MMA in a tight economy

by kamander on Sep 24, 2008 1:58 PM EDT Comment 8 comments

Making money has never been easy for MMA promotions, and in today's tough economy, its even more challenging. The UFC's dominance doesn't make it any easier, with their brand recognition, fan loyalty, and ability to practically saturate the market with MMA content.

Besides the UFC, it seems that almost every promotion's continues existence is in question. Will any of these promotions be able to survive in the upcoming environment of dwindling disposable income? What about foreign promotions? How important will it be for these promotions to put on high quality events vs. gimmicks and novelties? What other factors, such as TV deals, will make or break promotions?

Though there are a lot of unknowns, one thing we can look at is how the top promotions have performed in terms of the quality of their events. Here are some results according to fan ratings using a five star rating system:

3.94 - Affliction (1 event)
3.78 - UFC (events only) (9 events)
3.76 - WEC (4 events)
3.71 - Dream (6 events)
3.49 - UFC (all shows) (14 events)
2.97 - EliteXC (4 events)
2.95 - UFC Fight Nights (5 events)
2.90 - Strikeforce (3 events)
2.56 - Sengoku (4 events)

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Bloody Elbow readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bloody Elbow editors or staff.

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I wouldn’t make much of those ratings. The samples are very small and not at all representative.

by Michaelthebox on Sep 24, 2008 3:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I cannot argue, but these ratings are valuable. Please add to them.

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MMA Ratings

by kamander on Sep 24, 2008 4:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

How are they valuable? They’re not representative at all, so they don’t provide any information beyond what a tiny subset of MMA fans think about events, which isn’t useful in any way I can think of.

by Michaelthebox on Sep 24, 2008 5:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Though there are a lot of unknowns, one thing we can look at is how the top promotions have performed in terms of the quality of their events. Here are some results according to fan ratings using a five star rating system

Who did those ratings? How were they determined? How many “fans” were involved?

I’m suspect of any ratings system that puts Affliction’s one Megadeth show “rated” higher than the UFC events on a five star scale. Or that puts the Elite XC events higher than the UFC FN shows, for that matter. Is there a difference in the EliteXC Showtime shows vs. the CBS ones?

I just don’t know what to make of the “ratings” without any information about what the heck went into them or what they are supposed to mean or who the “raters” really were. They might be valuable, but they might not be valuable at all. And it’s hard to add to them without any information about them in the first place.

by Kierkegaard on Sep 24, 2008 4:26 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

You can add to them at MMA Ratings.

I can answer some of those question. The only reason Affliction is rated higher than the UFC is that this sample is an average of each promotions events throughtout 2008. The UFC has two events that are ranked in the top 5, and Affliction is not on that list.

EliteXC’s Showtime shows are not segregated from their CBS shows on this list, though that can be done.

The biggest knock against these ratings, I think, is the size of the user base contributing to them, which we are always looking to grow.

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MMA Ratings

by kamander on Sep 24, 2008 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

My knock

is the sampling pool. We don’t know who watches these events (i.e. age, income bracket, favorite fighting style, etc.). If some 15 year old tough guy — who pounds down 3 zimas at his buddies house and watches a fight that is a big clinch battle or a grappling based fight — finds your site and votes it a 1 star fight that will skew the rating (particularly when there is 10 voters on said fight). It would be nice to know who’s voting, and definately more people. It’s a novel conept but until your sampling pool is at least 100 people per event/fight and we know who’s voting, these numbers mean squat.

by B Money on Sep 24, 2008 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I do know that my site tends to attract more of hardcore MMA fan. After all, who else would spend their time rating fights.

Part of the premise of the site is to allow for anonimity. On the other hand, if you and your friends rate the fights, then you’ll have a much better idea who is rating.

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MMA Ratings

by kamander on Sep 24, 2008 8:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Even if someone stops by and gives Eric Schafer vs. Houston Alexander 5 stars, its all good. Popular consensus is what it’s all about. Thanks for your ratings.

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MMA Ratings

by kamander on Sep 24, 2008 8:52 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs