UFC 182 still not sold out

easedel -
Card - 


"Tickets for UFC® 182: JONES vs. CORMIER, presented by Bud Light are priced at $1,000, $750, $500, $350, $200 and $125 (prices do not include applicable service charges)."


Then add on the drink & food pricing. Christ. Better off getting a hooker, hitting a buffet then watch replays after the event
Wow why the fuck would anyone pay those prices? It's not like other sports where watching in person is arguably better than tv.. The action is on two people and the tv broad cast is pretty ideal. The hype and atmosphere isn't worth hundreds of dollars to thousands for good seats. Phone Post 3.0

Paid 220 to sit upper level. It's a smaller venue and to me it's worth seeing what could be an all time classic war live in person. Fun weekend and love the buzz Phone Post 3.0

That chart looks bad. Event should be nearly sold out or totally sold out. Probably looks worse when you throw in Stub Hub tickets.
If anything, the date sucks. It's too close to NYE. That and too many fights get dropped from cards to feel safe buying premium priced seats. I've been burned twice with cards falling apart. Good luck getting me to buy tix in advance. Phone Post 3.0

JimmersonzGlove - 
Galanis -

The fact this huge fight, in Vegas on the New Year's weekend, is not sold out... is a bad thing. There is no 2 ways about it. There's no way you can look at it and think it's good. The UFC used to sell out this same arena with fights of way less importance/hype.. Not saying they always sold it out instantly every time, but for this to not be sold out 2 days out is a shame

Guaranteed if they did one less event out of the 6 coming up and put one of those fights (like Gus/Johnson or Conor/Siver) on here as the co main, it'd have sold out. Gustafsson/Johnson makes even more sense cuz then you have the title fight and #1 contender fight on the same card. There's a clear direction to go in and the public knows who is going to be fighting who.

But nope, let's do 6 events instead, with one fight per card that will sell tickets. Those massive ticket prices you see up there are for ONE fight, people. No one is paying $500 to watch any other fight on here besides the main event. If the main event wasn't happening, this wouldn't even be a Palms level show.

I seriously don't get it. Why would the UFC not put ONE other big fight on this show? Why have 6 straight shows with mediocre drawing power, instead of 3 HUGE ones?

Just imagine if this card of 183 actually had the main event fall out to injury. It'd be yet another guaranteed cancelation. That's why I think IMO, every single card should have a co main of at least enough importance to headline a show by itself. The UFC has every fighter under the sun now. It's not like they can't do it.

Again... EVERY PPV should have a strong, main event level co main on it too. They used to do this when they were actually doing good business on PPV. Ever since they've stopped, buys have plummeted and 2 shows have been canceled when a sole fight fell out (with another one, 177, coming VERY close).

Why do they do this? I just can't understand the reasons why. Do they really think these one fight shows are HELPING? Is Zuffa just getting as greedy as possible, making as mcuh money as they can until they sell the company and cash out... bleeding all markets dry until they can't be bled anymore- leading to them selling the company?

Because it makes zero sense. Especially when for YEARS Dana & co paraded the "we'll never follow boxing and put on a one fight main event show". Well, that's what they do on a regular basis and it's clearly costing them now.... Shit PPV buys, event cancelations when the main event falls out.

WHY would they think that's a good thing? How are these things even possible?

<span class="User-203327" id="userPost51996069">There were lesnar fights that didnt sell out. Live sales dont correlate to ppv buys. This fight is epic. Wish i could be there. Its going to be electric in the building. <img alt="Phone Post 3.0" border="0" src="/images/phone/apple.png" style="vertical-align:middle;" /></span></blockquote>

 

Yeah you're actually right, I just looked it up.

 

 

Technically the biggest vegas Lesnar crowd was the Randy (UFC 91, 14,272) Fight and the Shane Carwin fight (UFC 116) was 1,500 less people than that.

Both MGMGRAND events.

UFC 91 had Florian vs Stevenson co-main

UFC 116 had Leben vs Akiyama co-main

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

MMALOGIC -


UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.



im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

Shhhhh the UFC is dying, lol Phone Post 3.0

MMALOGIC - 

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

 

If I have 100 people each paying 10$ to watch a fight or 3 people each paying 500 to watch the same fight, which is better for business in the long run if my business is about growth and popularity? 

