With the UFC heading to New York on November 12th for UFC 205, a report states that the company will draw $14-$15M in “live event revenue” per documents obtained by MMA Junkie.
An investor presentation which Junkie obtained indicates that gate receipts, merchandise and other add-on should draw the astronomical amount which excludes PPV sales. In addition, sponsors such as Xbox, Atos and Toyota have interest in sponsoring UFC events according to the company.
An Adweek article stated that brands are attracted to the UFC and its New York City debut due to its appeal worldwide and the important millennial demo. While the Adweek did not state specifics, the hope for the company is that it will attract blue chip brands for its debut in New York.
Payout Perspective:
It’s clear that ticket prices for the MSG event were going to be astronomical since it’s the debut. There are tickets available via Ticketmaster with the lowest going for slightly over $1,000 per seat. The “get-in” price on the secondary market as of the date of this writing is $739 according to SeatGeek. Cageside seats started at over $1,500 per when tickets went on sale late last month. We will see whether or not the promotion can continue with such high prices as more UFC events take place in New York (especially at MSG and/or Barclay’s Center).
As for sponsors, this is where I could see the UFC doing some deals. Whether or not they will be one offs or if they can forge relationships with blue chip brands will be interesting to see. Thus far, we have not seen any big sponsor activation plans centered toward UFC 205. Perhaps we see a push next week during fight week in New York. I would think that a brand such as Microsoft’s Xbox will be a part of UFC 205 in some way. The former Mighty Mouse sponsor will likely get back in with the company. With the holidays coming up, the UFC demo is primed for Xbox marketing.
This is going to be huge. Easily the biggest fight they ever do in terms of everything, ppv, sponsorship, gate, etc. They will likely do over 2m ppv buys. They already broke the MSG gate and it is looking like it is over 14m. MMA dominating the market.
The UFC have already said they won’t do as big of numbers in New York for a good while, the next MSG show though should be on a level with big Las Vegas shows, leaving them 2 big markets and Brooklyn won’t do as big of gate but I can still see them putting on a b level PPV there.
They have two things going for them in this show: there’s a lot of pent-up demand, and they stacked the card. Other shows will be more in line with a Vegas show. Still, it’s a good way to kick off MMA in New York.
Bout time they make it to NY, let me know when they can fill Wembley, or any other stadium outside of the states for that matter without papering the event.
Hey FF, do you realize this event alone will probably do more ppv buys than every boxing ppv combined this year?
D, it’ll be lucky to top 2 m, this is college football season, hockey and basketball.
It will still likely go over 2m, this is going to be massive.
Doubtful, but Alvarez is gonna end McTappers mouth running for good.
What’s doubtful is boxing ever hitting 1m buys for a ppv again. Haha.
Anderson Silva, GSP & Fedor Emilianenko have all tapped, what’s with the McTapper nonsense?
Those guys are considered the best fighters ever, you get caught in a submission you tap or go to sleep or have a bone break.
Boxing doesn’t live and die by the ppv unlike ufc does. Boxing is global, mma is domestic.
What’s also doubtful is that ufc ever tops 4 mil ppvs lol
Mayweather is boxing but he is retired. Sooooooooooooooo what’s next?
You can somewhat say the same about UFC and Conor but 200 did big numbers without Conor. They sold out a stadium this year without Conor. They drew five million on tv with no olympics foolery without Conor or a title fight at that. 207 will definitely do big numbers without Conor.
Bellator had some shows that did better on tv than most HBO and PBC events.
PBC have to buy time on television. UFC gets paid over $200 million worldwide to be on free television. Hell, fight pass makes more money than PBC.
It doesn’t matter, Boxing is huge in the UK, China,etc. but UFC 204 sold out Manchester arena in 5 minutes and made fans stay up to 4am in the morning.
FACTS
hey ff, you do realize not one boxing ppv has even cracked one million buys since mayweather vs pac, and you also realize scum bag promoter delahoya is content to have canelo fight lw’s and ww’s for the rest of his career ,
hey fight fan if boxing was so huge over seas and made so much money like you claim, why is it every big fight in the history of boxing took place in vegas in the united states hmmm
Sure did, more than 4m ppv buys last year for the UFC.
“Boxing doesn’t live and die by the ppv unlike ufc does. Boxing is global, mma is domestic”
Actually it does as we see the sorry state of boxing right now without any decent ppv. The ironic thing is that mma realistically doesn’t live and die by ppv as we’ve seen their contracts.
More like boxing ISN’T domestic anymore and the UFC is global.
I expect this one to be a big show, not only because of the novelty of an NYC show for the first time, but since this is McGregor, the biggest PPV seller in American combat sports
Boxing is global, mma is domestic, thats why UFC had 56k people in Australia during the daytime to see two American WOMEN fighting.
Domestic.
Its always funny to see the 3 boxing trolls on this site come to try and shit on mma and during a down year its expected but when UFC/MMA is having record years its even funnier to see them do it.
Even boxing promoters, fucking Oscar himself said boxing had a horrible 2016.
meanwhile UFC will have 5 PPV do a million buys in a single year, boxing did 0.
Keep talking though, its amusing.