http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/8/11/2356338/analyzing-the-ufc-wec-merger-after-eight-monthsby
Tim Burke August 18th, 2010 - WEC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz makes a title defense against Joseph Benavidez on Versus. October 1st, 2011 - UFC bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz makes a title defense against Demetrious Johnson on Versus.What's wrong with this picture, folks? A whole lot.
As your resident WEC homer, I argued against the UFC/WEC merger from
day one. I believed that the merger was done simply so the UFC had two
more belts to prop up pay-per-views with. I believed that the 135 and
145 divisions didn't have the foundation yet to stand upright in an
organization that was now promoting seven divisions. I didn't even
believe that the WEC guys were going to get the big paydays that they
richly deserved once they donned UFC gloves. I was the definition of a
contrarian. And eight months after
Fredson Paixao and
Pablo Garza stepped into the cage at
The Ultimate Fighter 12 Finale to kick off a newer, lighter era of the UFC -- well, I feel the exact
same way about everything. And I now have stats to back it up.
In the two parts of this piece, I'll make a case that shows that
merger hasn't been all sunshine and puppies so far. I'll show that the
divisions aren't being promoted correctly, that the fighters aren't
benefiting to the degree that most expected, and even that the network
that hosted the WEC, Versus, might have got shafted by the deal they
shook hands on to make this whole thing possible. Today in part one,
we'll start out by looking at the mediums that BW/FW fights are being
shown on, and I'll explain why Facebook isn't the gold mine some people
think it is.
Item 1 - The featherweight and bantamweight divisions aren't getting enough TV/PPV time.
The UFC has promoted 180 fights spread over 16 cards since the
merger. Ten of those 16 cards have been PPV's. Here's how the number of
fights breaks down by division, and by what medium each fight was
broadcasted on.
Note: "Streamed" covers Facebook, Youtube, and UFC.com streams of fights.| Division | Fights | PPV | TV | Streamed | Unaired |
| BW | 19 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 4 |
| FW | 23 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 4 |
| LW | 42 | 9 | 12 | 13 | 8 |
| WW | 35 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 7 |
| MW | 26 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| LHW | 21 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| HW | 14 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
The data from the chart here should be pretty easy to figure out. A
total of three bantamweight fights and two featherweight fights were
scheduled for PPVs over the last 10 PPV events. That's less than half
of every other division, and in some cases less than 20% of what other
divisions are getting. Is that any way to promote new divisions? And
they want to add a flyweight division in the near future as well?
Fine, you say, they'll put them on TV instead. That works too, lots
of people watch Spike TV prelims. Except for the fact that the numbers
above show that these divisions aren't getting enough TV slots either.
Two bantamweight fights scheduled for TV from the 47 available slots?
Really guys?
It should be noted that some fights aren't scheduled for TV or PPV,
but end up getting shown anyway. 3 BW fights and 4 FW fights not
originally scheduled to air did make TV or PPV in some form. 6 of the 7
came from previously-aired streams, one was previously unaired. For
comparison's sake, 15 fights across the other divisions made it as well.
The points I address in part two tomorrow (namely money and
sponsorship) make these bumps moot, however.
Item 2: Sorry guys, being on Facebook isn't all it's cracked up to be.I know some of you are ready to skip down to the comment section and
mash away on your keyboard. "But Tim, they're being shown on Facebook!
They're still getting exposure! Stop complaining!" A quick perusal of
that chart I posted above shows that the UFC is indeed putting a lot of
bantamweight and featherweight fights on Facebook. When the UFC
started broadcasting fights on Facebook I was deliriously happy, much
as you were. Hardcore fans like us get to watch every fight! Awesome!
Except for one small thing - we're generally the only ones watching.
I know this is a bit of a bubble-burster, but I've talked to a few
people that know the ins and outs of how this stuff works (including
UFC employees, off the record of course). And they all imply the same
thing - the Facebook audience is small. Surprisingly small. They can't
give any hard numbers, but they will say that the Facebook audience is a
very small percentage of the TV or PPV audience. And it makes total
sense.
Think about it - when a fight is on Spike/Ion, a few people can sit
around a TV and watch. Casuals get involved at some level in that
example. Are a few people sitting around your computer watching a
stream? No, it's usually just one person. No one is sitting at the bar
and magically notices a Facebook steam being shown there. No one is
flipping channels at home and magically comes across a stream either.
People have to seek out the platform and jump through hoops to watch.
And the general public just isn't doing that in droves.
So, let's get this straight. The UFC is choosing to lean on this
platform as a way to promote these two divisions? How is it going to
work? The main audience is people like us, the biggest fans of the
sport. And we don't matter to the bigger picture, because we're
watching no matter what. How do you get the general public to care about
135 and 145 if they're not being watched by the general public? While
Facebook is better than nothing, in many ways it's exactly the same as
nothing. I'll address a few of those ways in part two.
In the next edition of Death to the Merger, I'll come at you with
three more points that you'll probably get mad at me about. First and
foremost, I'll discuss how WEC guys aren't getting the riches that fans
expected them to once the merger went down. Second, I'll show the
optimists that the next four months aren't going to be any rosier than
the last eight for these guys. And finally, I'll show you that the
platform the WEC relied on, Versus, didn't get what they expected out of
the merger either. Stay tuned, and sharpen up those pitchforks.
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