UFC PPV Numbers Hurting Again

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Haulport

Haulport

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Mad Dog said:
Haulport,

how do you think last nights card did? Two things to consider; 2 title fights and a PPV price increase.

What is your prediction?
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Interesting question. I am rather detached from MMA nowadays so I'll give it a shot but we'll see how good I am...

Cormier without Jones doesn't draw that well (call it 300k buys on avg) and Stipe does worse except when he headlined against Overeem. Francis, while not a big name has that "destroyer" type aura around him and that is how he has been marketed and this fight was HOT on the heels of his frightening KO of Alistair - I think to capitalize on that marketing peak. I'm going to say 450k buys for this one.
 
Lukewarm Carl

Lukewarm Carl

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Haulport said:
Interesting question. I am rather detached from MMA nowadays so I'll give it a shot but we'll see how good I am...

Cormier without Jones doesn't draw that well (call it 300k buys on avg) and Stipe does worse except when he headlined against Overeem. Francis, while not a big name has that "destroyer" type aura around him and that is how he has been marketed and this fight was HOT on the heels of his frightening KO of Alistair - I think to capitalize on that marketing peak. I'm going to say 450k buys for this one.
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The UFC would be doing cartwheels if this one does over 400k.

I'm thinking it's going to fall back into that 300k range.
 
Haulport

Haulport

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Enock-O-Lypse Now! said:
I like tournaments and the UFC should definitely be holding them because I really think it sparks the fans interest...fans love rooting for underdogs and upsets...but I do feel UFC needs a legit rankings system and a belt that holds value in order to hold the fans attention and keep the fighters striving for something.

In my perfect world...

I'd 1st build up the Belts / rankings system.

Then at the end of the year hold an all out 16-Man Tournament with the top 16 ranked fighters (not including the champ)

Winner of the tournament gets his own prestigious title/belt. (Basically a PrideFC GP type belt)

This sets up a superfight between the Champion Vs. Tournament Champion. The UFC will have time to build the superfight over a 6 month period.

Every year the tournament will be for a different division ...and ever 4 years the tournament returns to the original division.

I'd like to see something like that
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While I loved PRIDE to death (or "till" death in that case), the one thing that made me FURIOUS was that champs either wouldn't be in the tourneys or they would be in them but the belt wasn't on the line. Extremely stupid imo. As we have seen over and over again, it is super hard to hold onto a belt in MMA for an extended period (for God's sake, Stipe holds the record at HW now because he defended THREE times, lol). Because of this I feel that each man needs to earn his way each year to be called the real champ. Also, there is a HUGE marketing benefit for the promotion in this scenario: they can push fighters whether they win or lose each year (like the NFL did for Peyton Manning) and really develop stars without having all the insane pressure of "defending" a king of the hill belt every single fight. If they lost the tourney in 2017 well then EVERYONE expects them to take it in 2018. That sort of thing. Now it feels like, "Well he lost to the new champ so he can't beat that guy (unless it was a super close fight) so the loser now has to wait around to see if the new champ loses to someone else." Not a good perception of what really happens with sporting competitions.

And there is now worries about missing the fights we want to see because you can avoid that horrible trap by having first round fights be HUGE events. The one major mistake EVERY tourney promtion always made was holding off the "big fight" so it would happen in the finals. Narrow minded thinking that caused a lot of great fights to not happen because of 1 or 2nd round losses or injuries.
 
Haulport

Haulport

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willthiswork said:
The UFC would be doing cartwheels if this one does over 400k.

I'm thinking it's going to fall back into that 300k range.
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Could be very possible. I am just going that direction because "Destroyer" type fighters going for the belt tend to generate A LOT of interest in veteran fans and new ones in boxing and MMA.
 
Mishima Zaibatsu

Mishima Zaibatsu

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Feb 27, 2016
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FrankieNYC said:
Two different things:
PPV is down
Revenue is way up

UFC would have had record profit even without MayMac
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How much did they make off of that fight?

