Quote of the Day: PRIDE's vs. ProElite's Death

by Luke Thomas on Oct 29, 2008 2:15 PM EDT in News Comment 23 comments

“Pride was a titan with the UFC, two titans going at it, each of us thinking that we did shows with different flavors, different ways to present the fights, different philosophies and styles. That one hurt...I’m not saying this one, Pro Elite, didn’t, but it’s a different kind of hurt. Pride died over the course of 12 months –- it was a slow death. With Pro Elite, the feeling was completely different. We blew it. We had a lot of money. We had a rare opportunity to make some noise, and we blew it. I don’t know how anyone could say anything differently.”

-- Turi Altavilla, former Vice President of ProElite and former Vice President of Production and Marketing at PRIDE.

Photo by Esther Lin

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"We blew it"

Sad but true – in 14sec, their entire company imploded. While I’m glad they aren’t around to besmirch MMA anymore, it sucks that all their workers are now unemployed, considering the bad decisions were apparently made by the powers-that-be and trickled down. Let’s hope newer orgs don’t follow their business model.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett

by themachiavellian on Oct 29, 2008 2:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Yep. In the middle of the “Yay! Goodbye Kimbo Slice hype!” party that seemed to be happening on various blogs and forums, it’s like some forgot that there was a lot of legit talent that’s now jobless.

by Tonley on Oct 29, 2008 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Not just fighters, but interns, media reps, PR, etc – all the necessary employees needed to run a company – and being a part of an company that went under due to mismanagement and accusations of fight-fixing won’t look good on a CV, regardless of actual involvement.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett

by themachiavellian on Oct 29, 2008 4:08 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It’s unfortunate for all people who have lost jobs in the current economic situation, whether they worked for ProElite or anyone else.

by mythbuster on Oct 29, 2008 4:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If Pro Elite cared about the workers they would release them from their contracts so they can find new employment.

by The_Vig on Oct 29, 2008 3:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I don’t think it’s necessarily up to them anymore is it

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

As far as I know, they haven’t declared bankruptcy yet.

I’m not sure what the status is with the loan to Showtime that they can’t pay back, but they definitely had the chance to start releasing people when it became apparent that they were going under.

by Phildo on Oct 29, 2008 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

True

but I think that the contracts might be one of thier only barganing chips before showtime and bankruptcy court comes $kala’s house

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:49 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Pride—Widely considered to be close to the level of UFC/On par with UFC/Superior to UFC. It’s demise was somewhat unexpected, or at least many thought it would live on in some form.

ProElite—About the only people considering it to be any type of threat to the UFC, was Proelite. It’s death was considered inevitable by most, from a very early time.

I don;t really see much of a comparison between the two. I would compare PE more to IFL. Some wanted it to succeed, but we knew it wasn’t going to and the writing was on the wall.

http://eliotmarshall.com/

by BJJDenver on Oct 29, 2008 3:10 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I would say securing the deal with CBS shook things up in the entire MMA community but it’s too bad you can’t think of pro elite without getting a bad taste in your mouth.

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

PRIDE/ELITE

the only comparison that these 2 had was that they both had this guy, Turi Altivilla, as their vp. hmmmm…….makes me wonder.

by bdw on Oct 29, 2008 6:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Even back at the start of ProElite there was rumblings that they had problems and for pretty much all of 2008 most people were expecting them to fail. Heck it would of been a lot more surprising if they were still around. I feel sorry for all the guys who lost their jobs but honestly it shouldn’t of come as a surprise to them.

by who me on Oct 29, 2008 4:04 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I keep thinking the CBS deal made the collapse happen faster. It exposed a shitty, inferior product to a huge, untested audience, whose main reaction when hearing about a ‘YouTube legend’ was to laugh uncontrollably.

For being the UFC nuthugger that I am, I must say, I originally thought Dana turning down a TV deal over who controlled the ‘production values’ was pure lunacy. After seeing how bad an MMA show sucks when it has crappy camera angles, music, lighting and commentary, I take that particular sentiment back.

by subo on Oct 29, 2008 4:32 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

seriously the commentary was ridiculous I always thought it was wierd the way they would introduce fighters as former UFC competitiors didn’t that just make them look like they were promoting minor league fighters.

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Although ironically

the last EliteXC, I felt, was the best of the bunch. No dancing cheerleaders, no bands or rappers or whatever. Just good fights (for the most part). If they started out that way, who knows where they could be now.

by mythbuster on Oct 29, 2008 4:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

probably still labeled a minor league promotion and fight fixers. Although they promoted some good fighters the whole thing seemed more spectacle then sport

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

True, about the fight fixing. As for minor league, no question they had inferior talent but to start out knowing that, then there is only room to improve. Instead they tried to act like they were the Superbowl of MMA and, well… failed.

But I do agree, the fight fixing would still be a huge issue lol

by mythbuster on Oct 29, 2008 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The “production” values thing is the biggest misconception about the UFC on the internet.

Was it an issue? Yes, but it wasn’t the only one. Just look at the money. Elite lost cash on every CBS card, just comparing fighter salaries, gate, money from CBS, and money paid to CBS to produce it. Why give up control to people that don’t know what they’re doing? And why pay a ton of money to do it?

UFC is smart to wait for a network TV deal that is right for them, it really doesn’t make sense unless they can get guranteed money near a PPV. Yes, they’ll get the product out to more people on network, but no one has shown that that will translate to people buying PPVs.

by Phildo on Oct 29, 2008 4:47 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Good Point

With CBS in control of production did that mean that they collected on all the advertising money as well?

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think they’d get all the commercial advertising, the in show stuff went to Elite, but looking at their numbers from the first show, it didn’t make up for the difference. They’re plan was to use network to jump into PPV, but they didn’t have a good enough plan to get there.

I think CBS gets the money from commercials because that’s how networks make money from the Super Bowl and the NFL. The NFL charges the network a boat load of money to air the games, and the networks make money from selling commercials.

by Phildo on Oct 29, 2008 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

not to discount any of their fighters but how in the world did they expect to get into pay per view with such an inferior product

by drano1 on Oct 29, 2008 4:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They thought millions watching kimbo for free on youtube + millions watching kimbo for free on CBS = a lot of people paying to watch Kimbo on PPV. I don’t really see it.

by Phildo on Oct 29, 2008 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

There are a lot of different ways a tv contract can be structured, the simplist would be the network just paying a licensing fee for the program but it can get a lot more complicated.

by who me on Oct 29, 2008 6:20 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs