Affliction & ProElite business strategy
by Bruz on Sep 22, 2008 4:49 PM EDT
Email
PrintI wanted to share with you my thoughts on the business strategy necessary for both Affliction and ProElite to survive, as well as COMPETE with the UFC. I am hoping that this may reach the eyes of "the powers that be" and perhaps give them an idea or 2 to think about.
Simply put, competing with the UFC at this point requires 3 things:
1) a huge roster
2) getting in the public's face to build your brand name recognition (one show per month)
3) a global presence
All 3 of these things are right at the fingertips of Affliction, if they buy out ProElite.
First and foremost is the elimination of all these smaller organizations under the same ownership. By combining the rosters of Affliction + EliteXC + King of the Cage + Cage Rage into one organization ("the new EliteXC"), you automatically have an MMA superpower on your hands.
Cage Rage is based in the UK. KOTC holds shows outside of the US as well. Immediately you have an international impact. Put it all under one name. The new EliteXC.
Why do I refer to it as "the new EliteXC", versus "Affliction" (since they would be the buyers) or "AfflictionXC"? Because EliteXC already has better name brand recognition thanks to 3 shows on CBS (as of October 4th) and multiple shows on Showtime. Affliction could easily continue markeing its clothing line by putting their logos on the ring and their t-shirts on the fighters.
Having all these MMA organizations' rosters combined into one ("the new EliteXC"), you have enough talent to hold one event per month, just like the UFC... the more you're in the public's face, the more they'll get to know you.
I realize that the talent isn't on the same level as the UFC. But the general public (who we're trying to win over here) doesn't realize that, but the best fighters don't necessarily create the best fights anyway. In the fight world, you make a name for yourself. The new EliteXC wouldn't have to try and sign Chuck Liddell to win over fans... their current fighters will build names for themselves.
Furthermore, even if Affliction is the buyer here, they need to give up their ring and use EliteXC's cage. Cages are marketable. The general public wants to see fighters inside of a cage instead of a boxing ring. It looks better. And it makes the fights better (no starting over in the middle of the ring). Plus, it's what they are already used to, thanks to the UFC. So go with it, don't try to be different.
Now that's not all... ProElite has a working relationship with Dream. Dream is also struggling financially. Let's not forget about WAMMA, an organization that is trying desperately to legitimize itself. Toss in a side helping of Golden Boy Promotions. Do you not yet see the possibilities?!
"The new EliteXC" - staging MMA events once per month in the US/Canada/UK - building upon its working relationship with the biggest Japanese MMA promotion, Dream. A relationship that could only help both organizations. Now, consider WAMMA introducing more cross-promotional championship titles. Imagine "the new EliteXC" heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko (Big Foot Silva is suspended) defending his WAMMA heavyweight championship belt against Dream's heavyweight champion Cro Cop/Overeem, in the first ever international cross-promotional champion vs champion superfight! If you can't market that, you simply shouldn't be in the business.
Plus Golden Boy Promotions wants to build a partnership with them! The combination of boxing and MMA in the same event has been received with a lot of negativity by many fans from both sides. Obviously it doesn't seem like such a regular relationship would yield beneficial results to either the boxing or MMA bases in the end. But what if it wasn't a regular thing? How about one super fight event per year? The equivalent to WWE's WrestleMania or the NFL's Super Bowl, where there would be one spectactular card on PPV promoting high level boxing fights and high level MMA fights on the same card. Making it only once a year and describing it as a "super fight event" would make it more special and probably be accepted just fine by both boxing and MMA purists. You could even scrap the cage for that event, and have the MMA fights in the boxing ring - thus giving the MMA "ring fans" something to look forward to as well.
The basic equation looks like this:
Affliction + EliteXC + KOTC + Cage Rage + Dream + WAMMA + Golden Boy > UFC
If Affliction actually has the finances to purchase ProElite, implementing such a strategy would be the kind of "ground breaking announcement" that would TRULY "change the world of MMA"... an announcement Dana White himself would LOVE to make if he weren't already Dana White.
