The UFC has cut more positions within the company as Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting reports that many within the UFC Canada office including Tom Wright, the executive vice president and general manager for operations in Canada, Australia and New Zealand were dismissed this morning.
80% of the department in the UFC office in Toronto were let go. The layoffs follow up news that the UFC reduced its work force company-wide including Garry Cook, Marshall Zelaznik and UFC Asia chief Ken Berger.
The company, which was purchased by WME-IMG for $4 billion in July, is downsizing which seems to include a lot from satellite offices outside of its home base of Las Vegas.
It is not known whether more cuts will come.
Payout Perspective:
The reduction in many of its overseas offices might infer that either the UFC will focus its operations in Las Vegas or that there will be less focus on international expansion and conducting events abroad. The latter suggestion would seem to go against the prior regime’s thought of global expansion as a way to increase its fan base and revenues. While there still may be international cards in the future, it would seem the focus by the new owners would be on domestic events and focusing on producing big PPV shows stateside.
Always felt this was a massive waste of money to have physocal offices overseas to begin with. It made since at first when I expected a massive push in those countries. But as we saw an even 1 time per year or so is not a good reason to have offices there and very expensive executives staffed there. The ufc was never going to be able to do even 5 events per year in these countries. It may have been worth it at the time to see what inroads can be made and TV deals. But now it’s just dead weight.
When these big company purchases happen its usually the corp Executives and middle management that are the first to be cut because of their heavy salaries not to mention that WME-IMG has plenty of their own staff and contacts to help push UFC into these countries…its gonna be very intresting to see how WME-IMG launches UFC into the mainstream next to the NBA,NFL,MLB,soccer etc.but it dose seem like they have the resources to do it especially overseas..
I always found it weird they had a Canadian General manager, who also also was in charge of Australia & New Zealand, the only thing Canada has in common is they are massive countries with relatively small populations and they both speak English.
Same with Latin America & Brazil, I get they are trying to build the rest of Latin America and Brazil has many great fighters but they could just run it all as Latin America, looking at 2016 they had or have coming up 2 events Australia, 2 in Canada, 3 in Brazil including a stadium show and one in Mexico.
In Europe they ran 5/6 events, the PPV was to accommodate NA Fans, so I might not count an event that airs at 3am-6am and 5 times around Europe in primetime, 1 Event was scheduled for Asia but got cancelled. The rest are scheduled for the US.
So it wasn’t like these offices were over worked really was it?
And it continues……cost cutting 101….got to have a return on investment. I will say this, the UFC seems to now understand its most money making demographic is right here in the USA….I think that woefully low ticket sale in Manilla was a wakeup call, as have been some fights in northern europe and brazil as well which were low yield. UFC is most popular in the USA and with a definite targeted demographic and thats what they are concentrating on.
Buy yourself a map Northern Europe is the UK, Ireland & Scandinavia and places like the Baltic states they have never ran and since those usually sell out the hen they go there your point is ridiculous.
Even Bloodyelbows philippino writer has said that is usual practice over there, they are notorious for buying tickets the week of an event, now I don’t know anything about this I would take his word over yours since he lives there though.
WME IMG have contacts Worldwide and offices around the world, I would think they have an idea of what they are doing when it comes to global expansion, probably a lot more than anyone who posts on here.
The game plan for WME is to actually expand internationally. Even the Fertittas realized they did not have the ability to tap into the markets that WME is. Notably India and China which is where Zuffa had all sorts of issues cracking. What’s going on right now is just standard protocol for when a company takes over. Same basic principle took place when SEG sold to Zuffa.
Wow the hits just keep coming
Indeed they do Fight Fan…indeed they do….
Yeah because you spend 4 billion on something and just let them run the same, especially as I have broken down, most haven’t done much, especially if they have better employees capable for the job.
I don’t think this is a “hit”. I can’t imagine that an international company like WME-IMG bough the UFC and their first strategic move is to stop international expansion.
It’s normal to reorganize a company after a large purchase. My guess is that WME-IMG think they can to the international expansion better than what Zuffa was doing so they are cutting the satellite offices. Time will tell, but a round of firings after a merger or change of ownership is common.
as a big fan of the ufc, and someone who thinks boxing is in the gutter int he u.s
these guys did borrow a ton of money to buy the ufc, this could backfire on the new owners, 2 billion in debt is nothing to sneeze at
I agree turd. I don’t know what revenue forecasts they used, I would be hesitant to take on that much debt. We’ll see what happens.
diego that is a ton of money for a fight organization, they will have to increase there revenue for the next several years to break even, the fight game is hard to gauge, it is driven by superstars, if connor mcgregor ppv sales go down it will hurt them alot, i am not naive, as of right now, if it were not for connor there ppv sales this year would not be that great, and you cannot bank on ronda rousey coming back and being dominant the women fighters are getting better. take the wwe, for example they have virtually no debt as of right now the ufc is buried in debt if they have a couple of down years the company would be in some trouble .
Turd, while the debt is high, the expectation is that revenue growth is already set to increase dramatically. They are anticipating the next FOX tv deal to be worth in the 250-350m range annually. That’s a minimum of 150m per year more. Then, they also are anticipating big international tv contracts- significant one’s that Zuffa could not secure like in China and India. Then throw in the publishing rights, and licensing deals and they should make some serious money out of all of this.
The biggest issue I see for potential failure is what happens when legislation changes and the UFC does not have the control over fighters that they once did. I don’t really see a big issue with the interest of the sport slowing down.
