Scott Cacciola of The Commercial Appeal writes that the UFC has sold over 10,000 tickets for Saturday’s UFC 107 to be held at the FedExForum in Memphis, Tennessee.
The UFC is regarded as the top professional organization in MMA, a fast-growing sport that combines multiple fighting disciplines, including wrestling, boxing and martial arts. And it has become a lucrative business. More than 10,000 tickets have been sold for Saturday’s event, generating more than $1.4 million in gate revenue. The UFC’s last four pay-per-view shows have averaged an attendance of 15,163.
Tennessee, in particular, is known as an emerging hotbed for MMA, and the UFC has long wanted to tap the Memphis market. Part of that is due to the popularity of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, a native Memphian and one of the sport’s biggest stars, though he has decided to take a hiatus from his MMA career to star in a film remake of “The A-Team.” But the sport’s popularity here goes beyond him.
“When I look at the ratings for our Spike TV show, ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ and go by percentages, Tennessee is a very hot state,” said Marc Ratner, the UFC’s vice president of regulatory affairs. “And that’s one of the reasons, when we look at deciding on a venue, Memphis is high on the list.” The UFC only stages about 10 pay-per-view events each year, and each tends to have a sizable economic impact.
UFC 82, for example, generated an estimated $7million-$10 million for Columbus, Ohio — a comparable market — when the event was staged in March 2008, according to Ratner.
“It’s a dream for us to come to FedExForum,” Ratner said. “It’s one of the best venues in the country.”
Payout Perspective:
These days, 10,000 tickets sold one week prior to the event is par for the course with the UFC. It likely puts them on track to sell 4,000-5,000 more, and round the live gate to the $2 million range. If we are to take live gate as a pre-fight indicator of interest in the event, a gate of $2 million likely means that UFC 107 is trending towards the 400k mark once again.
However, it’s important to note that this is the first time in 6-7 weeks that the UFC has been able to promote a solid fight card from top to bottom. If fans are picking their spots, this could be one that they pay for, because UFC 108 nor 109 really offer much intrigue to the casual fan at this point. Also, remember that title fights produce a PPV buyrate that’s 60-70% higher, on average, than a non-title fight.
Note: Cacciola also goes into some detail about what it took to get MMA regulated in Tennessee. Chalk one up for the good guys!
“…a gate of $2 million likely means that UFC 107 is trending towards the 400k mark once again.”
I strongly disagree, I see much higher than 400k buys. BJ penn is coming off an 800,000 buy ppv, in which he had a very powerful performance. Diego is coming off a live fight-night, one that hit about 4 million views. His fight was unforgettable, one of the best I’ve seen all year. Not to mention the rest of the card has big names such as kenny florian, Clay Guida, Frank Mir and Kongo. Conclusion: It will grab between 550-600. MMA payout seems to under-estimate the power a recent high viewed performance can pull. This is the reason why machida and shogun did far better than they predicted, and tito griffin did far worse.
American, I’d be extremely suprised if this event garnered any more than 500K PPV. But stranger things have happened. Potentially the 3+ million viewers of the last event will be interested, but I’m banking on most fans being slightly diluted with event after event.
This should be the best card in months, very little has been mentioned or hyped about the Guida – Florian fight……………….here in BC Guida is seen as a machine that does not stop and his fights are always worth buying the ppv for…………………….then add Mir – Kongo, the Diego-Penn match has been over shadowing these other fights…………………….
I would like to see Guida against Baroni in thier next fights…………….that would be a war!
I was going to attend this event with 5pr 6 others. After we found out that QJ and Evans wasnt going to fight we decided not to travel from WV to TN although i love Memphis. Was their earlier this year for an AC/DC concert and loved the city and the FedEx forum was great.
The numbers for this event are going to be hard to guesstimate. Many of the ticket sales possible come from pre Rampage hiatus. So sales might be higher than this card will normally generate. On the same note. I get lots of customers who watch the fights in bars and on tv at home but dont follow online like hardcore fans. Most of them are not aware that the coaches are not fighting and assume its going ahead on 107. How many “mainstream” fans are aware of this change? How many were going to buy? How many will find out the change and now not buy? Lots of questions. Just like many of the UFC events recently. There are to many changes from the norm to use formula’s based on the past events. These Formulas may have been close indicators pre UFC 100. BUt with the variables that have come up like the change in fight cards, injuries to headliners, etc. There is no way to know how to adjust for those changes. Now you have Kimbo drawing more eyes to the UFC event advertisements. What effect does that have.
I believe it will be a few more months. Probably after UFC 110 give or take. Before some normalcy with stable fight cards, healthy headliners, events in UFC strong holds like Vegas not uncharted mma cities, unknown ratings impacts on PPV from TUF/KIMBO/etc.
I think this will do 500ks and memphis is a poor city but I love memphis I lived there four half a year iv meet lil wyte 3 6 mafia and many other local rappers there its hard to sell tickets there but a first major mma show like ufc im not supprised done this well there
AmericanPankration,
The pre-fight indicators don’t tell the entire story, which is why I elaborated on some of the other factors right below that.
Yes, it’s going to be a tough PPV to predict, but I don’t see the numbers the way you do:
– Penn and Griffin both fought at UFC 101, but you could argue that more people tuned in to watch Silva-Griffin than did Penn-Florian. So, how does that 800k somehow boost what Penn might do at the PPV box, yet fail to explain Forrest’s horrible numbers at 106?
– Sanchez last fought at the TUF 9 Finale, which did a 1.5HH, and certainly did not peak anywhere near 4 million viewers (closer to 2.8 mill).
Like I said, this card is solid top to bottom. It’s probably the best card since UFC 100, and the fans that haven’t been buying lately might decide this one is worth it. But considering the high number of events we’ve seen lately, and the small promotion window that the UFC has had, I wouldn’t expect anything huge.
Kelsey,
Yes, Penn and Griffin both fought at ufc 101, but I’m not quite sure a valid argument can be made for Silva-Griifin raking in more viewers than the Penn-Florian bout. First, we know Anderson has historically had very low ppv buys as a main event. Furthermore, Penn-florian was a title match. Yes, they are light-weights but still both bring a solid, well known name to the table. And as we know, title fights on average significantly sell more than non-title matches. I disagree with those who assume more people tuned in for the griffin-silva bout.
Also, the numbers explain the ratings of following events perfectly. Forrest got destroyed in front of a tremendously large audience. It discredited him to many as a legitimate contender. Penn on the other hand, put a solid beat down, with an impressive finish on florian. That would increase the status of his name among casual fans greatly.
I thought I read somewhere Diego-guida peaked at 3.8 million viewers. Perhaps I confused the show w/ another. Either way, almost 3 million people watched, and no doubt remember Diego’s last fight.
I guess we will see when the numbers are released, but 600k wouldn’t surprise me the least bit.
AmericanPankration, 600K would surprise me. Just too much UFC available on free TV now for people to pan out the bucks for a card that doesn’t feature a huge draw. It would say quite a bit for BJ to pull those numbers, perhaps the next big name in the UFC but I just don’t see it.
I think Diego out works Penn for a decision or maybe even a stoppage. So if Penn is now a draw its going to mean big things for the UFC. It has already been said by zuffa that Penn is a huge draw in Hawaii. They get lots of buys there. Imagine a Sanchez win and a long awaited Stadium show in Hawaii as the venue for the rematch.