Jon Show of Sports Business Journal reports that the UFC grossed $540,000 in merchandise sales in its Australian debut at UFC 110 in Sydney on February 21st.
UFC 110, headlined by the Antonio “Minotauro” Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez heavyweight bout, grossed $540,000 in merchandise sales at Acer Arena in Sydney, breaking the previous record of $498,000 for UFC 83 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. Total sales also topped the previous arena record held by Iron Maiden.
Acer Arena doesn’t release concessions figures. The arena, built for the 2000 Summer Games, is the largest indoor venue in Sydney and has hosted acts such as Coldplay and Britney Spears.
All 16,500 tickets for the Feb. 21 fight were bought on the first day of sales back in December, trailing only the UFC’s debut in Montreal in 2008 as the fastest sellout ever. The $2.5 million gate for an international event was second only to the fight in Montreal.
Payout Perspective:
The merchandise sold at the event isn’t just short-term revenue, either; the UFC now has $540,000 worth of free advertising roaming the streets of Australia. Some might argue that’s the best kind to have.
However, I take issue with the accuracy of the figures listed. Show mentions the UFC did a gate of $2.5 million, but failed to mention that it was $2.5 million in Australian dollars (AUD) which is roughly $2.25 million in US dollars. That leads me to wonder whether the $540,000 is also AUD, which would convert back to roughly $485,000 USD.
Nonetheless, it’s a significant score; one that, if you compare, trumps even the latest gate receipts for the UFC’s competitors.
Solid point about Australian dollars, I figured he adjusted because he also listed a Canadian figure. Comparing those head to head would be absurd if he didn’t.
The most important thing is the per cap figure is very high, which confirms the latest studies suggesting MMA fans spend a lot of money.
As Mike touches on over at BE (http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/3/1/1331707/sportsbusiness-journal-ufc-sets) – a big factor in these numbers is the limited availability of UFC merchandise outside of the arena. Licensed apparel for the NBA, NFL, etc. are widely available in retail outlets so there is little incentive to purchase in arena.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown of the UFC’s merch sales online vs. in-arena.
Didn’t StrikeForce only pull in $8k usd in merch for the StrikeForce Miami event?
500k worth of obnoxious gold and silver foil laden shirts are now roaming Sydney, lucky kids. lol.
I’m curious about the 8K at a Strikeforce event? Was the Miami show an aberration? Is it because they don’t own the image rights to a lot of their fighters, and therefore there may have been a lot more merchandise sold, but they didn’t get a cut of it? I know the UFC is a much more powerful brand, but $8,000 vs $500,000 seems outrageous.
Best of all for the UFC, this record setting price grab? Was all over for them by 4pm in the afternoon in Sydney! I think the show started there at 11:30 am local time for the prelims.
Ofcourse one thing not mentioned by the articles is any taxes that would cut into their overall profit margin, but then again some of the extorting state commissions probably take more of a percentage than the UFC had to pay for the Aussie event.
I’d like to know if/how the fighters were taxed out there consider guys like Rampage jackson have vocally complained about losing 40% of his paycheck to taxes in one of his rambling blogs when he was retired.