Their PPV would be up if MayMac never happened.

McG would still have a reason to fight and theyd still have atleast one star.
 
Greenbean

Greenbean

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FrankieNYC said:
Here is the gist:

DR: How could this year be so profitable if interest in MMA is down according to the PPV and TV event ratings on Fox and FS1?

FNYC: Excellent question that I get asked a lot on various forums. You need to remember that while PPV is certainly a huge part of UFC’s 2017 business model, it is not the driving force for their bottom line. UFC has escalating TV deals worldwide (meaning contractually they go up every year), plus they cut a lot of costs (early projections were $25-50 million per). Also, since the sale, UFC created new deals that help the bottom line. Before a single PPV is sold, UFC is a huge moneymaker. Also added into UFC’s 2017 EBIDTA is Mayweather vs McGregor. So while PPV is down, they still made a lot of profit just from UFC PPV. While TV ratings are down, they made more than the year prior due to existing contracts. Add in MayMac, budget cuts and new deals and it opens up the mind to how UFC can be so profitable in a year that seemed to have waning interest.
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They’ve also added a boatload of debt to service in 2017. It seems like they’ve positioned themselves to be less reliant on ppvs to stay in the black, but the waning interest in the sport has got to be considered for long term viability, right? Sure they’re making money at the moment, but what happens to their leverage when it comes time to renegotiate contracts in a few years if they continue to lose viewers?
 
benjo0101

benjo0101

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Haulport said:
But they just valued the company at $5bill and that is a 25% increase from when the Brothers Swole sold it...





By percentage, 2017 was worse than the crash of 2014, but 2014 was worse in absolute numbers and was far more frightening because of the consistent slide the company was in for 4 years after their peak in 2010. I think the biggest take away here is that STAR POWER matters. The Brothers realized that after 2014 and built Ronda and Conor into huge stars and then got the fuck out of dodge and now it's WME's turn...
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Label your axis. You would have got fucked up on my degree course for that shit show.
 
silentsinger

silentsinger

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My new boss doesn't charge for people to watch PPVs in his bar but it costs him he said $800/900 per PPV.

If they're increasing it by $5 per PPV as a household, what's that going to mean for him?

They should be throwing deals out for people to increase the numbers, not fucking about like this. Seriously.
 
Robbie Hart

Robbie Hart

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silentsinger said:
My new boss doesn't charge for people to watch PPVs in his bar but it costs him he said $800/900 per PPV.

If they're increasing it by $5 per PPV as a household, what's that going to mean for him?

They should be throwing deals out for people to increase the numbers, not fucking about like this. Seriously.
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He’ll be looking at a $100 increase
 
silentsinger

silentsinger

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Robbie Hart said:
He’ll be looking at a $100 increase
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Which may make him reconsider not charging for fight nights.
Nothing I can do really to help him there, I've been brought in to increase his business on non packed out days. He'll still have the same dickheads as that guy in the white shirt thinking he knows his shit on fight nights.
 
SensoriaUtopia

SensoriaUtopia

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They went form 630 K ppv buy avg in 2016 to 308k buys under WME in 2017, that is over a 50% decrease and they deserve it, WME is awful, cutthroat bastards, I hope they go out of the biznis, go Bellator
 
Haulport

Haulport

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Update for Mad Dog @Mad Dog



2017 was bad and 2018 has not started out well either. I was way off with my Stipe/Francis prediction of 450k (actual reported is 350k). Kind of worrisome when your biggest hype train in a while (N'Gannou) gets a shot at the title after DESTROYING poor Overeem and they can't break 400k...

As always, PPV buys are all about star power. That's the difference between 2014 and 2015+2016. Without GSP coming back last year, 2017 could have been the worst year post TUF and without something big for 2018 it's not looking so good. Maybe they can get Conor back into MMA? It's been 17 months since he had an MMA fight and there is no word that another is on the horizon. Ronda is toast no matter what she does. That star has burned out. And let's be honest... she ain't never fighting again anyway...
 
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