Implementing Large-Scale Redirects

Any redirect has 80% chances of succeeding. That being said, I understand that you have a subdomain with 2000 pages of content, you've moved it/replicated it on a folder category in your website. Is that correct?

I assume it is, then, the contract with the company that posted that content will expire and you intent in keeping the traffic those 2000 pages generate so you want to redirect them to the counterparts created on your website. If you do that, you have 80% chances of keeping the current rankings and authority. If the redirects are done correctly and if each page is redirected to a relevant page (as per content) you shouldn't have any SEO issues or crysis. Still, there's a wildcard, those 20% chances of this not yielding results. That will be your risk.

If I didn't understand this issue in a right way please correct me.

Backup the content
then when the guys remove the content you can put it back up
once you regain control

Thanks guys. we're looking to just completely get rid of the pages. They follow old seo practices (duplicated content with a page for each keyword) that we resolved with the new pages and provided a better user experience that helps users find the best location for them so we are looking to get the traffic over there. Additionally, the old content is junk anyway (keyword stuffed and reads like garbage so high bounce rate and low time on site).

I think the bigger concern from my standpoint is would implementing that many redirects cause Google to say "they're up to something" and ignore or possibly hurt my site because of it? The other question would be since we have a page for each location (hundreds of locations), would it be wise to match up the old page to the new for user experience purposes or just have any page on the sub domain redirect to the top level page for the new directory?

Thanks again.