Mike Chiappetta of MMAFighting.com is reporting that Strikeforce will be the only MMA promotion running a live show on Saturday, April 17th as the UFC has opted not to hold its rumored card, also in Nashville, on the same day.
The long-rumored UFC event expected to counter the promotion’s April 17 CBS offering will not take place, MMA Fighting has confirmed.
Earlier this month, the UFC explored the option, going so far as to inform likely broadcast partner Spike TV that the show was a go, but the company has apparently reversed course, and a Spike source said the network has been told by the UFC that the show is no longer happening.
Payout Perspective:
I’m not opposed to the idea of counter-programming with a live card – there’s an element of gamesmanship that I can appreciate – but I think it’s got to be done under the right circumstances. Strikeforce is trying to promote an honest card on April 17th; there’s no Herschel Walker or Jose Canseco (not yet), just three solid title fights and some other legitimate matches. They deserve their chance to sink or swim.
Plus, the UFC would have simply been putting on a fight card to hurt Strikeforce, not benefit the fans in any way. I would have DVR’d the UFN show regardless, but whatever the UFC could have mustered with its limited resources (three events in three weeks), wouldn’t have been much.
More importantly, that offering would have gone against the UFC’s mantra of “putting on the fights fans want to see,” and likely would have hurt the brand in the long run. The UFC needs to be weary of putting on too many fight cards. Market saturation is not the issue, quality over quantity is.
Sometimes less is more. We learned that with UFC 109, and this counter-programming card could have very well been the same.
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Strikeforce is going to pull at least 2-3 million viewers on the 17th, and a good portion of those will be from the core MMA demographic; that presents a perfect advertising opportunity for the UFC. Some might think the UFC would never go for it – that somehow it would acknowledge Strikeforce’s legitimacy or whatever – but I tend to think a cheeky commercial that sends a strong message about the UFC might just steal a bit of Strikeforce’s thunder.
Besides, it’s not as if Strikeforce and CBS haven’t done the same on SpikeTV.
Correct Kelsey,
I absolutely expect to see Strikeforce commercials on Spike TV. They did it before with the last CBS events, though they only do it in certain markets.
great article… quality over quantity… precisely.
absolute rubbish. There’s no counter programming because it’s not worth it. The CBS show is weak and putting a card together would be a waste at this point. A replay of a ppv will more than suffice. And the UFC buying air time doesn’t work. Did the NFL buy air time on the XFL? or does the NFL buy air time during CFL games?
What about the fact that maybe both Strikeforce and UFC agreed not to step on each others head. That’s because in case of a counter event from UFC, Strikeforce could have changed the event date to April 24th and create a threat to WEC’s debut on PPV.
I think they simply made a deal there.
Dojo,
Strikeforce may be struggling at the gate, or with merchandise, but it’s still got a deal with CBS, some great talent, and some smart people working pretty diligently. I wouldn’t say SF isn’t “worth” being counter-programmed.
The NFL earns $6.5B a year, owns the richest media deal in sports history, runs a league that has been established for the better part of 80 years, and has already battled its competition. You can’t compare their situation to the UFC. It’s apples to oranges.
Mr. M,
“The fact that maybe” is a pretty noncommittal statement. Is it a possibility they made a deal? Sure.
I’m inclined to think not. The only time the UFC does a deal with another promotion is if the other party agrees to go out of business (Affliction, IFL, etc.).
Dojo? The CBS card is weak??? WTF are you smoking an pass some over. Three Awesome title fights guaranteed and a chance of a 4th televised bout of Lashley. All for Free. Damn dont get much better then that. Maybe jus stick with the UFC as that definetly seems your preference…seems so anyways.
Kelsey,
This “card” is not worth counter programming with a live show (I didnt say strikeforce wasnt). It would be a waste of resources for this card.
More than half the people think they are watching the UFC on CBS. It makes no sense to buy commercial time and draw a line. UFC has a worse stranglehold on the sport than the NFL does. Their sport is not known as the “NFL”. It’s known as football. Our sport is known as “Ultimate Fighting” and “UFC”. So yeah, it is apples to oranges because the UFC is in an even better situation.
Chiggs,
I dont mean “weak” from a matchup and talent perspective. I mean “weak” from a marketing perspective. This card has no hook..
The UFC made the right choice as it was short notice during a period they already have a ton of events planned. But StrikeForce isnt out of the water. The UFC may have decided not to run a live show but they still have an ace in the hole and thats the last unair’ed PPV card. They are going to show it anyway but now they will just bump it up a few months.
I think the Strikeforce card is very solid. They have some bankable stars with name recognition and CBS is going to promote it well with the NCAA tournament. I suspect that the UFC realized they couldn’t put up anything of similar quality in such a short time (although I imagine they tried) and in the end figured they would just replay a PPV card.
If they went head-to-head and lost in terms of total number of viewers (even though Spike in on cable and it’s not a fair comparison) it would be seen as a loss for the UFC brand. I don’t think Dana and Co. wanted to take that chance.
I don’t agree that the card is not worth countering, I just think that in this day and age, based on the PPV results of recent UFC cards, Dana realizes it’s not good enough to just throw up the UFC name in order to get millions of eyes on. Increasingly the fighters matter, and the UFC couldn’t pull any big names vis-a-vis the Strikeforce card on short notice.
I see this as UFC realizes Strikeforce is in a sink or swim situation. If Strikeforce doesn’t produce a good rating CBS might pull the plug. So, it would be counter productive to counter program. The television market might take care of the Strikeforce problem for the UFC. Moreover, it makes no sense to throw together an average fight card. I see the UFC being better served by placing all their energy in promoting 111 and 112.
I think the 3 events in 3 weeks says it all. There is just not enough resources to pull it off. It appeared that the UFC considered the idea, but backed away not because they want to play nice, but most likely it was a logistic decision.
I wonder what type of number would satisfy CBS? I mean they surely can’t expect every card to do 5 million peak. I have hopes for this card as it’s chalk full of legitimate match-ups with 4 top 10 recognized fighters from their weight classes – Hendo, Shields, Aoki and Moussasi – fighting. That’s pretty good for a non UFC event.
I suggest people stop complaining and watch and support the sport of MMA. Why does everything have to degrade down to UFC versus this or that.
If you watch the recent Coker interview he mentions that they did an audience survey at the Miami and Sacramento fights. He said that 30% of the audience had never been to an MMA fight before or seen one on TV. That is an increadable number. If they can get that kind of number at the event I have to wonder what kind of numbers they get for the free show on CBS? How is this not great for the sport?