The UFC announced earlier this week that it will air Saturday’s 134 prelims on the digital sign above the Doubletree Hotel in the “Little Brazil” neighborhood of Times Square. This is the first time the UFC has shown its fights in Times Square. UFC 134 prelims will air from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. EST.
The Doubletree Hotel is located at 1568 Broadway in New York City.
Via UFC web site:
After celebrating in the streets of Times Square, fans and interested viewers are encouraged to finish watching the fight at neighboring bars in Little Brazil such as Bowlmor Times Square (W 44th between 7th and 8th Aves.).
Payout Perspective:
This is good publicity on the heels of a big month for the UFC. Its a good tie in to the UFC Rio event and filtering fight fans to local bars that will air the PPV is another tactic to get fans to watch. Certainly, this is a way to inflate the viewership numbers for later promotion. However, the weather and threat of a hurricane in New York may dampen the crowd and the video/photo op the UFC wants. It will be interesting to see what type of response it receives. The UFC may revisit a grand showing like this November 12th when it debuts on Fox.
Looks like there were 5 homeless people watching in times square tonight…
Little Brazil may as well be Orkut. I wonder if the site has the ability to stream similar to facebook.