Since I started this series, I’ve spoken with two very talented and experienced promoters in Mark Pavelich and Monte Cox – both of whom champion rather large MMA promotions on the national scale – and I hope to speak with many more.
Today, however, it’s time to give one of the small promotions a look, which is something that might be of particular relevance and great interest to many of the small promoters and businessmen that visit our website.
Therefore, today’s spotlight rests solely upon Roy Englebrecht, the epitome of a small promoter: professional, consistent and of the entrepreneurial spirit, but also realistic and critically aware of his bottom line.
I’ll say this now, pull out the old Hilroy and take some notes!
Twenty Five Years in the Making
In less than two months, Roy Englebrecht will celebrate the 25th anniversary of what has now become the longest running “club show” in California – Pro Boxing’s Battle in the Ballroom. It’s a feat unparalleled by any other promoter in California and one made even more impressive by the fact that he has never lost a penny on any of his over 100 fight cards over that time.
In conjunction with the Irvine Marriott Hotel and Resort in Irvine, California, Englebrecht promotes his club show in the hotel’s ballroom to a capacity crowd of 1,200 people. The small crowd and young, hungry, and inexperienced fighters are, to Englebrecht, what define club shows, but those intangibles have not deterred him from producing a first-rate, professional “club show.”
“I think that [small promoters] have to realize that they actually own a professional sports franchise” he said. “They have to do the same things that Jerry Jones has to do with the Dallas Cowboys or George Steinbrenner has to do with the New York Yankees…but, they need to realize that they are not Jerry Jones or George Steinbrenner. They have to subvert their egos and realize that they are minor league promoters and thus they need to operate like the minor leagues.”
While it may be a cold, hard truth this realization is probably the main reason that Englebrecht has sold-out 24 consecutive events and has never lost money on a show: the professionalism and consistency of his events attract repeat buyers, but his operational mentality is always focused on the bottom line.
“I’d rather make $15,000 twenty times than try to make $300,000 one time in the fight business” Englebrecht advised. “It’s very hard to make $300,000 one time, but it’s real easy – doing it the right way, using the template we’ve created – to make $15,000 twenty times.”
Like any entrepreneur worth his salt, Englebrecht also possesses the ability to adapt to his environment and seize on profitable opportunities. He recognized the need to diversify his business and also sensed that this “new MMA thing” was more than just another fad.
Thus, in 2005 Englebrecht jumped at the opportunity to host his first MMA event that would spawn the MMA Fist Series. With it, he was able to apply his winning formula from the ballroom series to an MMA show following the same basic principles of professionalism and consistency.
Keys to a Successful Small Promotion
As many of you can imagine, or may know from experience, the facets of running a fight promotion are quite literally innumerable. There are, however, a few topics that we discussed in greater detail – venue selection, corporate sponsorships, and fighter relationship management – that all touched on Roy’s promotional center pin: perception is key. That being, in order to benefit from professionalism or consistency your audience, your sponsors, and your fighters all have to perceive it.
And so, according to Englebrecht, one of the biggest mistakes that a small promoter can make is selecting a venue with a seating capacity greater than the actual needs of the show.
“People want to be where other people are” he said. “People want to be where the perception is where this is the place to be. To go out and book the Anaheim Convention Center, a 7,200 seat venue, to put on minor league MMA, and have 1,000 people there, is a formula for losing $50,000.”
The demand for minor league fighting simply is not large enough to fill such a venue and in doing so, it’s only setting a negative perception of the quality of the event (regardless of how exciting the fights are or professionally the event is run).
Instead, a promoter should select a venue that properly meets the show’s current demand. Why comp a couple thousand tickets that you’ll have to pay taxes on? Why pay for venue space that you’re not going to use?
Englebrecht agrees.
“We have 1,300 people in the ballroom, for 1,300 chairs and there is an energy there” Englebrecht said. “People go in there for the first time and say ‘man, this is the place to be’ because the place is absolutely electric.”
There’s also something to be said for the benefits of a little excess demand. While too much demand is probably an indication that a promotion is under-pricing and leaving money on the table, a slight excess will help increase the perceived exclusivity and value of the event.
The effect of exclusivity on value also cannot be ignored where corporate sponsorship is concerned.
At the “club show” level, sponsors are without the benefit of a large, live audience or television broadcasts with which they can advertise to the MMA market. Thus, advertising and reaching that coveted 18-34 year-old demographic isn’t the selling point that larger promotions often utilize, says Englebrecht.
Rather, selling corporate sponsorships at the club level is about adding value through a guaranteed experience – a professional show that sponsors can use to treat their clients or employees.
“There has to be some sort of return on investment to the sponsor and when they’re not on the TV and not on the internet, the only thing they get is a feel-good sponsorship” Englebrecht said.
“We’re selling them on an experience for six nights that they can feel big time, that they can feel special, and they do. A club promoter has to do that because he’s selling a minor league experience, with no TV and no Hollywood stars at ringside.”
The buck can’t stop with the audience or corporate partners, either. A small promotion must also extend that professional treatment and “big time” experience and perception to its fighters.
“We treat [our fighters] just like a UFC show” said Englebrecht. “We have a very organized weigh-in. We have a fighter information sheet which welcomes them and explains everything. We put them up at the Marriott. We give them per diem and some of these kids didn’t even know what per diem meant. We sit down with them and select their entrance music. We make them feel like big time.”
It should come as no surprise, then, that Englebrecht’s MMA Fist Series rarely has problems with no shows, late medicals, or fighters failing to make weight.
Check back later in the week for Part 2 of Promoter’s Spotlight: Roy Englebrecht, where we’ll be talking about his involvement with Affliction, M1- Global, and his Fight Promoter University. The full conversation (about 65 minutes worth) will also be made available at that point.