The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.
10 comments
|
1 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
My response to this on Sherdog:
“Frankly, thats just another way to speed up the death process. Organizations aren’t driven by their rosters, they’re driven by their markets. Putting all those organizations together doesn’t mean their markets would mesh. Either they’d have to target each market individually, which would cause all sorts of headaches, or they’d have a global approach, which would result in huge decreases in the size of each market. Not to mention, having an international fanbase causes all sorts of problems in that whenever you have an event outside a region, interest drastically declines. For instance, how would this hybrid promotion make good money in the US on an event run in Asia?”
To add further, “Affliction + EliteXC + KOTC + Cage Rage + Dream + WAMMA + Golden Boy > UFC” is a fairly ridiculous assessment. You can’t simply add all these things together into one glorious whole. You have to look at the pieces and what each adds. For instance, WAMMA adds NOTHING to the rest. Literally, nothing.
I understand your point… and the “>” than sign is indeed not accurate… Basically, my opinion is UNLESS such a merger/partnership happens, Affliction & ProElite are both destined for extinction. My proposal was from that of a fan hoping to see something interest & exciting happen… it’s not a guaraneed solution by any means, but I think there’s better chance of competing with the UFC that way than the way things are going now.
Keep Swillin',
Bruz
I disagree...
only because I don’t think that even with EXC and Affliction teaming up that they don’t have the roster to take down the UFC. It’s a novel idea and one that could play out okay. But between the two organizations that have barely enough talent to run a show once a month. And if one of the stars gets injured and has to sit out a few months it could spell lights out. Also, KOTC and Cage Rage do not have enough feeder talent to even compete with TUF. I’d like to see it happen because it would be great for all MMA fans. I just don’t see them even biting in to the UFC’s market share. They would have to score a network deal with somebody who doesn’t want to run things (since Affliction already proved that no other organization can really be successful on PPV no matter how big the card), and they would have to basically collapse DREAM as well since I’m sure that DREAM isn’t going to be willing to give up their stars without EXC/Affliction giving them back quite a few of their own. Cross promotion has failed in MMA so far. If they can manage to clear these hurdles I see it being successful.
1. HBO has already nixed the idea of MMA/Boxing cards which is what Golden Boy brings to the table. They need a network to shove the company down the throats of Men 18-34. And CBS wants control that would drive it into the ground from day one.
2. The biggest name in either promotion is Kimbo Slice. Since he wouldn’t stand a snowballs chance against anybody in Afflictions HW lineup, they’d have to build someone else. 700 tickets sold for Arlovski v. Barnett won’t cut the mustard.
3. Between the two organizations they’ve run shows in exactly 3 countries (unless Cage Rage runs in other Euro countries I’m not thinking of). By my count that is 2 less than the UFC has already (with plans for Phillipeans and another Japan show in 09’).
Bottom line is that a large majority of UFC PPV buyers are “Ultimate Fighting” fans and not MMA fans. I like your idea since it would add a seemingly legitimate contender to the UFC throne. But as Michael stated before me WAMMA means nothing, and I don’t think Golden Boy doesn’t either in the big scheme of things.
And for the record Dana White is balls deep on Chuck Liddell/Forrest Griffin/Rampage/GSP/Brock Lesnar/(insert major UFC name here). Chuck would not desert Dana at this point since his major money matches are all in the UFC (sans Kimbo). Same with any of the aforementioned names except maybe GSP.
I just wanted to clarify, I did not imply Chuck (or any other UFC fighters) would be signed by “the new EliteXC”… I was saying the exact opposite. UFC can keep their stars and EliteXC – over time – will build their own.
I know their roster is not comparable talent-wise to that of the UFC, but if all those organizations combined they would be comparable size-wise. All the fighters from EliteXC + Affliction + KOTC + Cage Rage, along with some cross-promotional matches with Dream, seem like that should be enough to be able to hold monthly PPVs. Something none of those companies can do on their own right now.