 

These are obvioulsy exagerated numbers, but I am trying to validate a point. The UFC has never been so accessible and yet I have never had such a hard time finding real life people actually following the organization. Everyone I used to watch fight cards with stopped giving a shit a year or two ago because it was too complicated to follow who was who and who was fighting who and when (let alone how to watch).

Gonna be in Vegas. Maybe I can get some tickets for a more than decent price? Phone Post 3.0

I have family in Mezico city and was offered to be flown over there for free seats.

Douchebag coke heads fly in snow to Las Vegas rather than promote individual fighters and want to bring in loser ass fake wrestling fans because they spend their money on stupid shit anyway.

Offer a $50,000,000 cash prize to have anyone in the NFL MLB (the 100 boxing Orgs) even MLS fuckit just spend that money to have anyone fight The Top UFC fighter and stop making up for time lost with your kids.

If you're investing money owed on your kids than retire and let someone else do your job to stop wasting people's time.

Damnit DFWJr you're fucking up Phone Post 3.0

BirdWatcher - I arrived in Vegas a few hours ago for this fight, shit better be amazing
:) Phone Post 3.0
You'll be shitfaced and will already have had too much a good time to see how bad ZUFFA is screwing up.

Enjoy Vegas tho. It's the Dubai of America.
http://hw-mobile.worldstarhiphop.com/u/vid/2015/01/x76xESJG57C5_mobile.mp4?ri=512000 Phone Post 3.0

BirdWatcher - I arrived in Vegas a few hours ago for this fight, shit better be amazing
:) Phone Post 3.0
Instagram that joint for me, B as I shall not be watching live :) Phone Post 3.0

With all these latest announcements, I'm glad and I'm not proud of it.

Can't wait for the Lombard, Cerrone, and Jones fights. The others don't matter. Even if the other fighters win, and then win 6 more fights in a row, they might be lucky enough to be promised a title shot. At that point they will get passed up for an immediate rematch from the previous title fight or a fight that will make the UFC more money than their own fight against the current champ. Phone Post 3.0

They hold way too many fights in Vegas. It's usually a boring crowd too, right up to the main event. I get that it's home base and cheaper for them to hold events there, but they should really limit it some Phone Post 3.0

Letibleu -
MMALOGIC - 

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

 

If I have 100 people each paying 10$ to watch a fight or 3 people each paying 500 to watch the same fight, which is better for business in the long run if my business is about growth and popularity? 

 


These are obvioulsy exagerated numbers, but I am trying to validate a point. The UFC has never been so accessible and yet I have never had such a hard time finding real life people actually following the organization. Everyone I used to watch fight cards with stopped giving a shit a year or two ago because it was too complicated to follow who was who and who was fighting who and when (let alone how to watch).

It's still much better only selling the 3 tickets I'm your example.

They make 1500.

Otherwise 100x10 is only 1000.

You can talk about growth but realistically 3 hard core fans paying 500 is better than 100 casual fans who might fade away.

Plus it's a lot easier to entertain 3 people. Stadium rental is cheaper, less security etc.

They want global expansion not a Vegas monopoly. They care about PPVs and probably PPVs per country to show growth.

How does a decrease in gate directly relate to PPV expansion. Vegas is hit and miss depending on time of year and not a true replication of popularity. Phone Post 3.0

Letibleu - 
MMALOGIC - 

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

 

If I have 100 people each paying 10$ to watch a fight or 3 people each paying 500 to watch the same fight, which is better for business in the long run if my business is about growth and popularity? 

 

These are obvioulsy exagerated numbers, but I am trying to validate a point. The UFC has never been so accessible and yet I have never had such a hard time finding real life people actually following the organization. Everyone I used to watch fight cards with stopped giving a shit a year or two ago because it was too complicated to follow who was who and who was fighting who and when (let alone how to watch).

 

those are very valid points...

 

Right now there are many hoops to jump through to consume the UFC and those hoops have been changing, and increasing... but they have been changing and increasing in order to ultimately eliminate most of them in the long run.

Throughout the 7 or so years the UFC was on spike there were only around 6 to 8 fight nights on spike per year... why?  because spike cant monetize live sports.  The only way to get out of ppv is either through sports rights fees or a subscription model. 

Smart TV 's are not ubiquitous yet (especially at the time when the spike deal expired) so fightpass wasnt an option... Fox Sports however can monetize live sports and was dangling the money and a path to get to that goal through sports rights fees.

