DREAM Attendance Figures

by Chris Nelson on Apr 7, 2009 5:35 PM EDT in News Comment 27 comments

No word yet on whether Sunday's DREAM.8 fared any better in the ratings with its late night, tape delayed TBS slot than its immediate predecessor, but Nikkan Sports says that Fighting and Entertainment Group had a near sellout crowd on hand for the opening round of its Welterweight Grand Prix, with a reported 9,129 fans cramming the cozy Nippon Gaishi Hall (née Nagoya Rainbow Hall).

It was the smallest venue for a DREAM show to date, but an appropriate one: not only did three participants - Katsuyori Shibata, Ikuhisa Minowa and Yuya Shirai - hail from the area, but presumably many of the prefecture's Japanese-Brazilian residents were on hand to cheer on crossover karate phenom Andrews Nakahara.

Here's a look at DREAM's officially announced (i.e. totally unverified) attendance numbers over its first year:

DREAM.8 - Nippon Gaishi Hall, Nagoya, Japan - 9,129 (capacity: 10,000)
DREAM.7 - Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan - 19,528 (capacity: n/a)
FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008 - Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan - 25,634 (capacity: n/a)
DREAM.6 - Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan - 20,929 (capacity: n/a)
DREAM.5 - Osaka-jō Hall, Osaka, Japan - 11,986 (capacity: 16,000)
DREAM.4 - Yokohama Arena, Yokohama, Japan - 14,037 (capacity: 17,000)
DREAM.3 - Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan - 21,789 (capacity: n/a)
DREAM.2 - Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan - 21,397 (capacity: n/a)
DREAM.1 - Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan - 19,120 (capacity: n/a)

Saitama Super Arena's main hall can hold between 19,000 and 22,500 when configured for MMA events. Most of DREAM's shows there have been officially announced as sellouts.

For DREAM.9 - which will be the first DREAM show of the year broadcast live and in primetime on TBS - FEG heads back to its old PRIDE stomping grounds and the 17,000-seat Yokohama Arena.

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It’s unreasonable to think that DREAM is going to pull peak PRIDE gate numbers. When their New Years Eve show is pulling 25k, you won’t see higher than that during the year. However, those numbers are higher than most UFC events, so you could say MMA is still bigger in Japan than it is in the United States.

Can’t wait to rewatch DREAM.8 on HDnet.

by AnonymousA on Apr 7, 2009 5:58 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

And we have no way of knowing how much of those past or current shows have been papered.

by AlwaysRelaxing on Apr 7, 2009 6:20 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

it should be also noted, that the cheapest seat is around $70 … and to my amazement, about 95% of fans arrive in time for the very first fight and stay to the very last fight…. go to a UFC or any big american MMA card, and the place is usally about 20% full for the first fight if that….

"I’m not going to stop yelling because that would mean, I lost the fight!"-Kenny Powers

by ekc on Apr 7, 2009 6:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The ticket prices for a DREAM event are actually a lot like your typical UFC show, with even the mid-range seats going for a few hundred bucks.

by smoogy on Apr 7, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Japanese crowds are amazingly respectful and disciplined. It’s so weird to see 20,000 people actually looking at the same thing, in their seats, and paying attention. Made the eruption when Fujita cracked Fedor that much more epic.

by subo on Apr 7, 2009 7:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nice Summary!

Thanks Chris. DREAM events have had a really nice attendance. Compare DREAM numbers to Sengoku numbers and it will really SHOCK some people out there.

FEG is still doing well, although not as good as the PRIDE and K-1 glory years, but still good in Japan, where the spectacle and freak show fights have been mostly pushed to the side so that the sport becomes more respectable.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Apr 7, 2009 6:23 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

When will they start drug testing?

by subo on Apr 7, 2009 6:38 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

Probably when drug testing actually catches people who cheat.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Apr 7, 2009 7:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Or never,

since the japanese will never define roids as “cheating”

by Phantom Of Krankor on Apr 7, 2009 9:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ah, so that’s their objection – that while testing gets a higher percentage than not testing (0), it’s not perfect. That makes complete sense.

by subo on Apr 7, 2009 9:47 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs

That is just silly, surely you can come up with something better than that.

by who me on Apr 7, 2009 11:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That is just a ridiculous argument.

Bolts from the Blue // "Game over." - Jamal Williams
Bloody Elbow // "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." - H.L. Mencken

by Richard Wade on Apr 8, 2009 10:20 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That was the point. As ridiculous as Subo’s reply was, but I am sure no one will point that out.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Apr 8, 2009 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You said FEG is trying to make the sport more respectable. Japanese MMA will never, ever be fully respectable until they test.

by subo on Apr 8, 2009 1:57 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well, they have to start somewhere, and SAC’s are not in the culture, so it is a step in the right direction.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Apr 8, 2009 2:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

One thing to remember is that these numbers are released from the company, there is no independant collaboration. No way of knowing how accurate those numbers are.

If I remember correctly, Meltzer mentioned some of the earlier shows were nowhere near as full as the announced figures would indicate.

by Lynchman on Apr 7, 2009 7:25 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Very true.

And now so noted in the post. Thanks.

by Chris Nelson on Apr 7, 2009 7:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Same rule aplies to any shows, no matter where they are held, since anyone can paper an event and not report it.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Apr 7, 2009 7:31 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In Japan they don’t even have to paper the events because no athletic commission is keeping track of the gate. They don’t have to paper the event to push the number up because they can just make up the numbers and claim that is what it was. As long as it isn’t too blatantly obvious no one is going to go back and check.

by who me on Apr 7, 2009 11:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That is the point I was making.

It is not about papering, it is about making up figures.

MMASuPre,
Actually giveaways are indeed reported by the SACs in the U.S. The only way it would not be reported is if the org putting on the show were to actually purchase tickets and give them away.

K-1 did that for the L.A. show and so has Affliction.

Zuffa, Strikeforce, Elite and most other companies don’t do it because it costs them money. They do use comps and, as I said, those are reported. Zuffa has certainly had shows with 3-4000 comps but it is always reported.

by Lynchman on Apr 8, 2009 7:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If companies buy the tickets, they have to pay taxes on them and they can’t write them off.

As I said, the only companies to do it were K-1 (owners of Dream) and Affliction.

It is important to remember that appearances are very important in Japan. K-1 lost a fortune on the U.S. show but presented it, in Japan, as though it was a huge success.

by Lynchman on Apr 8, 2009 8:03 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yea the fact is that in the US numbers have to be reported to the athletic commissions(even the comped numbers) for tax purposes but you just don’t have that in Japan thus you don’t have to do anything but lie about the numbers if you want to push them up. Comping tickets in the US doesn’t change things because they have to report that and the athletic commissions report that to us.

I’ve heard from some people who said that K-1 had a big sponsor for the US Dynamite show that pretty much paid for the whole thing so it wasn’t actually K-1 that took a loss on it but yes it was all about appearances and trying to set an attendance record (even if it was sketchy).

by who me on Apr 8, 2009 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

There are loopholes in whatever you do, in this case the UFC can sell tickets to casinos or “partners” at a discount price and the casino’s give away those tickets to their “customers”. Those tickets will be reported to the NSAC as sold, but in reality, it wasn’t done so at full price or at all.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Apr 8, 2009 1:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

A person who has a discounted/comped/free ticket that goes to the show is still part of the show’s attendance. Loopholes in paid vs comped is a completly different issue than padding the actual attendance reported by just making the number up. You are talking about ticket sales issues and he was talking about attendance(which is also what the article is about).

by who me on Apr 8, 2009 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

One thing DREAM and UFC have in common: they have a very loose definition of a “sellout crowd”

by smoogy on Apr 7, 2009 7:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

There's no way that those numbers are accurate.

Have you you seen their shows? Those numbers are wayy too high. Unless a good 5,000 go on bathroom breaks during the fights.

by I Can't Feel My Face on Apr 7, 2009 8:51 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

One big difference between live draws in the US and Japan is that Japan is a vastly more densely populated country(Japan 339 people per square km vs the US with 31 people per square km). When you look at the cities where most events are the comparison is even more staggering, Las Vegas has a greater metropolitan population of 1.8 million, the Greater Tokyo area has over 35 million people.

When you have that many more people in a close proximity to the events you are naturally going to sell a lot more tickets. This comparison also really brings together one of the reasons running a show in New York City could be such a big deal.

by who me on Apr 7, 2009 11:47 PM EDT reply actions 4 recs