They (WME-IMG) Have talked about going public, that’s just talk right now but its a possibility in the future, WME-IMG made Bull Riding much larger and is now very profitable, the guy who now runs it was at WME beforehand.
Ari & WME have great connection in all of entertainment, they are well in with top sponsors, worldwide TV companies and social media, the guy knows how to sell a product, hell it was him that got the Fox deal done.
Alot of people discussing and trying convince themselves everything is going to be OK lol…a lot of words used hahaha….maybe going global and conquering the sports world means closing down international offices? hahaha
Right, because they just signed the ink on the deal and now they are panicking and running for the hills. Yeah. Haha. Just like Zuffa did when they fired practically everyone from SEG after their 44m dollar investment that turned into 4.2b.
Right time for fighters to protest in public now that they have hollywood world as front owners…they should make noise in the low pay of the ufc…im sure img would be pressured to pay higher because its in the “Image” industry…fighters should compare theyre pay to other img talents hahahaha
Gsp should compare his popularity globally to one of img talents after that compare his pay with that talent…haha
So the worlds fastest growing sport is now imploding. Watch big changes coming, gone are the days when the UFC tries to put shows on in dead markets and then lies about the gate, sales and so forth. Only a moron would fall for the BS they have been selling us for years and years. If the numbers were strong they would be expanding. Truth is they are only strong in a handful of domestic markets and even fewer outside the USA.
Finally a couple of folks realizing that much debt isn’t “everything is hunky dory”…and lookie here, folks even admitted outside of McGregor, there are no more superstars that sell. Finally some unemotional responses to an unemotional situation….amazing what happens when logic is applied….
Yeah Ronda just sold 1.1 million buys in a PPV from Australia less than a year ago, Jesus Christ.
They potentially have GSP if they can work out a deal and if you don’t think his troubles are for a better contract your dumber than you sound, he’s not taking USADA tests to fight in Bellator, oh and GSP was averaging about 700,000 buys when he left.
http://www.cinemablend.com/television/1575779/the-ultimate-fighter-may-be-ending-after-more-than-a-decade
Even I have said the show has ran its course, It still does better ratings than any week day boxing match, especially on FS1.
I have watched this years fights because they are loads of genuine talent on it, this shows the power Ari has and the roads they want to go down are separate from Lorenzo’s. Vision
Wil going full blown t.roll. Just attempting to antagonize mma fans as usual. That’s what boxing fanboys do. The UFC has done more 1m plus buy ppvs within the last calendar year by far than they ever have and 2 of them DID NOT involve McGregor.
MMA fans have been wanting TUF to end for a long while, personally TUF 6 was the one I stopped watching at fully, 10 was the peak ratings wise with all those stars like Kimbo, Rampage & Rashad playing a major part.
I tried a few but never really got into them (the new ones fights are good), it also doesn’t build stars like it did in the early years, so saying Ari is trying to get rid of it means doom, it doesn’t really, just contracts have to be changed a little, that is it. Watch most MMA journalists talk about TUF, they don’t care about it either.
Junkie saying it’s not true and they are doing some “All Stars” edition, personally I hoped it was true and don’t want to see any old guys going in unless they are still top 10-20 quality, certainly don’t want to see Diego Sanchez or Josh Koscheck level fighters.
Hahahaha….it just keeps coming… i wonder how much img got from investors…i hope its more than 4 billion and that they left a lot for operating expense hahaha
I would say the buyrates for 202, 205 & 207 will help their operating budget, when you spend $4bn on something, you are going to change certain things up, I really don’t think you can paint that in a negative light, new owners want a different directizon, happens everywhere.
The show should have been axed at least 3 seasons ago, no one but the die hard kids watch it. Far too much drama for about 8 mins of fighting at best. Mixing an overly dramatic template with pro fighters just isnt a good idea….it works for the Kardashians, doesnt work for MMA
If the show should have been cancelled by now, the network would have.
Fact remains, the UFC succeeds where boxing couldn’t. And some people can’t accept that.
exactly what does any of this have to do with boxing?
Wil, can you please stop t.rolling people. There are boxing sites where you can do this.
Hahaha full force.up in arms….uncertain future? hahahaha… lets all make everybody feel good and make believe hahahaha….so all this layoff are good? tactical error on fertitas and dw move? Usually theres a replacement right away…
No one said layoffs were good its unfortunate for the people involved but also completely normal that WME would like to bring in their own people, that’s what happens when big companies get bought over for billions.
Tops E when you have the Federal Reserve getting involved to say “watch this space”…..you know there is a problem. Bellator would do well to up its game considerably, do what it can to lure more fighters away from Dana Whites organization
Bellator doesn’t have a ppv model that is sustainable yet. It would be impossible for them to lure a bunch of big named free agents away and succeed. That model has been a proven failure as we’ve witnessed with Affliction, Strike Force and Elite XC.
Those all failed due to lack of talent and poor promotions.
You may want to read-up on why they actually failed. Affliction was loaded with talent. They had more talent at hw than the UFC did at the time they started up. They had Fedor, Sylvia, Arlovski, Yvel, Buentello, Rothwell, Rizzo, Barnett,etc. Strike Force and Elite XC also had a ton of talent. They failed because they overpaid for talent without having the revenue streams to support those purses. They weren’t aware that this has to be a long term play, you can’t just throw a ton of money at big name fighters and expect to kill it in ppv.
Besides Joe Silva who left after 20 years after presumably making big mo ey after the sale, nobody that was particularly MMA minded has left yet, they may have worked in other sports but none came from the MMA world, WME IMG is full of people like that, which is why they represent many of the biggest male & female athletes in sport as well as stars in films, TV , music etc.