Keep Swillin',
Bruz
This absolutely will not work. Key reasons:
1) Affliction and EliteXC have diametrically opposed visions of how to promote MMA. Kimbo Slice is the face of one promotion, Fedor the other. This is really all you have to say.
2) Their problems are structural. ProElite lacks the television infrastructure to make it work, one show every couple months makes it impossible to build any momentum, and they don’t have the track record to demand any money for their programming. The 55 million in losses could have been used to build something, but it hasn’t been used that way, and now it is too late. Similarly it is impossible due to commitments and structure for Affliction to ever make money.
A merger is bad for MMA. It sticks a band-aid on two festering sores and acts like everything is ok. it prolongs the inevitable for no reason at all, and will further hurt MMA when it dies too. Consolidation and failure is the story of Pro Elite, there’s no reason to want more of it.
The truth is we need creative destruction. Pro Elite simply has to die. Propping these companies up that will never compete or benefit anyone just makes it harder for someone else that knows what they are doing to get into the market. Some things aren’t worth saving.
This is indeed interesting and thought provoking, but I also think it’s a prescription for failure. I don’t see size as the problem of EXC or Affliction. Simply put, their mutual problem is execution. Affliction has tried to succeed through spending exorbitant amounts of money on big time heavyweights. The problem is that most of them are relatively unknown in the U.S. On top of that, they pretty much botched the marketing for their first show. EXC has already attempted to persevere through acquisition. That certainly hasn’t worked out thus far. The EXC structure is terribly ill-conceived. They’re disgustingly inefficient in their appropriation of funds, and that’s why they can’t get their hands on the cash they need to survive. Affliction needs no part of the EXC mess. Combining two struggling companies doesn’t generally lead to one healthy firm. I believe that idea holds true here.
by Cannon Jacques on Sep 22, 2008 10:48 PM EDT reply actions
It’s interesting but very flawed. Right of the start I don’t see any of the one thing that both companies desperately need, huge bags of money. Having a company that has only done one show and has already lost millions and millions of dollars buy a company that has run up 55million in debt in a year and a half doesn’t mean that either could now actually pay for anything or make any money. The problem both companies have is their poor business plans that cause them to hemorrhage money at scary rates. Neither company is in trouble because they don’t have huge rosters or a global presence it’s the fact that neither has shown where they are any good at the business side of sports. Forget about trying to compete with the UFC on day one or even becoming a major player in the sport, companies need to start with figuring out how to actually make a profit out of MMA promotion and then grow from there.
I think there is some misunderstanding of what WAMMA is trying to do too, if they join up with any organization or group then they have instantly failed at their stated goals. Having a undisputed title only works if it is actually undisputed, they aren’t wanting to be a part of some group they are wanting to regulate the whole entire sport and stand above all the organizations as the official sanctioning body for title rankings and title fights. That only has any meaning if every MMA organization gets behind them.
There also seems to be some misunderstanding of what Golden Boy agreed to do with Affliction. Golden Boy isn’t becoming true partners with Affliction they just agreed to co-promote 4 cards with them where they provide the boxers and Affliction provides the MMA fighters. That’s not Golden Boy getting into MMA it’s them trying to take advantage of MMA’s demographic to sell them some boxing. If Golden Boy was trying to get into MMA then they would of either invested in and truly partnered with Affliction or they would of started promoting MMA events on their own.
Mostly everything has been said…but..
“1) a huge roster
2) getting in the public’s face to build your brand name recognition (one show per month)
3) a global presence”
1)Huge roster means nothing when the majority of those rosters=cans
2)They don’t have enough money to do one show per month(they could do a show every weekend and not overcome the UFC brand recognition in America)
3) They can’t even get a foothold in America…much less globally
http://mma4real.net/
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
MMA Rankings
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
