An interesting article from one of the writers on MMA Opinion, Amy Robinson:
The UFC wants to hear from YOU
Amy Robinson
Or so the standardized email in my spam box says. After a few days of avoiding the hassle of filling out an online survey I caved to bring you folks the scoop on what Zuffa wants to know about us fans.
There were the innocent inquires about television service providers and what types of media is preferred. Then they got down to business. First, they feel out how long you’ve been a fan. How often you buy or view their pay-per-view offerings. And if you’ve got enough change to actually take out a second mortgage and buy a ticket to attend a live UFC event.
They get a little more gritty as the questioning progresses. After a few benign queries they bust out the big guns; “What other MMA organizations do you watch”? They run down what seems like a hit list of who to set in their sights to bury. Elite/CBS, Elite/Showtime, Dream, K1 World , IFL and Affliction. To make it seem a little less obvious that they’re searching for potential targets for counter-promoting torpedoes they nonchalantly add in their own properties in Pride and WEC. But the overall sense of what they’re really looking to find in the questioning is quite hard to ignore.
With two mentions each it’s pretty apparent that Pro Elite and K1 are the biggest blips on Zuffa’s radar. And Affliction has to be considered a very big dot as well with recently being crowned the UFC’s very blatant public enemy #1.
The rest is here: http://www.mmaopinion.com/2008/08/14/the-ufc-wants-to-hear-from-you/
I'm thinking Lorenzo is behind this change in process for the UFC as I've never heard of anything like this before...have you?