Zuffa wanted to get out of ppv when the Spike deal expired... they were looking to buy the G4 network or joint venture with nbcuniversal in a UFC channel where most of the fights would be held.

Fox sports came along and said they can help Zuffa achieve its goals over time through their own sports networks that would be launching (fs1 and fs2) and that's what they're working towards now.

Will it happen before the fox deal expires?  smart money says yes because there's no sports inventory available, you cant just invent new sports like you can with a drama series, comedy series or reality series and Fox has two - 24 hour sports networks it needs content for...

And Fox sports not only has the money for it but they routinely spend the amount of money needed for Zuffa to get out of the ppv business for the amount of eyeballs the UFC can deliver.  So it's not like fox would be spending anymore per eyeball to buy the UFC out of the ppv business than it does for any other sports inventory.

You just have to go through the process.

Needlemover -
Letibleu -
MMALOGIC - 

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

 

If I have 100 people each paying 10$ to watch a fight or 3 people each paying 500 to watch the same fight, which is better for business in the long run if my business is about growth and popularity? 

 


These are obvioulsy exagerated numbers, but I am trying to validate a point. The UFC has never been so accessible and yet I have never had such a hard time finding real life people actually following the organization. Everyone I used to watch fight cards with stopped giving a shit a year or two ago because it was too complicated to follow who was who and who was fighting who and when (let alone how to watch).

It's still much better only selling the 3 tickets I'm your example.

They make 1500.

Otherwise 100x10 is only 1000.

You can talk about growth but realistically 3 hard core fans paying 500 is better than 100 casual fans who might fade away.

Plus it's a lot easier to entertain 3 people. Stadium rental is cheaper, less security etc.

They want global expansion not a Vegas monopoly. They care about PPVs and probably PPVs per country to show growth.

How does a decrease in gate directly relate to PPV expansion. Vegas is hit and miss depending on time of year and not a true replication of popularity. Phone Post 3.0
So, its better to gouge what fans you have left for as much as possible, rather than offering a fair price and appealing to more people...

Sure the 3 hardcore fans paying 500$ each gets you more, but what happens when that hardcore fan comes to his senses and realizes he's getting raped for every penny he's willing to give to sit in a half empty arena?

You can't even invite your friends to the event:

Fan: want to come with me to the fights?
Casual: sure! How much are the tickets?
Fan: 125$ if you want nosebleeds and 500 for something decent...
Casual: so it will cost me 500$ to sit in an arena, watch fights between people I've never heard of and then see ONE big fight with zero guarantee it could be exciting (Mir vs Cro Cop)... I got other plans, sorry.

I paid 200$ off a scalper to sit in the back row of the Bell Center for GSP vs Koscheck because the tickets were sold out at regular price within minutes... No way I would pay that now, and I definitely couldn't convince 4 friends to make the trip to Montreal with me like I did in 2010. Phone Post 3.0

I'm leaving for Vegas in a few hours from LA.

Any advice on getting 1 ticket fore the UFC on the cheap?

Thx Phone Post 3.0

MMALOGIC - 
Letibleu - 
MMALOGIC - 

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

 

If I have 100 people each paying 10$ to watch a fight or 3 people each paying 500 to watch the same fight, which is better for business in the long run if my business is about growth and popularity? 

 

These are obvioulsy exagerated numbers, but I am trying to validate a point. The UFC has never been so accessible and yet I have never had such a hard time finding real life people actually following the organization. Everyone I used to watch fight cards with stopped giving a shit a year or two ago because it was too complicated to follow who was who and who was fighting who and when (let alone how to watch).

 

those are very valid points...

 

Right now there are many hoops to jump through to consume the UFC and those hoops have been changing, and increasing... but they have been changing and increasing in order to ultimately eliminate most of them in the long run.

Throughout the 7 or so years the UFC was on spike there were only around 6 to 8 fight nights on spike per year... why?  because spike cant monetize live sports.  The only way to get out of ppv is either through sports rights fees or a subscription model. 

Smart TV 's are not ubiquitous yet (especially at the time when the spike deal expired) so fightpass wasnt an option... Fox Sports however can monetize live sports and was dangling the money and a path to get to that goal through sports rights fees.

Zuffa wanted to get out of ppv when the Spike deal expired... they were looking to buy the G4 network or joint venture with nbcuniversal in a UFC channel where most of the fights would be held.

