station casinos are hemoraging money in this economy.
Waiting for Cindy O to come up with some good excuse in 3, 2, 1...
But seriously... it is getting ridiculous. Time for the fighters to man up and form a union. It is the only way they will ever get paid what they deserve.
Sarah Kaufman - wow- especially for the guys on the undercard, who probably aren't making much money as it is
exactly, the big names dont have much to worry about. but the guys who can only get sponsors like condomdepot are fucked.
rockfists - Wow, UFC Gym, UFC Magazine, UFC Game, and now all the companies UFC owns are the only ones allowed to sponsor.
Milking the cow time. I am sure Tapout and Hitman are still allowed as well yes?
TapOut are on the UFC pay roll.
UFC becomes more like WWE everyday.
double post below--
It's because they have grown a monopoly horizontally. UFC seems to be involved with clothing sponors and supplement companies..that puts sponsors in direct competition with their business.
I believe there is some truth to this, and it is also very telling in ways as to what the UFC sees as the value-added relationship vis a vis the UFC and the actual talent.
To be fair, it shouldn't be that big of an issue. NBA players can't pimp brands all over their jerseys. NFL players can't even drink anything besides Gatorade on the sidelines. I think sponsors can still sponsor fighters and use the exposure from the fighter to make money. I've watched the UFC since i purchased UFC 1 on PPV and I've never purchased something because a fighter had a brand name on his shorts.
This is actually a blatantly unfair comparison. The other league sports don't allow this because the talent receives between 53% and 59% of the revenue generated in licensing. Licensing fees generated are much higher if uniformity and exclusiveness are provided. The players are getting over half of this value.
MMAadnet.com can get your brand on over 50 websites (some sites are owned by guys fighting in the WEC and UFC and beyond). Our system generated over 7 million impressions this month.
We have fighters as shareholders and our systems help fighters earn money while not fighting.
I do not know a lot about this ban other then what I read here. I have not been contacted as I do not have any fighters on that card. I do think it is time to clean up the sponsorship. NASCAR has set some standards but really the look of the shorts etc is the managers role not the sponsors.
I can not imagine starting a MMA based brand and not having the desire to have your brand on a "UFC Fighter". Even if you look at the biggest success in MMA brand building outside of Zuffa, Tapout, you see a company that would not have been able to make this hurdle in the start up days.
That being said there is value for the airtime, but most fighters and managers look at the pay from a promoter as a base and the win, sponsor and any other bonus is what enables them to live and perform at the level they do. The only thing a fighter has guranteed is his show money and in the current economic climate it is already difficult enough to get a fighter sponsored on a non-televised portion of a card.
I guess we all have to just see how this plays out. This is exactly why we spend a considerable amount of time helping fighters build revenue streams outside of the cage.
annihil8torz - This is ridiculous. What if those sponsors had enough money to pay a fighter $3,000 but not nearly enough to pay the $100k fee to pay the fighter the $3,000?
When the fuck are they going to ban Death Clutch?
Watch Silver Star be next
koreviewz - I want fighters to make money. And I advertise. But I hate the NASCAR vibe that the fighters and UFC have right now. You have a guy with condomdepot.com shorts, throwing a right cross on a huge burger king logo, while Goldberg (instead of commentating on the fight) is pimping some bullshit video game. All on a PPV that I've already paid 50 bucks for.
Condomdepot.com isnt going anywhere. Dana has stock.
koreviewz - It's because they have grown a monopoly horizontally. UFC seems to be involved with clothing sponors and supplement companies..that puts sponsors in direct competition with their business.
To be fair, it shouldn't be that big of an issue. NBA players can't pimp brands all over their jerseys. NFL players can't even drink anything besides Gatorade on the sidelines. I think sponsors can still sponsor fighters and use the exposure from the fighter to make money. I've watched the UFC since i purchased UFC 1 on PPV and I've never purchased something because a fighter had a brand name on his shorts.
Conversly though, I'm sickened by the amount of advertising on cage and canvas in the UFC right now. It's distracting and classless.
There is a NFLPA and a NBAPA that has agreed to these stipulations along with pensions and medical plans........ little different then the UFC independent contractor view of fighters.
