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Sports-industry executives choose UFC as best positioned property for 2011 | MMAjunkie.com

Sports-industry executives choose UFC as best positioned property for 2011

by MMAjunkie.com Staff on Dec 23, 2010 at 12:35 pm ET

Among sports-industry executives, the Ultimate Fighting Championship did more to raise its profile in 2010 – and is better positioned for a big 2011 – than any other up-and-coming sports organization.

That's according to 1,100 senior-level sports executives who took part in the latest Turnkey Sports Poll.

The UFC dominated orgs such as the IZOD IndyCar Series, the X Games, Professional Bull Riders (PBR), the United Football League (UFL) and the WNBA.

Voters, who come from the pro and college ranks, could choose from essentially every professional sports organization outside of veteran leagues such as MLB, NBA, NFL, NASCAR, MLS and the PGA. The UFC was the only mixed-martial-arts promotion available as a voting option.

And the organization, which recently closed out its 2010 season with a record-breaking UFC 124 event, earned approximately three times as many votes as its closest competitor in both voting categories.

The UFC hosted 24 events in 2010, which is the same number it hosted in its first six years of existence. After Zuffa LLC's purchase of the promotion in 2001, and especially following the debut of "The Ultimate Fighter" reality series in 2005, the UFC experienced significant growth. This year alone UFC president Dana White was a featured speaker at both the Microsoft CEO Summit 2010 and the Oxford Union Society, and he won the 2010 "Game Changer Award" from the entertainment industry's PromaxBDA organization.

Additionally, in the fan-voted 2010 World MMA Awards, the UFC again won the "Best Promotion" award, and White again picked up the "Leading Man" trophy.

And as if 2010 weren't big enough, the UFC plans to host an additional eight shows in 2011, two new weight classes have been added thanks to the WEC merger, and an expanded deal with Versus complements the promotion's existing pay-per-view and Spike TV offerings.

The official Turnkey Sports Poll results included:

Which sports properties are you paying more attention to now than you did at the start of the year?

UFC: 20%
Izod IndyCar Series: 6%
X Games (action sports): 6%
PBR (bullriding): 5%
UFL (football): 4%
WNBA: 3%
BASS (fishing): 1%
MLL (outdoor lacrosse): 1%
NHRA (drag racing): 1%
NLL (indoor lacrosse): 1%
Which of the following properties is best positioned for a big 2011?

UFC: 29%
X Games: 11%
Izod IndyCar Series: 8%
UFL: 4%
PBR: 4%
Dew Tour: 3%
WNBA: 2%
NHRA: 1%
NLL: 1%

[TBEAR]

BASS (fishing): 1%
MLL (outdoor lacrosse): 1%
NHRA (drag racing): 1%
NLL (indoor lacrosse): 1%

lacrosse got no love twice OUCH

and come on guy....how is fishing not bigger than the UFC?????