MMA Junkie reports the attendance, gate and bonuses from Friday night’s event in Brisbane, Australia. Mark Hunt, Bigfoot Silva and Shogun Rua won the bonuses for this event.
The attendance drew 11,393 for a live gate of $1.785 million as announced at the post-fight press conference. UFC Fight Night 33 occurred at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Australia.
The bonuses were $50,000 each and were no-brainers. Mark Hunt and Antonio Silva earned the $50,000 Fight of the Night Bonus and Shogun Rua won the KO of the night bonus. While the prelim fight between Takeya Mizugaki and Nam Phan fight were early contenders for FOTN and was rerun on the main card just before the main event, Hunt-Silva blew away the crowd, viewers and people on twitter with their fight.
Payout Perspective:
If nothing else, the last fight of the night was well worth wading through the 5 plus hours of fights. The attendance figure shows that there are many fight fans down under. Of course, many supported Mark Hunt and other local fighters on the card.
Also shows the benefit of not over-saturating the market. The do 1 fight night card a year there to get the fans motivated, hence a very healthy gate. Also keeps some of the marginal Aussies employed. I like it.
@assassin Can over-saturation be a problem? Yes, we saw that even Brazil is not immune to such. At the same time, one show a year in a country you want to build in is probably worse than over-saturation itself; you have to show the fans that they matter and try to get as many to experience the live product as possible. I know you’re probably thinking just limiting it to one a year makes it more of an “event” for them, but unlikely — it just gives Aussie reason to forget about the UFC the rest of the year. Just my perspective.
DFW always talks about the struggles of trying to cater to as much fans across the States and world as possible with these live events. Why the EFF then, do you have HALF the effing fights in VEGAS alone?!?? I understand it’s much easier having it at home and prolly saves them a bit money, but there is NO reason in the world a fight like Weidman-Silva 2 should be at Mandalay. WHY is it??
I remember a little after UFC 100, DFW admitting that even he still has a lot to learn — having UFC 100 in a 10k-seat arena in Vegas as opposed to a stadium (hence, leaving millions of dollars on the table) being one such example of boneheadedness. Then why are half the “big” fights still in Vegas? Mind-boggling. Apparently, when DFW lost his soul for getting in bed/donating to Harry Reid, he lost a chunk of his brain as well.
THe reason they have so many shows in Vegas is mainly because they make way more money off those events. Vegas event tickets sell for way more than any where else. Due to it being a tourist destination there isn’t much of a saturation effect. As there is a new batch of people in the city every event. Outside of a few Canadian events. All the top gates have come from Vegas events. I went to UFC 68 in Ohio and it set the North American attendance record at over 19,000. Gate was half of what a big event would be in Vegas with half as many people. They can do 5 million plus with 12-14,000. Im also sure cost is much cheaper setting up in Vegas. Not to mention a UFC event also helps the Fertitas other properties like their hotels and casinos.
I don’t think over saturation is an issue. I think in some cases and has some effects. During growth I think you run the risk of it seeming to much to keep up with for new fans. But with the establish audience I don’t think that is a issue. Of course ratings and buy rates here and there will fluctuate. Just as ratings do with every sport as the fan base can pick and choose which event it watches. But the fan base doesn’t really decline. But even if the UFC grows to 50+ events a year. I don’t think a 1 event per week average is to much for anyone. Just as long many of those events have a set day of the week they air. Just like the UFC is doing with Wednesday night fights. With lots of events. You lose time to promote each event. So for the small shows. IF they are on a set day of the week when the fan base knows when to expect fights. You don’t need much promoting of that event. Then its just promoting the big PPVs a few weeks out. Without having to give equal time to 3 events at the same time.
If the NFL can do weekly and NBA and MLB can do 4-7 games a week. Then the UFC can do 1 event per week globally.
AK, remember that Top Boxers rarely leave Vegas either. No where else can bring the gate Vegas can. Lately Pacman and FMJ have looked outside Vegas. But there is very few options and you have to be very big to pull it off. I do give the UFC credit. They have taken the UFC all over the country and put on big fights and big stars. When boxing never does that. I posted a few months back about this. I have been to 7 UFC events. From UFC 41 to UFC 118. In those 7 events I have seen almost every big name in the UFC during the last 10 years. Guys like Anderson Silva, Franklin, Couture, Penn, etc, Multiple times. Most of those events were not in major cities. If you don’t live in one of 2-3 cities. You will never see the big stars of boxing. The UFC runs a lot of shows in Vegas. BUt they do take their show on the road and bring some big name fighters with them.
Perceval is a terrible ref. When he seperated them in the 5th (which he should have never done. Herb Dean wouldn’t give Gonzaga a break vs Couture when blood was in his eyes), and when he did he should have given hunt back his superior position with Silva against the cage. Instead Perceval just restarted the fight. Hunt was about to stop Silva, what bullshit.