Financial Times Profiles UFC
July 15, 2009
The Financial Times has a feature piece up the UFC, detailing the hallmark UFC 100 event. The FT uses the centennial event as a means to look back to the rise of the company from the brink of bankruptcy. While the piece is basically an introductory piece, with a lot of the usual bases covered, there is some insight into the current financial picture for the UFC:
His confidence is borne out by UFC’s meteoric growth. SNL Kagan, a research and consulting firm, estimates that UFC generated $40m in pay-per-view sales in 2005, increasing to $270m by 2008. Lorenzo Fertitta told the FT that he expects the company to generate revenues of more than $300m in 2009, with first quarter revenues up 41 per cent.
With revenues up 41% it would be interesting to know what correlation fighter compensation has to this jump, as well the justification for items like the sponsor tax during what are essentially salad days for the UFC’s financial picture.
Recent Zuffa bond purchaser and bon vivant billionaire Mark Cuban gave praise to the job that the UFC has done to this point in building their company:
“They have done a great job building a brand and awareness via their show on Spike,” says Mark Cuban, owner of HDNet, which broadcasts rival MMA events. “They then leveraged that into an enormous following, which in turn led to the great pay-per-view numbers.”
Mr Cuban adds that UFC “absorbed a lot of losses” to achieve its dominance. “It won’t be easy for other promotions to compete with the UFC, but it’s certainly possible,” he says.
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