Fighting against the dreaded ‘meh’
E. Spencer Kyte offers some suggestions for building up hype for UFC event.
Back for the first time VANCO U VER in a couple years and brandishing arguably the finest fight card of the four to take place at Rogers Arena, the buzz in Vancouver surrounding Saturday’s UFC on FOX event is tepid at best.
While loyal followers showed audible excitement at Thursday’s open workouts, where athletes in the final three pairings from this weekend’s 11-fight card went through the motions and worked up a sweat, away from the event, it feels like this card could be happening anywhere in the world and it’s taking place in Vancouver.
Fighters have been making the rounds, stopping in to speak with local media, and the UFC has done its usual quality job of promoting its final “Big FOX” show of the year, but for whatever reason, this strong lineup doesn’t appear to be resonating with the local audience.
Rather than trying to work out why that is, let’s figure out the best way to fix it long-term, so the UFC doesn’t end up viewing Vancouver as a lukewarm market and fans don’t continue to feel generally “meh” about the action they’re being presented whenever the circus comes to town.
STEP 1: OLYMPIC INSPIRATION
Part of why people get so invested in the Olympics is that they only come around once every four years and the UFC should do the same when it comes to major Canadian centres. Pick four cities — let’s say Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto and Montreal — and rotate the annual pay-per-view stop between them.
Absence, it is said, makes the
Part of why people get so invested in the Olympics is that they only come around once every four years.
heart grow fonder and while the three-year wait between UFC 131 and UFC 174 didn’t result in droves of people turning out to see Demetrious Johnson do his thing against Ali Bagautinov two years ago, the construction of the fight card had a little something to do with that.
STEP 2: STACK THE DECK
My assumption is that later this year when the UFC returns to Toronto, the organization will do so with a massive lineup — the kind of fight card that makes fans in Vancouver wonder why they never get those big names — and after years of maintaining that’s not our lot in life out here on the West Coast, I’m ready to switch sides.
If a handful of Las Vegas events and a couple special stops each year can feature events filled with important fights and marquee names, surely the same can be done for an annual pay-perview show north of the border. I’m not talking about having a UFC 200-level show bouncing between the Bell Centre, ACC, Saddledome and Rogers Arena every four years, but something akin to UFC 199 would do just fine.
Dial back on the Canadians on the card, too. I know that might sound weird, but we’re not like Brazil — we don’t need every fight card to be Canada vs. The World, especially when there are three shows per year in this country and the majority of Canadian fighters on the roster right now are stuck trying to find some consistency and climb the divisional ladder.
STEP 3: TIMING IS EVERYTHING
As counter-intuitive as this may sound, the best time to bring a major show to Canada is between October and May.
No matter where you are in the four-city rotation, the weather isn’t going to be great, the sun will go down relatively early and the outdoor entertainment options will be limited. Sure, there are logistical hurdles to clear with the NHL schedule, but one weekend, once a year shouldn’t be that difficult to co-ordinate.
Run the two other events whenever you want, especially if they’re going to be in new markets or places such as Saskatoon or Halifax that have played host to the UFC before, but aren’t annual stops. I know Montreal in February doesn’t sound as pleasant as a weekend in Los Angeles, but if that’s when you’re going to get the best turnout, that’s when you need to turn up.