The Canadian Press is reporting that UFC 115, to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia on June 12th, sold out at the pre-sale in just 30 minutes.
UFC 115 in Vancouver sold out in 30 minutes in a pre-sale Tuesday, two days before tickets for the GM Place mixed martial arts show were slated to go on sale to the general public.
UFC president Dana White broke the news via Twitter.
“Vancouver sold out in 30 mins!!!! Thank you vancouver we worked hard on getting it there. Thank you mayor robertson.”
White tweeted some 45 minutes after the tickets were made available at 1 p.m. ET.
Tuesday’s pre-sale was limited to members of the UFC Fight Club. Tickets, which ranged from $76 to $601, were then supposed to go on sale Wednesday to UFC Newsletter subscribers and Thursday to the general public.
While White did not say it, a 40-minute pre-sale sellout would appear to be a UFC record, surpassing UFC 83 in Montreal in April 2008.
Payout Perspective:
May and June will mark the first time that Canada has held two UFC events in consecutive months, and if you count the WEC’s June 20th date in Edmonton, that’s a lot of high level MMA throughout the country. So this is very good news for the UFC and MMA in Canada as it should place even greater pressure on politicians in both the Federal and Ontario governments to legalize the sport.
Update: The flipside to the sell out is, of course, that there’s some concern it was predicated upon ticket brokers looking to buy mass quantities and then resell those tickets at a premium. That’s pissed off many legitimate fans just looking to see the event, but were unable to get tickets before they even came on sale to the general public. Regardless, the event will still be packed – whether people are paying a premium or not. The demand for the UFC’s first event in Vancouver is sufficiently high to ensure high attendance.
Note: Tickets are already on-sale at sites like Stub Hub where 300 levels are going for $150-$300. If you want MMAPayout.com’s advice, observe the prices over the next few weeks before you commit to buying. Scalpers may be unable to unload their quantity and you could find yourself getting a bargain.
I’m not surprised all things considered. Canada has a huge MMA fan-base to say the least. However, my guess, and I will get flamed for this, is that most of those tickets went to scalpers – I wonder how many of those tickets are already available on ebay, tickethub and all the other scalper sites.
What’s more interesting is that UFC 113 has yet to sell out with about a month to go.
Great news for the UFC, not so great for Canadian MMA fans who want to attend the show at face value. Apparently, all the ticket brokers and scalpers take advantage of the hardcore MMA fans in Canada and purchase tickets in bulk to resell at 2 or 3 times the value.
I received a bunch of complains this morning from Canadian MMA fans, stating that they were “UFC Fightclub Members” and were still not able to get tickets for UFC 115. Places like Ebay and StubHub are now selling them for 2 or 3 times above face value.
Any Canadian MMA fans having the same experience?
mmaguru,
See comment above. =)
Comment from the UG:
“Same thing happened in Montreal, & my friend, a “broker” said he had to unload at face value on the day of the show.”
They should cap the amount of tickets that individuals can buy in a 24 hour period. Might not completely solve the problem but would help, if this is even practical.
I heard that 113 is already sold out, trust me.
Hearing from a few fans that there are a few tickets still available. Singles, expensive seats, and some that come in 2’s as of a couple of hours ago, even though the event was already announced as a sell out. More tickets may be released when they become available to the general public on Thursday, so you may want to keep a look out for that.
No need to succumb to brokers and overpriced tickets just yet. =)
Lewis you were informed incorrectly. Go to UFC.com, than to UFC 113, than to buy tickets…. Lots of seats left in the $400+ range.
Thanks Jose, you are 100% right. I had the same problem when UFC came to Montreal the first time but I was extremely lucky when they released a few hundred during the general sale. Somehow I landed 2 at face value which was already too expensive.
You might also try the box office the day of the event. Often times promoters or event sports teams that have tickets set aside for personnel or family release a bunch of them, because they won’t be used. Always worth a try.
I thought there was a 2 ticket limit per Fan club memeber. If so it would be hard to believe scalpers got all that many tickets. Also it brings up something i thought about at UFC 68. They had a Q&A for Fan club members and there was Hundreds of them not counting members who didnt attend this. It got me thinking of how many members the UFC has on its fan club paying $100 per year. If they have hundreds maybe thousands of them close enough to attend an event in Ohio. How mant spread around the rest of the country and other countries? This is a source of revenue most are not aware of and over looking on MMA payout. Most people when they buy tickets go to the UFC site and sign up so they can buy early. So when you see the UFC live gate for an event thats not the whole picture. The UFC maybe got another quarter of a million million or so off Fan club memberships for each event.
Brian, the limit is 6. You do realize the scalping industry in Canada is like a business with some having offices with employees. Keep in mind you don’t have to be a fan club member prior to the purchase, you can purchase your membership at the exact same time as purchasing the ticket online at Ticketmaster. Most people think that you need to be a member first, but that is not the case.
Good read about it – http://www.lawyersweekly.ca/index.php?section=article&articleid=676
They’re deprived up there, not surprising.