Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromwitz confirmed with MMAweekly that Strikeforce on CBS: Fedor vs. Rogers will indeed be held at the Sears Centre in Chicago, Illinois on November 7th.
The Sears Centre Arena in Hoffman Estates, Ill. will host the CBS network debut of Strikeforce: Emelianenko vs. Rogers.
Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz on Wednesday afternoon confirmed the news to MMAWeekly.com. The CBS telecast will air between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. E.S.T.
“We just got approved,” he said.
The suburban Chicago venue was rumored to be in the running for the event as early as last Thursday, however, the promotion was waiting on approval from the Illinois State Athletic Commission.
Payout Perspective:
I like the venue choice. Chicago is a great MMA city and should provide a strong hardcore base for Strikeforce to draw upon.
Moreover, the fact that the city remains one of the country’s strongest media hubs is also very beneficial. This event – as it stands right now – is going to have the entire weekend to itself and should be able to leverage its exposure through CBS and Showtime to market the fight properly.
It’s not enough to advertise this fight. Strikeforce really needs a relentless PR campaign through the media in order to build Fedor’s legitimacy and build his brand within the United States.
It also helps that the ticket prices will be between $37 – $500.
Chicago has a huge Russian community by the way. They should really attack that, and Minnesota isn’t too far from Illinois neither, which is Rogers’ home state.
this event isn’t in chicago. hoffman estates is about 30 minutes from chicago, so i really wouldn’t even consider it a suberb of chicago. still with the tickets being so cheap they should do well at the gate with some serious advertising. as far as the ratings go, we’ll see. not only with they most likely havet deal witha a ufc counter, they will be going up against college football and the mlb playoffs. i know thathardcore fans (such as myself) are not gonna miss this event b/c of this, but the casual fans are what cbs will be gunning for and SF is going to be up against some stiff competiton, with no kimbo. 😉