Now I’m old enough that I was around when Dana took over as President of the UFC. One of the things he criticized boxing for was making ticket prices too high for the normal fans and how he wasn’t going to do that.
So the last event I went to was UFC 218 in Detroit. I went with some friends, I think we bought the $125 USD tickets and were in the 200 section.
Now I was recently looking at going to UFC 297 in Toronto with a group of coworkers. We all make decent money, between $80k to $150k USD just waiting for ticket prices to become available. I checked and the cheapest prices available up in the 300’s are $620 CAD, so $450 USD. Most of the 300 section are around $630 USD btw. I dunno what the official platinum scam is but those tickets in the 300’s are about $900 USD. Every single person wanting to go backed out.
As I was checking the prices Dana was posting about how the nelk boys just gave him $500k… just part of his buddies throwing money around lifestyle. I’m sure these exorbitant prices are trickling down to the fighters tho…
This isn’t even a big card really, is Strickland vs Du Plessis some major draw in Canada? You’d think GSP just returned to fight Conor. I’m seeing some posts about the prices on a ticket site and it’s hard to tell what’s what. You’ll have one guy saying the presale is going bad, then the next guy saying their going great. Then you’ll have someone saying most of the 300’s are gone, then another guy saying it’s a common tactic to not make those available so the bowl sells first. Either way my point is this sucks, Dana is doing exactly what he said he wouldn’t.
I went to Hughes vs GSP 1 when I was like 17 and I had a really good seat for like $175. If that fight took place today you wouldn’t even get in the building for that.
UFC and MUSIC ticket prices have gone crazy high. But for all our displeasure, if they can sell at these prices, they’ll keep doing it. If not, they’ll lower them. I’m pissed as hell too, but it’s supply and demand, as always. I’d even say I’m way more surprised than pissed! People everywhere seem to struggle with the inflation and all, yet can fork thousands for tickets. It makes no sense but it is what it is.
I refuse to go unless someone gets me free tickets. Pretty much all my friends retired so no one gets free tickets anymore. The tickets are so overpriced.
I’ll probably never go to a live event again. The people sitting in the crowd are insufferable jerkoffs who know nothing about what they are watching.
I have only ever been to one event and it was a miracle i got good seats. My buddy is close to aljamain and got comped some seats. He asked if i wanted to buy one, so i asked how much. He said to pay him the price of the cheapest ticket in the house, which was $225. I got to sit in row 4, which would have been over 2k face value.
I had a nice time and am grateful for the opportunity, but 1) i am fortunate to have a nice job and some disposable income, 2) $225 is objectively obscene when i think about that being the price for upper mezzanine
For comparison, comparable Brooklyn Nets seats would be 50-80, and Yankees for like 15-20
you’ve been to one event and got to sit fourth row? that’s pretty awesome. closest i’ve been was probably 15 rows up off the floor. made a huge difference in the experience being that close. it was aslo for hendo vs shogun.
Yea, i got insanely lucky. Met the dude at a free event in nyc, connected on instagram and stayed in touch. Then he posted selling an extra ticket and gave it to me for $225
I was super fortunate to get 4th row tickets once. Won 2 tickets and hotel on here from Dana. Went to Jones vs Hendo.
Luckily Vegas is still fun without UFC.
Since the next one was in my town I went there instead and since I didn’t need a hotel they gave me 4 tickets instead of 2 which was pretty awesome. They were 4th row but like near the family/fighter section. Cain and DC and a bunch of people walked by and Jon Jones’ mom was blocking my view of his fight because she wouldn’t sit down, which is both annoyingly lame and in a way kind of funny and cool.
I’ve been to like 7 or 8 UFCs, a couple of them free. Other freebie was one after I had stopped going, was in a box with lawyers and was an epic event (Holloway vs Pettis )!
I bought one after that because I wanted to go and gf had never been to such a thing. Holloway vs Ortega.
Every event was like $200 or less and all were good 100 level seats except for the first one.
I might have paid $400-$500 for 2 tickets to UFC 231, can’t recall, and those same seats would be minimum $2,200 for UFC 297.
I’ve definitely been to my last event barring a free miracle.
Listen everything will go up because of inflation, but to simply pass off 6x more expensive adjusted for inflation as “well everything is more expensive now” is disingenuous. Have fighter salaries gone up 6x adjusted for inflation since 2017?
Dana is devastated at this news. All he cares about is the fans and couldn’t give a shit about money. He will be working to rectify this as soon as possible.
)!