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[jrube]

Wow the UFC gave away a TON of tickets to this event... I bet the big payday is coming from the PPV buys!

UFC 81 Draws Live Gate of $2,437,890 -- MMAjunkie.com


UFC 81 Draws Live Gate of $2,437,890
Posted by MMA Junkie on February 5, 2008 at 2:19 pm ET

Mandalay Bay Events CenterA UFC 81 event that took place this past Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas drew 10,583 spectators (with a paid attendance of 7,167) for a live gate of $2,437,890, the Nevada State Athletic Commission today confirmed with MMAjunkie.com (UFC News & Rumors - MMA News - UFC Fighters - UFC Event Recaps and Previews - MMAjunkie.com).

The paid-attendance figure is the second-lowest ever recorded at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, which has hosted 15 UFC events to date. The only UFC event to draw a smaller paid attendance at the venue was UFC 48, which featured a main event of Ken Shamrock vs. Kimo Leopoldo. Just 6,528 fans paid to attend the June 2004 event.

The gap between total and paid attendance for UFC 81 means a number of complimentary tickets were given out — 3,416 in total. “Comps” also affected UFC 81’s live gate, which was just $2.4 million — the sixth lowest out of the venue’s past seven UFC events.

However, while those figures are below average for the venue, UFC 81 likely registered higher-than-normal pay-per-view buys. The event featured a headline bout between Tim Sylvia and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for the UFC’s interim heavyweight title, but the main attraction was the debut of former World Wrestling Entertainment performer Brock Lesnar, who took on one-time UFC champ Frank Mir. The UFC marketed Lesnar’s UFC debut extensively, hoping to attract part of the WWE’s substantial fan base.

Unfortunately, we’re unlikely to know if the UFC was successful. Because the organization is a privately owned company, the UFC doesn’t publicly release the number of pay-per-view buys for its events.

The past 10 events at the Mandalay Bay Events Center:

* UFC 81 (2/2/08) — 10,583 attendance (7,167 paid) for $2,437,890 live gate
* UFC 79 (12/29/07) — 11,075 attendance (10,968 paid) for $4,994,000 live gate
* UFC 74 (8/25/07) — 11,118 attendance (9,622 paid) for $3,307,000 live gate
* UFC 67 (2/3/07) — 10,227 attendance (8,700 paid) for $2,767,130 live gate
* UFC 64 (10/14/06) — 10,173 attendance (8,913 paid) for $1,790,490 live gate
* UFC 62 (8/26/06) — 9,859 attendance (8,954 paid) for $3,040,880 live gate
* UFC 61 (7/8/06) — 11,167 attendance (9,999 paid) for a $3,350,775 live gate
* UFC 58 (3/4/06) — 9,569 attendance (8,183 paid) for $1,758,450 live gate
* UFC 57 (2/4/06) — 11,000 attendance (10,301 paid) for $3,382,400 live gate
* UFC 51 (2/5/05) — 11,072 attendance (9,268 paid) for $1,493,100 live gate

For complete coverage of the event, including fighters salaries and the list of winners for fight-night bonuses, be sure to check out MMAjunkie.com’s UFC 81 archives.

[TeddyDaBear]

kind of suprising that they had bad gate number's.. seemed like there where a ton of celebs there and i can't see why attendence would be lower than usual...it wasn't a bad card or anything?

[Noise Chopped]

Pretty surprising.

[Krazikarl]

It was the day before the Super Bowl. Not many are going to go to Vegas to see a fight the night before the Super Bowl I think.

[jrube]

Originally Posted by TeddyDaBear

kind of suprising that they had bad gate number's.. seemed like there where a ton of celebs there and i can't see why attendence would be lower than usual...it wasn't a bad card or anything?

Look at the total attenance compared to the paid attendance... They gave away a TON of free tickets!

[jrube]

Y;all are missing the point... The UFC gave away over 3000 tickets, almost a third of the total attendance got a free ticket... thats a lot of money!!! So if you have even 2000 of the over three thousand freebees for sale, you could add nearly a million big ones to that total!

[DemonPig]

Yeah, exactly. It was normal attendance, just a lot of freebies, most of them probably to do with Lesnar and UFC trying to promote the event to high profile non MMA fans.
Sometimes it's worth to give something away in hope that word is gonna spread and since it was a pretty good event I bet you Fertitas will get their money back in the long run.

[DevonFoxy]

Im sure most of the Pro wrestlers there got a free ticket and along with the fighters family and ect so that number sounds about right. The money is very low considering they have to rent the arena pay the fighters and pay the announcers/crew to set things up ect. ect.

The real money is going to come from the PPV buys which will probably be as high as 79 which i understand to be a pretty profitable card.

[ArMnHC]

yeah my ticket was free! LOL

but seriously, i heard on the radio today that this was the 2nd worst gate ever for the UFC...guess giving away soo many tickets would explain why that is hahahaha

[TravelinMonty]

Originally Posted by TeddyDaBear

kind of suprising that they had bad gate number's.. seemed like there where a ton of celebs there and i can't see why attendence would be lower than usual...it wasn't a bad card or anything?

Celebs get free ringside tix... They'll alway find celebs in vegas to take them. And many of those paid tix are actually bought and given to other people as comps because that's what goes on in vegas more than anywhere. If you're a high roller at a different hotel and you tell them you want to go to the ufc, they'll buy the ticket for you. I don't know why they dont get the fact that the tickets are extremely overpriced even for vegas. If you figure it out, the average ticket price was $300.