MMA Fighting reports that UFC on Fox 8 attendance and gate was a paltry 7,816 fans for $735,000. The bonuses of $50,000 each were highlighted by Washington’s own Demetrious Johnson winning the Submission of the Night.
Bonuses of $50,000 each were as follows:
Ed Herman v. Trevor Smith – Fight of the Night
Demetrious Johnson – Submission of the Night
Melvin Guillard – KO of the Night
The gate and attendance are poor compared to the last two events in Seattle:
UFC on Fox 5 (Dec. 2012): $1,522,600 – 14,412
UFC Fight Night 24 (March 2011): $1,183,000 – 13,741
Payout Perspective:
Chalk it up to a sunny afternoon in the Pacific Northwest, people preparing for the city’s annual big parade through Downtown Seattle and a hipster music festival in the city as all reasons why people did not show up for this afternoon’s fights at the KeyArena in Seattle. The Pacific Northwest is the strongest market for TV viewership of the UFC according to a recent Sports Business Journal article. The first two UFC (March 2011 and December 2012) visits to Seattle showed that PNW viewership translated to a strong attendance and gate. Perhaps the UFC was challenging the market with this card. It did give Seattle a hometown guy in the main event. But there were many empty seats in the lower bowl of KeyArena even during Johnson’s main event. So, despite strong attendance and gate the last two times the UFC has come to town, UFC on Fox 8 was likely not going to do well for attendance and gate.
And for the reasons above I would dismiss these numbers that the sky is falling. In fact it was without any clouds today. Yes, its low but the card was built on Demetrious Johnson with an adequate supporting bout of MacDonald-Ellenberger. But neither Jake or Rory are name brand draws. And the lower weight divisions have yet to prove it can carry an event. Moreover, ratings for UFC on Fox 8 probably will likely be low as well. But, as many have pointed out, the summer Fox shows have not done as well as when supported by the NFL programming.
Ed herman is a beast! good for him. he’s a real nice guy. i never liked how the editing on tuf3 made him look like a jerk. one of the best coaches i got to work with.
30-27? that judge mustve have been asleep.
What did Ed “trailer trash” Herman teach you? Where the best place is to park your Mobile Home?
Watch out bs,I’m gonna untie your houseboat from the pier while you sleep and you will wake up in a louisianna swamp.
I read the avengers was playing on a loop at all the Mexican Restaurants in Seattle today and they were giving away free Moon pies.
Jake,
That could do it as we’ll for Seattle folks. The point is the card was not one which would have folks wanting to go inside. You know, the world has Seattle pegged as rain city. When it doesn’t rain something has to draw you in.
Forget the weather, they just went to Seattle in Dec with Fox 5 which was a 10x better card. This wasnt a huge card, it had a bunch of injuries that made the card weaker and the main event was Mighty Mouse vs some guy nobody knew.
Thats not gonna sell 15k tickets and do a 1-2 mill gate. Its also not gonna do big ratings on Fox, summer card is always gonna be the lowest of the year but this one probably becomes the lowest of all Fox cards.
I know the idiots will say the sky is falling and all that just like they did last Aug until the UFC then ripped off the next 3 stacked Fox cards all doing good ratings. Will be same thing here.
Overall was a decent card, some good fights, few shitty fights. Rory/Jake sucked. Overall I’d say a 7/10.
White is an idiot for having little people headline a fox card. His health must be poor. he will probably kick the bucket soon.
Chris,
I don’t think the UFC came to Seattle too soon. I think the card after DJ wasn’t strong enough to get folks to pay to go to it. There are a ton of MMA fans up here but they weren’t going to show for Robbie Lawler (no offense to him personally).
Look for the number of comps in the next coming days. The UFC had promotions at area MetroPCS stores where it advertised ticket giveaways.
Ticket giveaways? How you gonna do more than one PPV a month and at the same time give a ton of tickets away?
Bad business
SS –
Ticket giveaways are used for stuff like this when its going on TV so it doesn’t look like they are fighting in front of 1,000 people. There were more than 1,000 people there but its a way not to get a crowd shot with a ton of empty seats.
Television By Numbers reports that UFC on Fox 8 scored 2 million viewers for an 0.9 average winning its time slot.
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/07/28/tv-ratings-saturday-ufc-on-fox-beats-up-the-competition-zero-hour-do-no-harm-rise/194282/
That is what Im saying Jason. Doesn’t it hurt the Seattle fans to know they are expected to pay for PPV events when live events in the area can be seen for free?
Something about that tactic seems counter productive in the long run
Im sure they had no choice. I suspect their didn’t start giving away tickets until well after they had been on sell and not been moving. So they either have a half empty building and kill the energy of the event on TV. Or they comp the tickets and hope those who are there that wouldn’t normally be turn into fans. Seats sitting there empty doesn’t do anyone any good.
Some cities with these small cards sometimes don’t sell very well. I expect the Indiana card in August to struggle too. There isn’t many tickets out there for resale which means probably few have been sold. Plus it is 1 of 3 events within a week. I was actually going to do a road trip and attend all 3 because they are very close together. That will keep people from traveling to the event also because now those 3 are competing with each other.
Almost sad to see so many fans booing at the live events. You can tell they aren’t MMA fans but rather just meatheads that want blood.
It makes the UFC look bad
That’s why i dont go to live events. Too many disrespectful hicks who don’t respect the game and don’t appreciate the subtleties of a tacticall battle. they just wanna get drunk and scream . tv viewers hate cuz they paid out the ass for a bloodbath and feel like they got cheated.
Nothing better than live MMA events. I do wish they didn’t sell beer. But I know that isn’t possible. Anyone who pays to attend fights and gets drunk so they don’t remember them needs to have their head beat in. If you need beer to enjoy MMA then stay the fuck home!
Wow. i can think of at least one thing better than live mma events.s..