MMAterial Facts (02/22/10)

• Madison Square Garden and Bellator Partner Up
• UFC 110: Payout Perspective
• Starting with UFC 111, MMA events to be shown in 300 movie theaters
• Dana White: MMA is Bigger and Better
• ‘Smell the blood!’ The sickening roar for gore

Madison Square Garden and Bellator Partner Up

Madison Square Garden has formed a co-promotional agreement with Bellator Fighting Championships to bring a total of four nationally televised Bellator events to two of the most historic and prestigious theaters in the United States, the Chicago Theatre and the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre in Boston.

The events — which will be broadcast on FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo — will be staged at the legendary Chicago Theatre and the famed Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre in Boston, the same grand and majestic venues that, over the years, have hosted a collection of the world’s top entertainers including Frank Sinatra, Prince, Beyonce, Kanye West, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Neil Young, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and countless others.

“The Madison Square Garden name is synonymous with the greatest sports and entertainment events in U.S. history,” said Bellator founder and CEO Bjorn Rebney. “Moreover, these MSG venues, the Chicago Theatre and the Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre, are synonymous with the history and culture of their respective cities. We are thrilled to be aligning Bellator with these magnificent brands to bring world class, nationally televised mixed martial arts to Chicago, Boston, and the entire country.”
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“Madison Square Garden is excited to bring the world’s fastest-growing sport to these historic venues,” said Joel Fisher, Madison Square Garden’s Executive Vice President of Sports Bookings and Arena Renovation. “We look forward to four great nights of action-packed fights in these legendary locations for the thousands who will be in attendance and the millions watching on FOX Sports Net, NBC, and Telemundo around the country.”  (PRESS RELEASE)

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MMA PROMOTION BELLATOR TO STAGE EVENTS AT MSG-OWNED VENUES

MSG today announced that it has agreed to a deal with MMA promotion Bellator Fighting Championships to bring four Bellator events to the Chicago Theatre and Boston ‘s Citi Performing Arts Center Wang Theatre. The events will air on FSN, NBC and Telemundo (MSG). The deal “would seem to open the door for a possible Bellator event” at MSG, though MMA remains unregulated in the state of New York (MMAJUNKIE.com, 2/22)… (Sports Business Daily).

UFC 110: Payout Perspective

The UFC’s approach to sponsorship understandably changes when it ventures internationally, so we saw a slightly different approach to cage mat sponsorship at the event. Gamefly.com took the center octagon sponsorship, but was joined by a host of smaller logo sponsorships on the periphery (including new comers USAToday.com  and SI.com). The event was sponsored by a new television series on the FX network, Justified, set to debut in March.

Something to keep an eye on as the UFC continues to expand internationally is the exclusivity of its sponsorship contracts. MMAPayout.com talked about the emerging technologies that might allow the UFC to offer unique sponsorship packages to different broadcasts throughout the world, which would obviously boost revenues. If the organization can pair down its contracts to exclusivity by region, it may have an opportunity to utilize green screen technology to give, for example, English, Hispanic, Arabic, Korean, and Japanese feeds different title sponsors. (MMAPayout’s Perspective)

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UFC DRAWS SELLOUT CROWD IN SYDNEY ; WHITE PROMISES RETURN TO AUSTRALIA

UFC 110 this weekend drew a sellout crowd of 17,431 at Acer Arena in Sydney , Australia (Mult., 2/21). UFC President Dana White “promised to return Down Under each year.” The event grossed about US$4.5M at the venue, setting arena records for the “biggest grossing event and greatest merchandise sales.” If UFC officials “can convince the Victorian government to … lift its ban on cage fighting, the next Australian event will be in Melbourne ” (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 2/22)… (Sports Business Daily)

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UFC 110’s reported attendance qualifies as highest-ever for UFC outside of North America

While the UFC’s first-ever trip to Australia certainly delivered on in-cage action, “UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez” didn’t do too bad at the box office, either.

At the UFC 100 post-event press conference, UFC president Dana White said the event drew 17,831 attendees to Acer Arena in Sydney, Australia, for a reported $2.5 million gate.

While attendance figures outside of North America are rarely certified by local commissions, the reported figure marks the highest total ever claimed by the UFC for an event outside of North America.

The event was the second-fastest sell-out in UFC history according to White, and every ticket had been purchased within just one hour of going on sale.

The attendance figure included 400 fans who purchased tickets for a special viewing party in a ballroom at the Acer Arena.

In addition to the UFC company mark, UFC 110’s attendance also broke a few Acer Arena records according to White.

The UFC exec said the UFC 110 gate qualified it as the highest-grossing sporting event in Acer Arena history, while the merchandise sales bested the arena’s previous record set when rock band Iron Maiden played the facility.   (MMAJunkie)

Starting with UFC 111, MMA events to be shown in 300 movie theaters

The UFC is headed to the big screen.

