Yahoo! Sports reports that the UFC may hold two events in one night according to UFC president Dana White. The UFC would rely on multiple UFC teams to logistically handle events on the same night.
While promoting UFC 139 in San Jose earlier this week, White let it be known of his vision for two UFC events in one night. “When we go to Japan next year, we are going to be putting on a show at the same time in Las Vegas,” he said.
White indicated that the UFC would be running multiple shows in the future. However, White did not elaborate on the details.
MMA Junkie reports that the UFC would have the capability to have two teams cover each event. Former WEC head Reed Harris hosted the UFC on Versus 6 pre-event press conference and touted the fact that the UFC’s multi-team approach makes hosting two events in one night possible.
There is still the question of airing both shows. The UFC wants to air both live and same-day-delayed shows in prime time slots. UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi is an example of this. While the PPV played in its usual prime time slot, it was offered live during the day.
Payout Perspective:
PPV saturation or a forward looking plan for global expansion of the UFC? At this point, holding a show in the US and in Japan seems to be hedging its bets. Simply put, if the Japan show does not go well, it could be overshadowed by the US show. And if Japan does well, then that’s the story. But, it seems like the plan is to expand the brand globally. The question is whether holding two shows in one night is too much. Will the UFC have two PPVs in one night or will it have one event free and the other on PPV? For an average UFC fan on a budget, purchasing two events in one month is expensive. Will we see a day where we may pay over $100 for one night of PPVs? The other question is whether its too much. There is not much being made about the fact that in three straight weeks, there will be three UFC title defenses. It seems like it may be too much for the casual UFC fan as there is lukewarm interest in UFC on Versus 6 and much skepticism in the PPV buy rate for UFC 136. Time will tell to see how the UFC executes two events in one night.
I’d be mildly surprised if Goldberg and Rogan called both shows.
Will this be the way to integrate KenFlo in the broadcast team? And with whom would he call the shows?
I think it is pretty simple how it is going to work. The Japan card is going to have a bunch of former Pride fighters you cant sell in the US on PPV anyway. I doubt that event will be seen on TV outside of bonus fights as filler during the Vegas PPV. They may make it available on line for a price. Then they can show replays on tv at a later date or release a DVD.
There is the potential to sell so many seats at the japan event that it wont need PPV. You cant sell Nog, Wandy, Cro Cop, Gomi, in the states anyway. Why not run a show in Japan and make a large gate as you break in that market and get it used to the UFC brand name.
The UFC has talked about doing over 100 events a year during their global expansion talks. Dana has stated that they dont intend for fans to see every event they run. This could be the point where they run a product not meant for everyone to see. It may have production and fights that the public in the states dont care about. Without another Vegas card to take the attention there is a lof of mainstream fans who will be confused or let down with a japanese geared product.
Then again they may show the best fights from japan as part of the PPV broadcast. Instead of the normal mid card fighters of little name value. We get all fight fights as headliner value. The extra cost of a card that big will be offset by 2 gates and increased PPV buys. It would make the so called “Stacked card” often talked about more financially possible.
Imagine during the PPV Goldy saying “Lets send it out to Japan to Reed Harris for Rampage vs Rua 2”. It would be like FOX when they send the feed to other games to get updates. If something like this worked it would really change how we see the UFC and speed up the global expansion of the UFC allowing them to cover more countires without taking the hit on PPVs they currently do on non US events.
The way I see it, the UFC is going to offer international shows on free TV–probably Fox–which will lead into and promote the PPV in the US.
Even though UFC Rio was a great card–it suffered on the PPV in the US. This two-card approach uses Fox to show good international cards for free–and they also will promote the following PPV card.
By offering the international cards free, the UFC is giving Fox marketable fights, whiile piggy-backing PPV promotion on the free card. The exposure of the international cards on free TV will build interest domestically for future international events.
All in all, its got a nice marketing spin.