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[MMA4EVERRR]

People Forgetting that 152 had Penn/R-Mac on the card. With that fight, I think the PPV numbers would have been the same, as Penn is still an above average PPV draw and R-Mac would have helped since he is Canadian and labeled as a "GSP Protege".

But with the numbers 152 brought in with Jones and Vitor, who are hyped tremendously by the UFC, and while the fight was made on short notice, I think the difference would have been 50k PPV buys had the fight been given more time to be advertised. I still believe neither guy is a huge PPV draw and neither can carry a PPV on their own without another PPV draw of a fighter.

Originally Posted by Rise

Really prefer to see the UFC cutback on the number of PPV's a year stack the cards up a bit more. They'll still end up making the same money in the long run as far as PPV's go. They pull in almost double or better the numbers on any halfways decent show they put out. They'd lose a little arena revenue maybe in the short term but that could be made up by only hitting major venues and cut back on the smaller arena shows for FX/Fuel shows.

"Currently, the UFC's FOX broadcast deal calls for four shows a year on FOX, eight on FX (including a pair of finales for "The Ultimate Fighter") and six on FUEL TV. Apart from the 18 shows on the FOX family of networks, the UFC, of course, does pay-per-view cards as part of its primary business model."

Basically the UFC PPV booking is the same, but with the FOX deal, they are contractually obligated to put on 18 FREE shows a year! They cant limit the number of free shows on FOX network and scaling back on PPV would hurt them financially, as the PPV buys are big source of their income.

[Y2JUBAE]

Not bad really considering the lack of time put into promotion. Vitor and Jones sell tickets/ppvs... the rest of that card, other than maybe people paying to see Bisping lose, do not sell. If Jones and Vitor wasn't on that card, it would probably be less than 100k buys.

[Rise]

Originally Posted by MMA4EVERRR

Basically the UFC PPV booking is the same, but with the FOX deal, they are contractually obligated to put on 18 FREE shows a year! They cant limit the number of free shows on FOX network and scaling back on PPV would hurt them financially, as the PPV buys are big source of their income.

Didn't suggest they should cut the free shows down at all if anything I could see room for a couple more a year with a revamped PPV lineup.

Yes PPV's are the biggest money maker for the ufc but would it hurt them to drop some depends really upon how they go about promoting them.

If you look at the recent PPV numbers look at what some of the recent lacklustre cards have pulled in.. Prior to 152 they pulled in 235K for one and 190K for another those 2 cards combined did less then 152 and it wasn't even a stacked card. When they put out a decent card on PPV they pull in 500k or better. They could put out a PPV with a stacked half as often and pull in better numbers all around. The cards would be less reliant on 1-2 fights to sell it and less prone to being impacted by a major injury. They could stack a card with alot more names and have more time to promote it and make adjustments as needed. They would lose some of the arena revenues from multiple shows doing this but they also drop alot of the expenses at the same time.

[MMA4EVERRR]

Originally Posted by Rise

Didn't suggest they should cut the free shows down at all if anything I could see room for a couple more a year with a revamped PPV lineup.

Yes PPV's are the biggest money maker for the ufc but would it hurt them to drop some depends really upon how they go about promoting them.

If you look at the recent PPV numbers look at what some of the recent lacklustre cards have pulled in.. Prior to 152 they pulled in 235K for one and 190K for another those 2 cards combined did less then 152 and it wasn't even a stacked card. When they put out a decent card on PPV they pull in 500k or better. They could put out a PPV with a stacked half as often and pull in better numbers all around. The cards would be less reliant on 1-2 fights to sell it and less prone to being impacted by a major injury. They could stack a card with alot more names and have more time to promote it and make adjustments as needed. They would lose some of the arena revenues from multiple shows doing this but they also drop alot of the expenses at the same time.

I get what you're saying and you're right. But you gotta think how hard Joe Silva's job is now that he has book 30 events a year! He's gotta make sure all his fighters get multiple fights a year, especially the lower and mid-tier fighters who need to fight often to build their name up as well as get paid.

Outside of UFC 148, the rest of PPV cards were dreadful and a large portion of the blame has to go on the injuries. But in a way the UFC has learned that the smaller weight classes just dont sell. Maybe they were experimenting on guys like Barao, Faber, Edgar, Bendo to see if they could carry a PPV on their own without any other star power, and the answer is NO.

Injuries are a big part of the sport and they will always be there. A matchmaker can't control that and can only do so much in finding a suitable replacement in a given time.

The UFC has a huge roster of guys and its not like Strikeforce where they are forced to put all their top selling guys on one card.