The Incredible Cost of Being a UFC Fan

I just got through posting on BE about that. It’s hard for us to be able to afford $50 a month sometimes for the fights, more than that just isn’t going to happen in this house. And as much as I enjoy watching WEC, there is absolutely no way we’re going to pay for a PPV there, either. Zuffa needs to back the hell off of the PPV’s.

…and while I’m at it, Directv and Versus need to quit screwing around and work something out. Dammit.

I agree that people can’t afford $200 in 2 months for PPV. What this means is that fans will then pick and choose ooooor start having UFC parties where I order WEC, you order 111, another friend orders 112, and another orders 113. We each take the hit on one and the rest cover the food/booze.

Now, the spring/summer is a legitimate murderers row of high profile PPVs (111 is the return of GSP, 112 is the return of Anderson & BJ, 113 is Rua/Machida, 114 is Rashad/Rampage, plus later you have Liddel/Ortiz and the return of Brock in the summer). If you continue to see sub 300k ppv buys going forward? Yeah that’s definitely a trend that the sport is shitting out, but I don’t think that’ll happen. I think you’ll see consistent 500k buys with Brock’s return with a second high profile co-headliner do close to 1million.

I’m not worried yet, but it seems that a lot of the media (not just nate) like to get into this sky is falling frame of mind, be it for more page views which drive traffic which drives ad rates or because they feel that Zuffa is in fact in trouble. Here’s the problem though, if Zuffa is in trouble, what does that say about the rest of the sport?

that you could watch it for free? i don’t have that problem. we get them all for free in nevada.

I just decided that I can’t afford to do it anymore so I have a choice. Not watch, pick and choose, or go to a bar. Problem is that I have to work every other weekend and I get up at 3:30 am to go to work so that leaves out the bar option at least half of the time. I can’t afford to order it and just record it so that option is out when I have to work. My group has flaked on me for the last two fights so I can’t count on them to show up and pay for it while I provide my house as a place to view it. So that option is out. What do I do? I will probably just go without for a while and see what happens. The downward trend will reverse itself but I don’t think it will reach the heights that most people had expected. I mean, the countdown show just did it’s highest rating ever. 1 million people watched it. This comes just hours after every MMA blog trumpeted the demise of the UFC. I guess the downward spiral has stopped for a few hours.

Kid Nate digs deep, and always puts together a string of good facts in his articles. Problem is, he’s only using facts that support his opinion of Zuffa having problems. The dude definitely knows how to put an opinion peace together to get people’s heads flailing

I much prefer Leland Roling’s piece, which basically chimes in after and goes “Hey, shuddup” :-) The injury bug is over and there are a few HUGE events in, as you pointed out, close proximity to eachother. If the UFC is on a downward trend we will know in a few months, not now after a string of lesser-value cards.

I do love that you brought the money thing up… this is why people pirate. Well, its why some do at least. I understand and completely agree they need to have an event at least every other week in order to keep the talent pool active, but damn! That’s a lotta money,

Like any good Capitalist, Zuffa is going to push PPV until they hit the point of saturation- theyll figure out eventually they make more money for having LESS PPVs than they may currently have. The bad news is it seems they havent hit that point yet, so signing a TV hasnt been crucial….so although I’m a fan of what Zuffa has and does do…I hope these next huge events dont get the PPV buys like 100/101. I hope their Versus/Spike ratings keep skyrocketing (especially free prelims!) but their PPV numbers to bomb. It will prove they hit saturation on PPV (but not MMA itself, as the Spike/Versus ratings are good) which would make it more urgent for the UFC to sign a network deal- which would take a good 6 cards off of PPV and onto free TV! Lets cross our toes

Dana White seems to think it’s no problem getting 10 friends over to split the PPV. How many people know 10 friends as regularly into MMA as they are that would come over and lay $10 down? How many people can accomodate 10 friends on a Saturday night, and wouldn’t they be more interested in going out to the bars as the core demographic has a tendancy to do?