UFC 115 already a disaster for the UFC

Bloodyelbow reports -

First off the Vancouver Sun reports that scalpers can't unload tickets:

Quote :

Ticket prices for Saturday's UFC 115 event in Vancouver appear to be dropping quickly, following speculation that scalpers had scooped up most pre-sale tickets and oversaturated the resale market.

Tickets for the mixed martial arts event at GM Place sold out in 30 minutes on April 13 - two days before the sale was opened to the general public. Members of the Ultimate Fighting Championship Fight Club, who pay $75 a year for a number of inside-access privileges, had scooped up all of the nearly 19,000 tickets, which ranged in price from $75 to $601.

Within minutes, tickets began appearing on sites such as Craigslist, StubHub and eBay, marked up several times over. On April 14, the cheapest seats at online ticket marketplace StubHub were listed for $265 US each. On Tuesday, however, the cheapest tickets on the same site had dropped to $69. Floor seats were available for $475.

This follows the news MMA Mania reported a couple days back:

Quote :

Vancouver Athletic Commission chair Mirko (coincidentally enough) Mladenovic said that the price of insurance is so high that the UFC, despite selling out General Motors Place for the event, will most assuredly make no money.

Rumors have swirled that the UFC had to pay in the neighborhood of $12 million to insure UFC 115. But with Zuffa's recent move of opening up corporate offices in Canada, one would think that this situation sits high atop their list of priorities along with the sanctioning of the sport in Toronto.

I know everyone's expecting me to revel in this, but it's not good news.

The combination of:

An unfriendly local government and an ambiguous regulatory environment that gives too much power to local officials;
High ticket prices that are out of whack with the local economic realities;
The UFC's long standing pattern of enabling online scalpers;
Yet another mediocre, utterly irrelevant headliner fight featuring two older guys fans last saw getting KO'd;
Only a two week window between two of the biggest UFC cards in history.
If UFC 115 was the first recent event to have a weak headliner it would be one thing and the brand value would have an easier time carrying the event, but after UFC 102, 103, 105, 106, 108, 109, and arguably 110, fans may be out of the habit of buying everything with UFC on it.

However, many of the UFC's hard core fans will eagerly lap it up. I know I will. Here's what Tomas Rios had to say about the quality of the card:

Quote :

I've gotten a lot of e-mail and tweets complaining about the quality of UFC 115. Allow me to say that all you complainers are crazy.

Every single last human being complaining about this card is crazy, and I wish you all get stuck in a time machine and end up living through the UFC of 1998.

The saner folk among us know that Saturday's card may not be God's gift to MMA fans, but it's still a worthwhile block of violence for anyone purporting to enjoy this sport. With quality fighters like Rich Franklin, Paulo Thiago and Carlos Condit all involved in potentially make-or-break fights, there is no reason your evening should be spent doing anything but ignoring the outside world and watching some quality fisticuffs.

The card is well recieved by some here, but by in large this event is already a complete failure. If they buy rate is low, which I think it will be, this may be the first even the UFC loses money on in North America in a long time. The only possible good that can come from this event is if Mirko or Liddell KO their opponents with overhands or LHKs, restoring some of their lost luster for future fights down the line. That is unlikely, and both are liable to be picked apart, and picked apart by opponents who are unlikely to become serious threats in the near future.

Ultimately though this will be a drop in the bucket, because this event is book ended by the two biggest events the UFC will see this year.

They shoulda moved that shit to Cincy like they were thinking about doing

So you're saying 19,000 tickets bought and that's a bad thing?

Sure this isn't the best card, but I still bet it does 500K+

From everything I understand about how the UFC operates, they need to have a minimum PPV buy of 250K to break even. So having all the tickets purchased already for the arena, there standard buy rates for national bars/restaurants (Buffalo Wild Wings, Hooters, etc) and reaching anything in excess of 250K, which it will, they will make a profit. I am guessing they will do about 600K in buys. If the Dunham/Griffin fight is everything we think it will be, it could spur even greater buys. Believe me when I say that if the arena is half empty, due to scalpers, DW will notice and will start to make some changes to limit their effect on how the fight is viewed from the TV standpoint.

