White: UFC 129's early start time is "the most dangerous thing we've ever done"

http://mmajunkie.com/news/23425/ufc-boss-says-ufc-129s-earlier-start-time-the-most-dangerous-thing-weve-ever-done.mma
TORONTO – UFC president Dana White knows his company is doing the right thing. He's just terrified no one realizes he's done it.

The pay-per-view broadcast for Saturday night's "UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields" event – the highest-attended card in the company's 18-year history – will start at 9 p.m. ET, one hour earlier than normal.

"The whole time-move thing scares the [expletive] out of me," White said. "It's the right thing to do, and it's what the fans want, but for 10 years we've been at the same time. You become accustomed to it."

In March the UFC announced the time change, which will apply to all future pay-per-views, as well. The decision was made in part to accommodate East Coast viewers, who had previously been forced to stay awake until 1 a.m. ET on Sunday mornings in order to watch the entirety of the events.

Nearly half of the U.S. population, as well as prime Canadian markets Montreal and Toronto (which hosts UFC 129 at the city's Rogers Centre), are located in the Eastern time zone.

Nevertheless, White is concerned word hasn't made it throughout the MMA community, which could have a major impact on PPV sales for this weekend's event.

"It's the most dangerous thing we've ever done," White said. "It's scary as hell for me."

UFC 129 represents the company's first-ever stadium event, and more than 55,000 tickets were snatched up the moment they went on sale. It's a deviation from the company's longtime strategy of promoting in arenas in order to keep the "intimate feel" of the show that White always has stressed was imperative.

However, White said he's ecstatic at how the UFC team has converted the Rogers Centre into a crowd-pleasing MMA experience.

"I'm telling you right now, you're going to be blown away by what you see," White said. "I've been looking at scales and models and pictures, and I'm not too good with that stuff. I went to the arena [Tuesday] night, and I was blown away – and I knew what to expect.

"We went in and actually designed this place for ourselves. Let me put it to you this way: Just the sound system alone, there's these things called points. We have 80 points. AC/DC had 40. In the history of this arena, nobody's ever done what we're going to do on Saturday night."

With a pair of title fights and the potential retirement of fight of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, UFC 129 looks on paper to be one of the most exciting cards in recent memory. And if the stadium experience comes off as planned, White believes future shows may also get the same treatment.

"I think stadium shows are going to be one-off fights," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Every time there's a huge great fight – I think Georges-St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva, if that fight happened, would be a stadium show. Depending on who wins out of Junior Dos Santos and Brock Lesnar against our heavyweight champion, that could be a big fight. Who knows? I think they're going to be one-offs. We'll see."

In addition to Saturday's 9 p.m. ET PPV timeslot, Spike TV airs a "UFC Prelims" special at 8 p.m. ET, and Facebook streams the remaining preliminary-card fights at approximately 6 p.m. ET.

Will this 1st early PPV suffer any negative effects?

it might, if a few ppl miss the first our they wont shell out $'s for the rest of it

NOPE! I love it! I usually have to go into work at 4am Sundays so i would call off all the time cause i would still be drunk by the time 330 rolled around to get up. side note when he was talking about the sound system their shit at the events is damn good i could feel the bass through my body at UFC 96 so this shit they have there should be slamming.

I dont think it will hurt at all. I think people that order UFC PPVs will know that the time changed. Especially with the prelims on Spike.

don't get me wrong, i love the idea of it starting earlier its just that some peeps will forget

killerofchicken wrote:

don't get me wrong, i love the idea of it starting earlier its just that some peeps will forget

Real fans wont.

killerofchicken wrote:

don't get me wrong, i love the idea of it starting earlier its just that some peeps will forget

Who? LOSERS?

josh200612 wrote:

killerofchicken wrote:

don't get me wrong, i love the idea of it starting earlier its just that some peeps will forget

Who? LOSERS?

Probably just Celtic fans!

timthebim wrote:

josh200612 wrote:

killerofchicken wrote:

don't get me wrong, i love the idea of it starting earlier its just that some peeps will forget

Who? LOSERS?

Probably just Celtic fans!

Hardy fucking har har!

lol

It doesn't seem to have been that publicized. I expect a shitload of people to not realize the time has changed

It doesn't seem to have been that publicized. I expect a shitload of people to not realize the time has changed

As an east coaster I prefer the 10 pm start times. It's saturday night, I don't need to get up sundays, it allows me to eat dinner and settle things out b4 the fights start, and I prefer that the fights go later into the night. Im always looking for more fights at the conclusion of an event.

I would disagree, openly calling people "faggot" while trying to be resected as a sports organization is the most dangerous thing Whites ever done

captain organic wrote:

As an east coaster I prefer the 10 pm start times. It's saturday night, I don't need to get up sundays, it allows me to eat dinner and settle things out b4 the fights start, and I prefer that the fights go later into the night. Im always looking for more fights at the conclusion of an event.

Yeah I preferred 10 as well. Especially if they start moving to showing all prelims like they are tomorrow. That shit starts early as hell on a Saturday. I'm not even off work by then half the time

It will be fine, if you did not know that the fights are happening an hour earlier then you haven't been watching MMA, for the past few months. I agree that by starting them earlier that the night won't last as long, parties will die down early, make the wife happy though I will be able to function on Sundays

cascade_run wrote:

It will be fine, if you did not know that the fights are happening an hour earlier then you haven't been watching MMA, for the past few months. I agree that by starting them earlier that the night won't last as long, parties will die down early, make the wife happy though I will be able to function on Sundays

Yeah I will still be useless on Sundays lol.

I live in the central zone and am glad this thing is moved up. Look, anyone who doesn't know the fights have been moved up doesn't know/care about the Janitor, Jason Brilz, Mark Bocek or Ben Henderson in the least anyway. Unless you order the thing right at the start time you'll understand what time is starts anyway. Minimal damage. However, they could have mentioned the start time in the spots for the event...