MMA Junkie reports that this past Saturday’s UFC 122 in Olberhausen, Germany drew 8,421 fans for an estimated gate of $600,000. The figures were revealed in the post-event press conference.
The numbers were less than the UFC’s last visit to Germany in June 2009. UFC 99 at the Lanxess Arena in Cologne drew 12, 854 and a live gate of approximately $1.3 million.
From MMA Junkie:
Due to a government ban on UFC content broadcasting in the country, past negative press, and a ban on minors from attending shows, the organization has faced hurdles in Germany. UFC president Dana White and UFC-Germayn promoter Marek Lieberberg both said it simply will take time to continue growing the sport in the country.
Despite the success of the UFC’s debut, the event was met with stiff opposition from the beginning. Questions about the barbaric nature of mixed martial arts, fueled mostly by outdated and simply false information, troubled the UFC prior to UFC 99, and the promotion was forced to ban fans under 18 years old from attending. (MMA Junkie)
MMA Fightingspoke with UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner about UFC 122:
“To grow the sport, you have to keep educating,” Ratner said. “We want to do business in Germany. We want to show the people and the newspaper people…that’s the only way to do it. If you just walk away and say, ‘Gee, they won’t let us be on TV,’ it doesn’t make sense. So we’re just going to keep pushing. It was the right decision and I’m glad we did it.”
Payout Perspective:
The attendance figures were low but this can be explained by the issues with the German government. It will be interesting to see the number of fans that viewed the event online. That number could be telling in determining how many German fans want to see UFC in their country.
Notwithstanding the barriers, with the growing popularity of MMA and the various countries that could host a UFC event, it’s interesting that the UFC is expending this effort in Germany. Based on the numbers, it will take additional events (and lobbying efforts) before MMA is accepted. A lawsuit is still pending and the results will indicate how much the UFC wants Germany and vice versa.
It’s a shame they can blame it all on the political Situation in Germany instead of (also) that bad fightcards drawidisch Bad numbers.
hi! First of all I really enjoy reading your articles.
But I have to be frank on this one: I’m from Germany and I didnt go to 122. I went to ufc 99 (of course I went, come on!). Ufc 122 was even on my birthday, so I could have gotten the ticket for free as a gift and everything…
The thing is: the card was just too super-lame, I wouldnt even really bother to watch most of the fights online. had Vitor at least fought, me and my 3 friends would have probably all bought tickets, like we did last time.
Its not about the negative german press or anything like that. Its that the card was shitty and one could even say that what pissed off the german fans werent any stupid newspaper articles (like you guys expect the G. News to be stuffed with anti-ufc propaganda and stuff?! Ufc is just ignored here. Not a lot of people know about the ufc, some have heard about “ultimate fighting” but out of like everybody i know only 5 people like watching mma anyway. And they dont care about press or anything), what I guess kept a lot of people from buying tickets was the shitty card. If the ufc wants to enter the german market (which wont happen anyway cause here we got no “casual fans”, no redneck crowd), they should simply deliver good fights.period. That card would have suckes sh*t anywhere.
The UFC needs to stick with their plans and continue to stage events in Germany and other European countries. It’s hard to believe some people still believe this sport is barbaric. Anyway, I’m sure the UFC can absorb any losses from the event and keep building it’s brand in Europe.
This card blew, but most ultimate fight nights draw better gates than this. It’s pretty bad when you are disappointed with a free card. I am a huge UFC fan, but I really don’t get the point of having a terrible card like this that is a guaranteed money loser and the fans watching it aren’t even entertained by.
I watched it in the middle of the afternoon and I still fell asleep in the middle of the first fight. I watch all the smaller shows I can get my hands on and none of them have put me to sleep. Reading the comments on other sites I am not the only one.
The free shows are done at least in part as a commercial for the PPV shows. Let some one who hasn’t seen it before see a free show and then maybe they get hooked and decide to spring for the PPV. But the free cards have been getting weaker and weaker and weaker. We are definitely a long ways from UFC 75.
Now I had it on the PVR and was able to back it up and watch the rest. But if I was new to the UFC fights I wouldn’t have bothered to back it up after it put me to sleep. I would have just deleted it and moved on.
The performances were so lackluster that it almost seemed like the fighters were told not to hurt each other too much for fear of getting banned in Germany. I’m not saying that’s what actually happened, but I just can’t explain what I witnessed. Most fighters seemed to be playing it safe for some reason. I don’t get it.
How Nate Marquart thinks he won his fight is beyond me. He didn’t do anything in that third round. Not that Okami did much more, but at least he was coming forward and throwing punches.
Fight of the night bonus should have gone to Manny Paqcuiao.
well they did some quality promotion because it did a 1.4 rating with 2.2m viewers on average, beating the 120 broadcast on spike by about 300k average viewers, and beating UFN 22 by about 600k on average… However, I’m not sure what the ratings shares for 120 and UFN 22 were.
UFC 120 1.3 household rating and an average audience of 1.9 million viewers
http://mmapayout.com/2010/10/ufc-120-ratings-draw-average-of-1-9-million-viewers/
Not a surprising result by any means. Jason hits it on the head: this was to be expected both from a fight card and political standpoint.
The UFC is often criticized for its fighter pay in light of the millions of revenue it generates, but is there anyone out there that thinks they made money on this card? This is part of the investment cost necessary to push forward with expansion.