Farmer kind sir, did you read the article?

They sold the tickets to scalpers who can't resell them. That is good from the perspective the event is a fiscal sellout even if it won't really be a sellout, since scalpers footed the bill instead, but with paying 12 million in insurance and having a less than capacity crowd for merch sales, like it says in the article, they won't make any money. No business wis farmer, but where I come from not making money =/= good thing.


Over 500k farmer? Care to sig bet on that?

Someone post a list of PPV buys since 110. Other than Rampage vs Rashad, has a non title PPV even touched 500 ever? Last time we saw Franklin he was being destroyed by Vitor Belfort, and Chuck Liddell hasn't won a fight since he beat Wanderlei Silva in 2007 and has been knocked out brutally twice. I really question what Rich Franklin and Chuck Liddell bring to the table as a PPV draw. According to MMApayout the average buyrate in the modern era is 350k vs. 600k from nontitle to title. With the switcharo on TUF happening a week before the fight(why has no one criticized this move?) the show does little to really hype the fight in anyway. There is no emotional baggage or grudge to carry this. There is nothing besides whatever name Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin, two fighters totally irrelevant to the title picture in any weight class, have left. 350k buys sounds about right, but it could dip lower with fans making room in their wallet for 116 after a 114, both cards anyone who buys PPV would seriously consider buying. If Forrest and Tito in a grudge match sequel to a controversial fight can't break 5, I really doubt what Chuck and Rich will be able to do without a real co-main event. No one gives a fuck about Crocop anymore.

The deck is stacked against this event.

I'm saying it will do 425k

400 thou

600K now? What is this an auction on who can make the most outlandish prediction?

Andrew care to bet on that? I'll bet both of you guys, if I win both bets you each get a sig of my choosing, and if I lose to farmer he picks my sig, if I lose to both I'll run two signature pics of each of your choosing concurrently for a week.


Also andrew, the data on prelims is inconclusive. 109 had the highest rated prelim since they started doing it, but the lowest buyrate.

Randy and Nog, and Tito and Forrest both did 400+, so that seems the going rate on 2007ish legends meeting in a loose ends slugfest so I could certainly see that, but I really wonder if the two events that flank this card coupled with Liddell's bad losses will push normal buyers away.

Also Andrew, they need 250 when they aren't shelling out 12 million for insurance. If they lose money on the gate, then they'll need extra buys. The will not make significant money on this event, if any at all. If they make even 25 or 50 thousand dollars I'd be super impressed.

Sig bet for 2 weeks. I got 500K and over. You have 499,999 and under.

Alright Wolfy. I stated I was guessing, but whatever. One week of sig. I will take the 600K+, you get anything underneath.

One week sig bet farmer, and you're on sir.

wolf is gonna win this one.

This has been the worst UFC ever, it started strong but it's finishing... sheot. all wrong

Wolfgangsta wrote:

One week sig bet farmer, and you're on sir.

2

lol fine, have it your way. No complaining on the sig I pick.

I think this draws well tonight. After Brock what names bring the buys? Chuck comes to mind. Winning streak, losing streak, no problem, he's a name and a celeb, people gravitate to that. 2nd TUF coach sqaure off in a row with about 90 % less hype and advertising. I don't think it will reach 114 numbers but it will be big.

GDP, all data indicates names do not draw PPV buys. Title fights and elite fighters do. Chuck was that when he was a draw. He is not that anymore.

Data?
Trekkie

data not Data, but Star Trek is cool.

The last 3 PPV that featured Liddell all broke 500K but not sure if Liddell will still sell since his recent losses.

17,000 plus in attendance and a 4.2 million gate. Not too shabby, but not quite as good as some of the past events up north.

The problem was they shelled out 12 million in insurance if the rumoured numbers are true.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

The problem was they shelled out 12 million in insurance if the rumoured numbers are true.

There was no way to make the 12 million in gate unless they charged over 600 per ticket.

They did well for a live gate and will do well in PPV buys.

If the 12 million is true then the UFC knew about it and chose to do the PPV anyway.