Steven Marrocco of MMAWeekly recently sat down with Dana White to discuss the level of ticket sales for this weekend’s UFC 104.
UFC president Dana White didn’t flinch when asked about ticket sales for UFC 104 on Saturday.
“Dude, I’m (expletive) thrilled in this economy that we’re doing what we’re doing,” he said.
UFC 104, slated for the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles, is the second trip to the City of Angeles for the promotion since May 2006.
White also didn’t flinch when he told gathered reporters that he had given away 3,300 tickets to the event. While it was unclear how many of those tickets were “comps” given away to local businesses for the event, the number was significant. The Staples Center holds up to 20,000 fans.
“The people that couldn’t afford ‘em came and found me, and I gave ‘em to them.”
Tickets for UFC 104 start at $50 and top out at $600. As of three days ago, White said the current take from live gate revenues is north of $2 million. UFC 60, headlined by stars Matt Hughes and Royce Gracie, did a reported $2.9 million in total at the box office.
Still, with walk-up ticket sales, Saturday’s show could match, or exceed, the first take.
White said his promotion was scaling prices back everywhere to take the economy into account.
“We’re conscious of the problems that are going on in this country, and we try to price them the best we can,” he said. “Still, (we’ve) got to pay a guy, still have to run a business. But you can’t crush the fans and price them out of the fights.”
Payout Perspective:
While PPV buyrates may be somewhat recession-proof – and even that’s pretty debatable – live attendance and live gate revenue are not. A live gate of $2-3 million in Los Angeles should be viewed as a success. It’s better than what the UFC did in Oregon, and it will likely exceed what they did in Dallas last month.
The act of “comping” or outright giving away tickets to fans is always going to be viewed somewhat skeptically, but a full building on event night (regardless of whether 1,000, 3,000 or 5,000 got in for free) is beneficial in many ways – especially if the empty seats are just going to go to waste anyway:
1.) The sponsors and partners of the UFC and its fighters want as many eye balls as possible.
While it’s debatable how much ROI some of these sponsors are actually earning, the more they feel like people are being exposed to their brand, the more they’ll actually be willing to pay.
2.) Live shows are the UFC’s best fan recruiting tool.
A live MMA show has a way of providing an experience that the TV cannot. If the UFC can comp some tickets that would otherwise not be used and create life time fans as a result, why not? Your most loyal customers are always the most profitable ones.
3.) Free tickets are a great way to generate free press and word of mouth support.
The media and social networking websites gobble up this type of news and spread it like wild fire. Again, if you’re not using the capacity, you might as well do something with it.
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There are also some negatives to comping.
In many states the promoter has to pay sales tax on the comped tickets, so its not exactly as if comping costs an organization nothing. Moreover, in my experience, there can sometimes be an issue with fans that have paid and fans that have not. The last thing that anyone wants to hear after paying $100 for a ticket is that they could have got in for free (or at a discount).
However, in this case, the UFC can justify the sales tax on the tickets for reasons stated above. They can also argue that the tickets were not exactly “free,” because the fans went out of their way to get them.
i got comps for 102 at the rose garden. $600 seats. it was a fantastic experience…but there is no way i would pay that much for a future show. and now since ive experienced the good life, i never want to sit in the cheap seats.
A supplier of ours in Dallas comped me a bunch of tickets to a 100-level box. I flew down from Canada to attend the event and was quite excited as it was my first live UFC event. In the end, I found the experience disappointing because the seats were too far from the octagon, so we all spent the evening watching the jumbotron. I would say less than 105 of the seats were worth buying for the event. the atmosphere was good but not at the intensity I expected. However, if all fairness, we were on the opposite side of the ring as the Octagon girls and the fighter entrance, and being in the box isolated us somewhat from non-box viewers.
My biggest beef is that MMA is a sport of detail, and you don’t get the same opportunity to notice the subtleties you do by watching the fights on a PPV with multiple cameras close to the action. Next time the supplier offers me comp tickets, I’ll tell him I’d be a happier customer if he would comp me an HD PPV!!!