The mixed martial arts league has reached a deal to showcase its main events at over 300 movie theaters, starting with UFC 111 on March 27. The UFC announced the deal to The Associated Press on Monday.

Although the UFC experimented with big-screen presentations for its fights in Britain for several years, this stateside deal follows the financial success of Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s victory over Juan Manuel Marquez in 170 movie theaters last September.

“I’m always interested in distribution, in finding new ways to get UFC to people,” UFC president Dana White said. “My philosophy is always that we haven’t scratched how big this is going to be, because we haven’t got it into the mainstream yet. This is just another way to do that. I’m anxious to put it out there in theaters and see what happens.”
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White said he isn’t worried about harming the UFC’s pay-per-view revenue by making the fights available for the price of a theater ticket that will cost less than buying the fight at home. He believes boxing hurt itself in recent years by making its biggest fights only available on pay-per-view instead of creating alternative ways to watch, including the UFC’s extensive business on the Internet. (LA Times)

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UFC Debuts Live on Big Screen in HD with UFC 111

For the first time in UFC® history, UFC fans can head to their local movie theater and take in all the action in the Octagon™, live and broadcast in high definition on the big screen starting with UFC 111: St- Pierre vs. Hardy on Saturday, March 27 at 10:00 p.m. Eastern / 7:00 p.m. Pacific.

Dana White, UFC President, today announced the UFC has closed a deal with NCM Fathom to present a series of live UFC fights in more than 300 select movie theaters nationwide, as well as plans to have UFC fighters host screenings in various markets.  Tickets are available to this special in-theater event at www.FathomEvents.com and presenting theater box offices.  For a complete list of theater locations and prices, please visit the web site (theaters and participants are subject to change).

“This is an opportunity to provide our fans with another cool way to watch UFC programming on the big-screen, live, in high-def and in surround sound,” said White.  “UFC 111 has a stacked undercard and St-Pierre vs. Hardy and Mir vs. Carwin are both title fights, so this is the perfect event to kick off our new deal with NCM Fathom.”

UFC 111: St- Pierre vs. Hardy features reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St-Pierre vs. British bomber Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy and former heavyweight champion Frank Mir vs. number one contender Shane Carwin for the interim UFC heavyweight title. In addition, theater-goers can watch the entire UFC 111 live card, including welterweights Jon Fitch vs. Thiago Alves, lightweights Jim Miller vs. Mark Bocek and welterweights Ben Saunders vs. Jake Ellenberger.

“Fathom audiences have long been waiting to see UFC events in their local theaters around the country and now, for the first time, fans can experience the action-packed excitement of the UFC on the big screen in pure high definition,” said Dan Diamond, vice president of NCM Fathom. “Teaming up with the UFC for this series is a major milestone for our alternative program schedule in movie theaters and promises to give fans an intense opportunity to cheer on their favorite fighters, front row center.”

Broadcast live from the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, UFC 111: St- Pierre vs. Hardy will be shown in more than 300 select movie theaters including AMC Entertainment Inc., Celebration! Cinema, Cinemark USA Inc., Clearview Cinemas, Cobb Theatres, Goodrich Quality Theatres, Hollywood Theaters, Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, Marcus Theatres, National Amusements and Regal Entertainment Group movie theaters, as well as the Carolina Theatre (Asheville, NC), Palace Cinema 9 (South Burlington, VT) and Penn Cinema (Lititz, PA), through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network – North America’s largest cinema broadcast network.  (PRESS RELEASE)

Dana White: MMA is Bigger and Better

DANA White believes that MMA is now one of the world’s most popular sports after UFC’s record-breaking visit Down Under.

Last weekend UFC 110 in Sydney saw the company’s biggest-ever attendance outside North America.

A total of 17,831 fans crammed into the Acer Arena, leaving UFC  president White saying: “That shows the universal appeal of MMA.”

That figure beat the previous best of 16,639 set at Manchester’s MEN Arena last November and produced gate receipts of $2.5m.

White added: “The UFC is beginning to take its place among the biggest sports in the world. In the USA, Canada, Germany, Ireland, the UK and now Australia, the UFC is breaking records and selling out the biggest venues wherever we go.”

“The UFC is already the biggest indoor sport in the UK and with the huge event in Sydney at the weekend, it shows the universal  appeal of MMA.”  (Daily Star)

‘Smell the blood!’ The sickening roar for gore

“Smell the blood, baby!” he screams at his man, Krzysztof “the Polish Experiment” Soszynski. “Smell the blood!”

Within seconds Soszynski doesn’t have to sniff too hard because, after a clash of heads, the blood from a new gash high on Bonnar’s forehead is so deep that his red essence is gushing out of him and soon both fighters are covered in it from top to toe. This appears to interest the referee mildly, but no more than that. Still they go at it, and when Bonnar briefly goes down, the ref has to jump out of the way so that Soszynski can properly get at him, and bash him some more.

