Hard Sell
UFC 173 tickets went on sale today and they are still available. Very available. The only sold out sections are the cheapest ones; though you can still get those $75 tickets on StubHub if you're willing to pay $125.
It's odd to look at the MGM Grand Garden Arena seating map and see so many tickets available. Floor seats at $750 are there, though the celebrity section perpendicular to press row is almost sold out. Many of the straight-on escalated seats that sell for $750, $400 or $200 are gone, too. And of course the cheapest lower level tickets ($200 per seat for the last few rows on the corners and ends) are mostly sold because those, the nosebleeds and cageside are where the ticket brokers make their money. The rest of the seating chart is a sea of little blue dots waiting to be purchased.
On paper, UFC 173 is a solid card. It has a championship match. It has a semi-main event featuring fighters ranked numbers one and five. It has Daniel Cormier on his march towards Jon Jones. Renan Barao is Dana White's choice for best pound-for-pound fighter. The winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Jake Ellenberger will be considered for the welterweight championship. There are good fights and there are stakes. Those are two ingredients for doing business.
What UFC 173 is missing is a star. Cormier and Lawler are names, but not stars. Ditto Barao, who is champion of an unglamorous division. There are fewer stars in UFC than there were a couple of years ago, which makes it tough. That is probably a big reason why the author's ticket has a $200 face value instead of the $400 that same area was priced at for big fights in 2013.
The MGM Grand Garden Arena will be filled on fight night because it always is. They'll give tickets away or offer promotions or slip a few to gamblers who have a nice blackjack run. Dana White said during a UFC 173 media luncheon that he was happy with $2 million gates in Las Vegas and that's what they'll likely get here; maybe a little less. Drawing under $2 million for a Vegas pay-per-view is something that UFC hadn't done since 2006; that is until Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann did in February.
The drop in ticket demand raises questions. Has UFC burned out the Vegas audience? Has International Fight Week -- happening only six weeks later -- sucked all of the oxygen out of Memorial Day weekend? Does the bantamweight championship mean that little? Have the watered down cards turned off fans from buying tickets? Are there just too many shows?
Perhaps the biggest question is, "should anything be done?" Not, "can anything be done?", but "should". UFC could run fewer shows or lower ticket prices or leave Las Vegas more often. Is any of that best for business? Probably not.
The author's opinion is that there is one business decision within UFC's control that would improve the health of the sport. They could treat it more like a sport. When Lawler, Ellenberger and TJ Dilleshaw were asked at the press luncheon about the rankings, all three men scoffed. All three said that rankings don't really matter. (Though Lawler let down his guard for a moment and admitted that it feels nice to be ranked number one.) And that makes sense. UFC's rankings are arbitrary and there is no defined way to climb to the top. So why should they matter?
Changing UFC's booking to make it more sporting would be difficult, and thus is unlikely. They'll probably keep booking fights that they perceive as draws, like Gina Carano vs. Rousey. They'll probably shun the suggestion that some kind of season or tournament should be organized to determine championship contenders. They'll cite injuries and contracts and television schedules as reasons.
Dana White grew up as a boxing fan and he has repeatedly said that he has tried to avoid boxing's mistakes. He wants the big fights to happen. He wants to pay the undercard guys. He wants fighters to make money outside of the Octagon. All of that is commendable and good for the long term health of the sport. Yet he is still in the boxing mentality when it comes to booking fights. Fighters are given opponents based on matchups and grudges; often at the expense of merit. Organizing more merit-based fights could go a long way towards avoiding the soft market for tickets that appears to be happening for UFC 173.
It's odd to look at the MGM Grand Garden Arena seating map and see so many tickets available. Floor seats at $750 are there, though the celebrity section perpendicular to press row is almost sold out. Many of the straight-on escalated seats that sell for $750, $400 or $200 are gone, too. And of course the cheapest lower level tickets ($200 per seat for the last few rows on the corners and ends) are mostly sold because those, the nosebleeds and cageside are where the ticket brokers make their money. The rest of the seating chart is a sea of little blue dots waiting to be purchased.
On paper, UFC 173 is a solid card. It has a championship match. It has a semi-main event featuring fighters ranked numbers one and five. It has Daniel Cormier on his march towards Jon Jones. Renan Barao is Dana White's choice for best pound-for-pound fighter. The winner of Robbie Lawler vs. Jake Ellenberger will be considered for the welterweight championship. There are good fights and there are stakes. Those are two ingredients for doing business.
What UFC 173 is missing is a star. Cormier and Lawler are names, but not stars. Ditto Barao, who is champion of an unglamorous division. There are fewer stars in UFC than there were a couple of years ago, which makes it tough. That is probably a big reason why the author's ticket has a $200 face value instead of the $400 that same area was priced at for big fights in 2013.
The MGM Grand Garden Arena will be filled on fight night because it always is. They'll give tickets away or offer promotions or slip a few to gamblers who have a nice blackjack run. Dana White said during a UFC 173 media luncheon that he was happy with $2 million gates in Las Vegas and that's what they'll likely get here; maybe a little less. Drawing under $2 million for a Vegas pay-per-view is something that UFC hadn't done since 2006; that is until Ronda Rousey vs. Sara McMann did in February.
The drop in ticket demand raises questions. Has UFC burned out the Vegas audience? Has International Fight Week -- happening only six weeks later -- sucked all of the oxygen out of Memorial Day weekend? Does the bantamweight championship mean that little? Have the watered down cards turned off fans from buying tickets? Are there just too many shows?
Perhaps the biggest question is, "should anything be done?" Not, "can anything be done?", but "should". UFC could run fewer shows or lower ticket prices or leave Las Vegas more often. Is any of that best for business? Probably not.
The author's opinion is that there is one business decision within UFC's control that would improve the health of the sport. They could treat it more like a sport. When Lawler, Ellenberger and TJ Dilleshaw were asked at the press luncheon about the rankings, all three men scoffed. All three said that rankings don't really matter. (Though Lawler let down his guard for a moment and admitted that it feels nice to be ranked number one.) And that makes sense. UFC's rankings are arbitrary and there is no defined way to climb to the top. So why should they matter?
Changing UFC's booking to make it more sporting would be difficult, and thus is unlikely. They'll probably keep booking fights that they perceive as draws, like Gina Carano vs. Rousey. They'll probably shun the suggestion that some kind of season or tournament should be organized to determine championship contenders. They'll cite injuries and contracts and television schedules as reasons.
Dana White grew up as a boxing fan and he has repeatedly said that he has tried to avoid boxing's mistakes. He wants the big fights to happen. He wants to pay the undercard guys. He wants fighters to make money outside of the Octagon. All of that is commendable and good for the long term health of the sport. Yet he is still in the boxing mentality when it comes to booking fights. Fighters are given opponents based on matchups and grudges; often at the expense of merit. Organizing more merit-based fights could go a long way towards avoiding the soft market for tickets that appears to be happening for UFC 173.
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