Bellator 106: Payout Perspective

Welcome to another edition of Payout Perspective.  This time we take a look at Saturday night’s Bellator 106  from Long Beach, California with a main event featuring Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler.

Alvarez wins title on return

For all the “true” MMA fans this was always the main event and not Tito-Rampage.  Of course, if this was the true main event, wouldn’t Bellator have kept it on PPV?  But I digress.  It was an epic 5 round battle that went way past curfew ensuring many that were out on Saturday night only seeing a portion of the fight.  From all that watched it, it was one of the better fights of the year and showed why Eddie Alvarez is such a commodity.

With the win, Bellator is put in a sticky position.  What happens if Eddie wins the third fight?  From all in the know, the trilogy will be the last contracted fight Alvarez will have for Bellator.  And it’s likely that if Alvarez wins, he will be heading to the UFC.  One can only think of how big a smile Dana White will have on his face if he can sign Bellator’s Lightweight Champion leaving the organization a big hole and a tournament it does not want to hold.

Newton makes it two in a row over Mo

The signing of Mo Lawal came with much fanfare as he would be both a pro wrestler and MMA star.  However, neither vocation has gone the way it was planned.  Two losses to Emmanuel Newton have made the investment in Lawal a bust so far.  We shall see if Lawal turns to pro wrestling training or if he will be re-inserted into a tournament.

Attendance and gate

No attendance and gate were announced although the initial reports were that ticket sales were sluggish and this was before Tito Ortiz announced his injury.  Bellator could have comped tickets to fill in the seats so even though ticket sales could have been low, there was still enough people in the arena to make it look like a well-attended show.  Once again, we do not know if there was a big influx of ticket purchases right before the event, but with the Ortiz announcement, you would think that this may have hurt people thinking about purchasing tickets last minute.

Payouts

The California State Athletic Commission released the salaries and potential bonuses for the fighters.  Michael Chandler ($95K/$95K) and Eddie Alvarez ($80K/$80K) headed the list with Alvarez picking up the bonus and the top money earner with a total $160K payday.  Fight Master winner Joe Riggs picked up a $95K bonus for his victory and received $100K for the night.

Promotion of the Fight

With the last minute switch from Rampage-Tito to Alvarez-Chandler Spike TV had to shift on the fly with programming to promote the Lightweight fight instead of the Light Heavyweight fight.

So, despite months of hype which included Rampage-Tito feuding on TNA Wrestling and a three-part Rampage Jackson special, Bellator had to quickly shift gears.  Spike TV tabled the third episode of the Jackson shoulder programming to focus on its new main event.  The good news was that it featured a special highlighting the first Alvarez-Chandler fight with their commentary.  The other notable thing about the Alvarez-Chandler special was the amount of UFC fighters appearing on the special.  Dan Henderson and Michael Johnson were prominent interviews during the special.  It will be interesting to see how the UFC handles situations like this in the future (i.e. preventing UFC contracted fighters to promote Bellator fights).

‘Page-Tito Promo

Alvarez-Chandler Promo

On the Thursday before Bellator 106, Bjorn Rebney rang the “closing bell” at the NASDAQ.  Notably, Viacom is on the NASDAQ.  The New York presence was also supported with Bellator promos in Times Square.

Sponsors

Victory Motorcycles, Dave and Busters, Polaris RZR, Xbox One video game RYSE and Reebok all had signage within the cage with Miller Lite having the center.

Notably, Reebok’s brand was prominently in the cage as it specifically had logo for its ATV19 shoes.  You may recall Rampage shot a commercial for Reebok sporting these shoes.  It also recently inked a one fight deal with Johny Hendricks to wear its gear at UFC 167.  You can already see Hendricks with Reebok gear during the UFC Primetimes.

Ratings

As previously reported, Spike TV received a 1.1M viewer average for the event Saturday night with a peak viewership of 1.4M.  This was against sports on the network including two college football games and The Breeder’s Cup.

Some other notable info from Spike TV:

–          Compared to the time period a year ago, the Bellator 106 telecast was up +40% in the P18-49 demo and +79% in M18-49.  It was up +59% in M18-34 and +49% in average audiences.

–          Among ad-supported cable networks in the time period, Spike ranked #3 in P18-49 (behind TBS w/Big Bang Theory & Wild Wild West and FX w/Grown Ups; tied with Adult Swim) and #2 in M18-49 (TBS)

Obviously, the fact about the ratings being up from last year at this time is a little skewed considering we do not know whether there was a live event or rerun in this time slot.  Still, the point Spike is trying to make is that Bellator is boosting ratings and doing well in its key demos.

Conclusion

Bellator 106 ended with mixed reviews as the Alvarez-Chandler did not disappoint.  However, many of the fights were slow-moving and at 3 hours and 45 minutes it was a lengthy card.  Still, the ratings reflect the fact that fight fans were going to give it a try.  The question becomes whether Bellator will have Chandler-Alvarez on PPV.

It will get its trilogy which it can now give proper time to promote.  But can it trust its big names to come through for the company?  Even with a great second fight, it’s risky to think that a trilogy could bring in people to pay $35-$45.  The bigger implication for the company would be the scenarios it has to run through if Alvarez defeats Chandler once again.