Welcome to something called the Ultimate Fighting Championship which, as well as claiming to be the world’s fastest-growing sport, made its debut in Australia yesterday on a schedule suited to the American pay-per-view prime-time Saturday night audience.

A cross between Fight Club, rock’n’roll, a vicious bar-room brawl and the fall of Saigon, the idea is that this is “multi-discipline fighting” – across three five-minute rounds – incorporating everything from boxing to wrestling, kick-boxing to karate, judo to jujitsu to just about anything else you can think of, including choke holds, and …

This is as far from professional wrestling’s tightly choreographed theatrical fighting. These are deadly serious contests fought by highly skilled men. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea – and it will be the last bout I’ll attend – but it looks like we might have moved into an age when tens of thousands of people no longer want cups of tea. They want buckets of blood. (Sydney Morning Herald)

IMAGE OF THE DAY

QUOTE OF THE DAY

If you want to understand more about value and athletes, look no further than Mixed Martial Arts.  I met with a lot of people who repeatedly told me that the UFC underpaid their athletes.  That by paying the best fighters more,  you could draw the same size crowds to arenas and buyers to PPV. It was an expensive lesson to learn how wrong they were.  Pro sports are just one of an unlimited number of entertainment options.  To get MMA fans to pay to watch a fight or to get them to the arena  is not just about having the best fighters, its about great marketing. Its about making a very significant investment in brand building and showmanship. Its about understanding how to connect to fans.  Its a lesson in recognizing that while the leagues or in this case the UFC enable their best to become big stars, they recognize that the business behind the stars must be vibrant and profitable before anyone can be successful.  The same can be applied to the big 4 professional sports.  Unfortunately it doesn’t appear that many in the big 4 sports leagues, whether agent, player, management or owner have come to recognize this fact.  (Mark Cuban, Blog Maverick)

QUICK HITS

• Blog: UFC 110 Post-Mortem(Sherdog)
• Mir Wants to Break Lesnar’s Neck in Octagon (MMAFighting)
• Fathead-UFC line includes Lesnar, St-Pierre, Silva, Penn, Jones, Dos Santos, Marquardt (MMAJunkie)
• Josh Barnett’s appeal with CSAC delayed fourth time after fighter no-shows hearing (MMAJunkie)
• Replay dates set for Spike TV’s “UFC Primetime: GSP vs. Hardy” three-part series (MMAJunkie)
• Update: Filho Back in Against Sasaki (Sherdog)
• Inside Compustrike Numbers for UFC 110 (MMAFighting)
• UFC 111 Prelims Announced (MMAPayout Perspective)
• VARNER LIKELY TO MEET SHALORUS AT WEC PPV  (MMAWeekly)
• HASHI WANTS TO CRUSH KAUFMAN TO WIN TITLE  (MMAWeekly)
• Look out heavyweights! Velasquez is ready for title shot (Cage Writer)
• Several Opponent Options for UFC 110 Winners (Heavy)
• Jacob Volkmann cuts to 155 to face Ronys Torres at UFC Fight Night 21 (FiveOuncesOfPain)

TV LISTINGS

• HDNet Fights Presents K-1 Classics (Hari vs Bonjasky) at 8 PM ET on HDNet (02/26/10)
• InsideMMA (Dominick Cruz, Alan Belcher and Karen Darabedyan) at 9 PM ET on HDNet (02/26/10)
• HDNet Fights Presents The Featherweights, Vol. 2, at 10 PM ET on HDNet (02/26/10)
• Best of Pride FC at 10 PM ET/PT on Spike (02/26/10)
• Strikeforce Challengers: Kaufman vs Hashi at 11 PM ET/PT on Showtime (02/26/10)
  

UPCOMING EVENTS

• Strikeforce Challengers: Kaufman vs Hashi at 11 PM ET/PT on Showtime (02/26/10)
• WEC 47: Bowles vs Cruz on at 10 PM ET on Versus (03/06/10)
• HDNet Fights: Sengoku Raiden Championship 12 at TBD on HDNet (03/12/10)
• HDNet Fights: XFC X-Night of Champions at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/19/10)
• UFC on Versus: Vera vs Jones at 10 PM ET on Versus (3/21/10)
• HDNet Fights: King of the Cage – Legacy at 10 PM ET on HDNet (03/26/10)
• Strikeforce Challengers: Johnson vs Mahe at 11 PM ET/PT on Showtime (03/26/10)
• UFC 111: GSP vs Hardy at 10 PM ET on PPV (03/27/10)
• UFN 21 : Florian vs Gomi at 10 PM ET on Spike (03/31/10)
• The Ultimate Fighter 11 Debut after UFN 21 on Spike (03/31/10)