Cbass -KenBania - I guess in a way, you cant blame them. You dont see sponsers names on pro ballers uniforms during the game. Other sports dont show the players with verizon or adidas patches or tee shirts as they walk on to the field or court.
yeah but the average salary of a MMA fighter isnt millions of dollars a year like an NFL player
thats bullshit! the majority of ALL atheletes regardless of the sport is, and always has been, the shoe/clothing sponsorship
were the hell you been
Rolling Stone?
The 100grand is per company, not fighter. And it allows the company to sponsor fighter till the end of the year.
This is a huge blow to many fighters. For one, its 2 and a half weeks till UFC 100. Thats not a lot of time for them to find new sponsors that arent banned. Under card fighters are pretty much fucked. Its hard as hell to make any money with out guaranteed tv time. The only real way for fighters to make money is if they are seen in the sponsors product.
ScottCL -FONS - Isn't possible that this is just for UFC 100? The vegas
hotel doesn't want the poker sites as they are competition.
UFC 100 is going to be huge event so why not get the most
out of your product? All you blue namers must not own
companies and not know what it's like for your
CFO, marketing, lawyers etc to come up with more ways to
increase profit. The fighters will still make money as the
sponsors will still pay them but now have to pay UFC as
well. How are fighters going to make less? Prove it.
Lets see here, a sponsor has to pay an extra 100 grand. So obviously there will be fewer companies offering sponsorships. These companies have a budget for this sort of thing, and you just took out 100 grand from that budget. You think they will be paying the fighters as much? Not likely, and the fighters will take the cut too since it will be much harder to find sponsors. Ill prove it by waiting till after UFC 100 and letting the fighters speak for themselves.
Honestly I wouldnt have a problem with this if I thought that the fighters would receive some sort of cut from this new fee, to offset the loss in sponsorship dollars, but we all know how likely that is. Really sucks for those undercard fighters especially.
First off HA at the fighters actually being able to speak their mind on this subject. They are now more terrified than ever to speak negatively against the UFC. Losing sponsor money is one thing, but losing your job is even worse.
The fighters will make much less. You really think that most of these sponsors even have a 100 thousand dollar bank roll. Most of these guys are paying out of pocket just to keep their heads above water. These arent corp. sponsors like bud light. most of them are just big fans and want to be a part of it in some way and want to help the fighters they love out how ever they can. even if its only a $1500 check.
This isn't a surprise. I remember somewhere around a year ago it was coming out that the UFC wanted to disallow ANY sponsoring of a fighter directly and they'd need to go through them to do it. Well here it is. It's just another control mechanism so that they get the cash, not the fighter.
It'll all wash out. Sooner or later the UFC will step on too many toes, or another org will become stable enough that the UFC doesn't have a death grip on most fighters. Strikeforce is well on the way to being another avenue, and if Affliction sticks around they will be too.
Once it all blows up things will change and the UFC will either adapt or go away. It's typical business shit when the money becomes too important and it dwarfs the need to keep employees happy.
It's also what forces unions to be built.
But it will wash out. this is actually good for the sport as a whole, but shitty for the fighters. Low end guys will go elsewhere and build their name in smaller venues where they can get sponsor pay. They'll populate those other shows and some of the fighters will mature into champions, and be happy outside the UFC.
The more that's done to add more shows and more fighters is good for the fans. It's just that it sucks when a company like the UFC forgets where it came from, and that's what it looks like to me.
Just my opinion, but i've got a bucket full of those too
By the way, don't take my statement as saying i don't like the UFC. I love the UFC, but i'm not crazy about what one of it's employees is doing to the sport.
Yes. protecting people from paying customers is always a good thing....
wait...
D4V1D - In the long run those sponsors will do more harm than good for the fighters. They are just trying to keep things classy and have a consistent image for the UFC brand by keeping gambling and tough guy brands out.
Very well could be--but the UFC presents its platform as one of the revenue engines provided to fighters. If the UFC's actions directly impact those revenue streams, and the fighters are their "partners" as they like to say, fighters should have input into all of these decisions.
LOL so what if a a bunch a fan boy companies can't sponsor fighters.