Is UFC losing its punch?
Judging by the turnout of fans and sponsors at the news conference hyping Saturday’s Ultimate Fighting Championship event at the Air Canada Centre, the company that hopes to take fighting mainstream still has the sports public enamoured.
While spectators nearly outnumbered reporters in the main room at the Real Sports Bar and Grill, logos from promotional partners both niche (Xience Energy Drinks) and mainstream (Bud Light) appeared prominently on the podium and backdrop.
But while introducing Saturday’s combatants, UFC Canada president Tom Wright uttered something UFC executives rarely have to say two days before a major event: Tickets are still available.
When the UFC first came to Toronto in 2011, they sold out the 55,000-seat Rogers Centre in minutes. This time, a venue less than half the size of the Rogers Centre remains unfilled even with one of the sport’s crossover stars, Jon (Bones) Jones, headlining the main event.
Has the UFC’s popularity suffered a body blow in the 17 months since its first visit to Toronto? Wright acknowledges relatively tepid ticket sales, but says the UFC brand is at least as strong as it was last spring.
“We’ll get through this. It’s not the first bump in the road we’ve faced,” Wright says. “There’s lots more room for this brand to grow.”
Wright says recent market research by the UFC concluded the outfit, which promotes a nearly noholds-barred form of fighting called mixed martial arts, is the fourth most-watched sports league in Canada, ranking behind the NHL, the CFL and the NFL.
Last year, the league boosted its exposure by signing a seven-year broadcast deal with Fox worth roughly $700 million, and recently UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta has spoken of expanding into Asia.
But the UFC’s rapid expansion includes numbers difficult to ignore. In 2008, the UFC hosted 12 pay-perview events, purchased by an average of 527,000 households, according to the online database mmapayout.com. By 2011, the number of pay-per-view events had risen to 16, while the average number of purchases dipped to just under 422,000. So far this year, the UFC has averaged 427,000 purchases for each of its nine pay-per-view broadcasts.
In an interview with the Star last year, Fertitta explained slumping pay-per-view numbers as a function of injuries that forced late changes to fight night lineups. He also pointed out that UFC cards were so entertaining overall that the company never had to cancel an event, even if a headliner had to drop out.
But star power still matters. “The factor affecting demand is the quality of the main event matchup,” says Steven Salaga, a sports economist at the Florida Institute of Technology. “We see some preferences for (main events in) the light-heavyweight and welterweight classes. . . . There have been strong fighters in those classes.”
Eight days before an event scheduled for Labour Day weekend, Jones’s opponent withdrew with a knee injury, and when Jones refused a hastily-arranged replacement bout UFC president Dana White cancelled the entire card.
Wright doesn’t dispute White’s decision but acknowledges it cost the UFC millions. Salaga’s research shows that pay-per-view events on holiday weekends log higher buy rates than other cards, and the last three UFC events at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas earned an average of $3.27 million in gate receipts. “There was a significant impact on our company,” Wright says. “It’s lost revenue forever. It’s like a hotel room that’s not used, or trying to sell a calendar in July.”
Some observers see the cancellation as a sign the balance of power is shifting from UFC leadership to individual stars like Jones, who are increasingly aware of their marketing power and can use it as leverage in negotiating with the company.