockAnalyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.MockSynonymAnalyzer;
+import org.apache.lucene.analysis.standard.StandardAnalyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.Document;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.Field;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.DirectoryReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexWriter;
+import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
+import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNearQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanTermQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.BoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.ScoreDoc;
@@ -205,6 +211,27 @@ public class TestComplexPhraseQuery extends LuceneTestCase {
     assertTrue(!q2.equals(q));
   }
 
+  public void testBoosts() throws Exception {
+
+    // top-level boosts should be preserved, interior boosts are ignored as they don't apply to
+    // spans
+    String topLevel = "(\"john^3 smit*\"~4)^2";
+    ComplexPhraseQueryParser parser = new ComplexPhraseQueryParser("name", new StandardAnalyzer());
+    parser.setInOrder(true);
+    Query actual = searcher.rewrite(parser.parse(topLevel));
+    Query expected =
+        new BoostQuery(
+            new SpanNearQuery(
+                new SpanQuery[] {
+                  new SpanTermQuery(new Term("name", "john")),
+                  new SpanTermQuery(new Term("name", "smith"))
+                },
+                4,
+                true),
+            2);
+    assertEquals(expected, actual);
+  }
+
   @Override
   public void setUp() throws Exception {
     super.setUp();
diff --git a/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java b/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java
index 5a2cd244c3c..7a79f15d02e 100644
--- a/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java
+++ b/lucene/queryparser/src/test/org/apache/lucene/queryparser/xml/TestCoreParser.java
@@ -16,8 +16,10 @@
  */
 package org.apache.lucene.queryparser.xml;
 
+import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.Analyzer;
 import org.apache.lucene.analysis.MockAnalyzer;
@@ -26,7 +28,10 @@ import org.apache.lucene.analysis.MockTokenizer;
 import org.apache.lucene.document.Document;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.IndexReader;
 import org.apache.lucene.index.Term;
+import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanNearQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.queries.spans.SpanTermQuery;
+import org.apache.lucene.search.BoostQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.DisjunctionMaxQuery;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.IndexSearcher;
 import org.apache.lucene.search.Query;
@@ -201,6 +206,39 @@ public class TestCoreParser extends LuceneTestCase {
     dumpResults("PointRangeQueryWithoutRange", q, 5);
   }
 
+  public void testSpanBoosts() throws Exception {
+    String topLevel = "<SpanTerm fieldName=\"field\" boost=\"2\">value</SpanTerm>";
+    try (ByteArrayInputStream is =
+        new ByteArrayInputStream(topLevel.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8))) {
+      Query actual = coreParser().parse(is);
+      Query expected = new BoostQuery(new SpanTermQuery(new Term("field", "value")), 2);
+      assertEquals(expected, actual);
+    }
+
+    String nested =
+        "<SpanNear fieldName=\"field\" boost=\"2\" slop=\"8\" inOrder=\"false\">"
+            + // top level boost is preserved
+            " <SpanTerm boost=\"4\">value1</SpanTerm>"
+            + // interior boost is ignored
+            " <SpanTerm>value2</SpanTerm>"
+            + "</SpanNear>";
+    try (ByteArrayInputStream is =
+        new ByteArrayInputStream(nested.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8))) {
+      Query actual = coreParser().parse(is);
+      Query expected =
+          new BoostQuery(
+              new SpanNearQuery(
+                  new SpanQuery[] {
+                    new SpanTermQuery(new Term("field", "value1")),
+                    new SpanTermQuery(new Term("field", "value2"))
+                  },
+                  8,
+                  false),
+              2);
+      assertEquals(expected, actual);
+    }
+  }
+
   // ================= Helper methods ===================================
 
   protected String defaultField() {