"Less than three months after being acquired by a major Hollywood talent agency, the UFC is going A-list.
Twenty-three celebrities, including Ben Affleck, Adam Levine and Serena and Venus Williams, are investing in the rapidly expanding sports league, the UFC and its new majority owner WME-IMG said on Thursday.
Bringing on the celebrity investors who can provide promotional muscle for the brutal and fast-growing sport known as mixed martial arts is the most significant business move for the organization since being acquired for $4 billion by WME-IMG and a group of investors in July."
Say hello to the A list Tastemakers and trendsetters which UFC needs to go mainstream and goodbye to the affliction douchebags... oh and say hello to big boxing sized ticket prices.
23 celebrities? So their ownership stake will equate to what, like a hot dog stand in the foyer?
Regardless if it keeps growing at it's current rate or anywhere close to it, it's a great investment. Not to mention they most likely got a great deal on the shares due to them being celebrities. Basically, they show up to some fights live, and get a great deal on buying stock. It makes their brand bigger as they get free press, makes UFC bigger and both make money. Win-Win
23 celebrities? So their ownership stake will equate to what, like a hot dog stand in the foyer?
it's just something to bring their friends to and boast about being an owner before the orgy party.
if you look at the big boxing events most of those celebs dont give a fuck about boxing... they just want to be there because there are a few a list celebs who actually do care and those few celebs make it the "it" place to be.
This is just going to drive the ticket prices up for the big events and the vegas site fees will go up because more whales (big gamblers) will show up for the big UFC events... amongst all the other benefits for the UFC.
With the mainstream national media UFC now gets, the celebrity trendsetters now onboard, and every other piece UFC has already put in place (fox deal, ppv, linear and clear titles, etc...) Boxing has been checkmated.
Not surprised to see that Jimmy Kimmel is one of the investors. When he was talking about that McGregor - Stephens incident on his show the other day he was saying this was one of the reasons why the UFC was more popular than boxing, and joked that a ufc fighter would probably be president in a few years.
It seemed a bit heavy-handed and at the time I thought that it might have been WME pulling the strings from behind the scenes, but didn't realize the full extent of what was going on.
It just goes to show the subtle, and not so subtle, ways that having celebrities on-board can help influence the way the sport is viewed in the public's eye.
We need more. We need their mindless fans to support everything they do. Casual fans may be the worst, but I would rather have 20 idiots in a bar discussing whether or not Conor could beat Fedor than it not be in the bar at all.