Fox sports came along and said they can help Zuffa achieve its goals over time through their own sports networks that would be launching (fs1 and fs2) and that's what they're working towards now.

Will it happen before the fox deal expires?  smart money says yes because there's no sports inventory available, you cant just invent new sports like you can with a drama series, comedy series or reality series and Fox has two - 24 hour sports networks it needs content for...

And Fox sports not only has the money for it but they routinely spend the amount of money needed for Zuffa to get out of the ppv business for the amount of eyeballs the UFC can deliver.  So it's not like fox would be spending anymore per eyeball to buy the UFC out of the ppv business than it does for any other sports inventory.

You just have to go through the process.


I know there is a long term sustainable plan, but not knowing the future avenues or even the actual numbers it's hard as a fan sitting on my couch to figure out what the UFC experience will be for me in a few years. 

The card quality in terms of name recognition has been lower than previous years. A major portion of the UFC experience for me includes the excitement building up to a card, like what is happening up until UFC 184. It's been rather unfulfilling as of late. It's like having to go from a full body massage once a week to only hand massages every two days. 

MMA fastfood; quantity over quality. That experience transition sucks as a fan when you experience the latter.

Letibleu - 
MMALOGIC - 
Letibleu - 
MMALOGIC - 

UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.

im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

 

If I have 100 people each paying 10$ to watch a fight or 3 people each paying 500 to watch the same fight, which is better for business in the long run if my business is about growth and popularity? 

 

These are obvioulsy exagerated numbers, but I am trying to validate a point. The UFC has never been so accessible and yet I have never had such a hard time finding real life people actually following the organization. Everyone I used to watch fight cards with stopped giving a shit a year or two ago because it was too complicated to follow who was who and who was fighting who and when (let alone how to watch).

 

those are very valid points...

 

Right now there are many hoops to jump through to consume the UFC and those hoops have been changing, and increasing... but they have been changing and increasing in order to ultimately eliminate most of them in the long run.

Throughout the 7 or so years the UFC was on spike there were only around 6 to 8 fight nights on spike per year... why?  because spike cant monetize live sports.  The only way to get out of ppv is either through sports rights fees or a subscription model. 

Smart TV 's are not ubiquitous yet (especially at the time when the spike deal expired) so fightpass wasnt an option... Fox Sports however can monetize live sports and was dangling the money and a path to get to that goal through sports rights fees.

Zuffa wanted to get out of ppv when the Spike deal expired... they were looking to buy the G4 network or joint venture with nbcuniversal in a UFC channel where most of the fights would be held.

Fox sports came along and said they can help Zuffa achieve its goals over time through their own sports networks that would be launching (fs1 and fs2) and that's what they're working towards now.

Will it happen before the fox deal expires?  smart money says yes because there's no sports inventory available, you cant just invent new sports like you can with a drama series, comedy series or reality series and Fox has two - 24 hour sports networks it needs content for...

And Fox sports not only has the money for it but they routinely spend the amount of money needed for Zuffa to get out of the ppv business for the amount of eyeballs the UFC can deliver.  So it's not like fox would be spending anymore per eyeball to buy the UFC out of the ppv business than it does for any other sports inventory.

You just have to go through the process.


I know there is a long term sustainable plan, but not knowing the future avenues or even the actual numbers it's hard as a fan sitting on my couch to figure out what the UFC experience will be for me in a few years. 

The card quality in terms of name recognition has been lower than previous years. A major portion of the UFC experience for me includes the excitement building up to a card, like what is happening up until UFC 184. It's been rather unfulfilling as of late. It's like having to go from a full body massage once a week to only hand massages every two days. 

MMA fastfood; quantity over quality. That experience transition sucks as a fan when you experience the latter.


I appreciate you opening up with me... let's savor this moment.

If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much - 
MMALOGIC -


UFC 92 on NYE in vegas did around 1m buys and had a gate of 3.5m...  Rashad Evans vs Rampage in vegas which pulled around 1m buys had a gate of 3.9m...  the gate for this event has already surpassed both of them and those events happened during the "peak" years.



im not saying this event will do 1m buys... but there's no need to cry about the gate - it will be a very good number.

Shhhhh the UFC is dying, lol Phone Post 3.0


Shill replying to a shill. Isn't that against the Zuffa employee code of conduct?