Strikeforce held their Heavyweight GP meet and greet fan experience event in New York, where fans were able to meet all GP participants, win free tickets, autographs, photos, and participate in other activities geared for the fans.
The event ran from 4-6pm ET at the Roseland Ballroom, where fans got a chance to meet, interact, and support their favorite fighters. Strikeforce details the success of the event in a press release issued yesterday.
Seven hours before the doors would open for the STRIKEFORCE Grand Prix Fan Experience Tuesday, a long line began to form outside the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. Once inside, the approximately 1,500 MMA fans who jammed the venue for the event were treated to a spectacular afternoon they will not soon forget.
All eight fighters who will compete in the eagerly awaited STRIKEFORCE World Grand Prix — Heavyweight Tournament were in attendance and signed autographs, answered questions from emcee Scott Ferrall and posed for photos. There were ticket, T-shirt and STRIKEFORCE fight gear giveaways, fight videos shown on giant television screens, workouts in the cage and photo opportunities with The Rockstar Girls. Music was provided by special guest deejay, DJ Clue.
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Dyami Arroyo of The Bronx was the first to show at 8:30 a.m. Despite cold, bitter, windy conditions, he kept his spot at the head of the line. “There was no way I was going to miss a chance to meet Fedor and the greatest heavyweights in the world,” he said. “As soon as I heard about this, I told my boss I was taking the day off.”
His buddy, Freddie Diaz, of Queens, says he called in sick. “I love STRIKEFORCE, but this is a dream-come-true for any MMA fan.”
Said Brooklyn’s Joe Doyle, who arrived a little after Arroyo and Diaz: “To get this kind of access to these kinds of fighters is unbelievable,” he said. “There was no way I wasn’t going to be here. I am really happy that STRIKEFORCE did something like this for us. No other MMA organizations do anything like this around here.”
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MMAFighting Video Of Fighters Being Introduced to New York Fans:
Strikeforce HW GP Fan Prediction Video:
Fabricio Werdum Demonstration Video Shot By Fan:
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Images From Strikeforce HW GP Fan Experience Event:
Payout Perspective:
To say the event was a huge success for Strikeforce would be an understatement. The word that after having their best pre-sale ever for this event, selling close to 6,000 tickets by the first week of sales, is that they were above 10,000 sold tickets heading into this week, which Strikeforce will provide a big promotional push to sell a few thousand more seats. Mike Chiappetta of MMAFighting wrote “Strikeforce Heavyweights Descend Upon New York to Lay Claim to No. 1“, where he states that it’s possible for Strikeforce to draw a crowd between 12,000 and 15,000 for Saturday night’s event.
To sum up the success of the event, MMAFighting reporter Ariel Helwani, who attended the event, said it best on his Twitter account:
Saying this right now: this fan event is the best thing Strikeforce and Showtime MMA has ever put together. It’s great. Big crowd.
The next few days will be used by Strikeforce carefully to further promote the event and create enough buzz to sell a few more thousand tickets and to get MMA fans to tune in on Saturday night on Showtime. They have a few surprises stored for fans as well as a rumored announcement for Saturday, which they hope will continue their momentum to the next round of the HW GP and throughout the remainder of the year, for what Strikeforce hopes is a breakout 2011 for the promotion.
I got tickets to this during the presale, immediately when they went on sale. I sat at my computer refreshing the Ticketmaster site until the sale started. This will probably change, but right now, SF is a great value for MMA fans. My tickets cost just under half of what I paid for comparable seats at the last UFC in Newark (GSP v. Hardy). My brother was at the Diaz-Cyborg fight in San Jose and he said the crowd was nuts. I can’t wait.
I’ll make sure I take a look at how the merchandising is doing during the show and report back.
Diego:
They are expecting 13k-14.5k, pretty much near sellout. Enjoy and let us know what you find. =)
I can’t wait for this sh*t to get underway this weekend. Gonna be SICK
Feedback from fans:
It seems the autograph lines were chaotic and not organized. There were also complains that Fedor left early and did not stay for the entire event. These are areas SF can definitely improve to maximize customer satisfaction. Overall, it got really positive reviews, but the small details always matter.