MMA Junkie reports the attendance, gate and bonuses for UFC Fight Night 83 held Sunday night from Pittsburgh.
Per the post-fight press conference, UFC Fight Night 83 from the Consul Energy Center drew 7,330 in attendance for a gate of $572,547. The Consul Energy Center houses as many as 19,000 for basketball. The last time the UFC was in Pittsburgh was June 26, 2011 for a UFC on Versus 4 event which drew 7,792 for a gate of $562,000.
The fight night bonuses went to Donald Cerrone, Chris Camozzi, Lauren Murphy and Kelly Faszholz. Cerrone and Camozzi earned the Performance bonuses for their first round stoppages. Murphy and Faszholz won Fight of the Night for their Fight Pass prelim bout.
Payout Perspective:
Tonight was the first night that a Fight of the Night honor was given to a women’s bantamweight fighter not named Ronda Rousey. The event was your general Fight Night in a non-international, non-Vegas city. Thus, the attendance and gate were comparatively low to bigger UFC events. One would think that the UFC would improve on its attendance in Pittsburgh since it has been a while for a live event to return yet it was about the same as 5 years ago.
Bad city, maybe Philly or Cleveland would have been better. I also think having the show on Sunday hurt attendance, no holiday tomorrow.
Considering the matchup, that’s a pretty solid gate.
I’m sure airing at same time as Walking dead won’t help TV ratings either.