MMA in Numbers: WEC 42 Update

by Eugene Schelfaut on Sep 2, 2009 9:07 AM EDT in News Comment 8 comments

MMA in Numbers

An unsettling statistic: 8 of the past 15 WEC events have been held out of The Joint in Las Vegas, Nevada. For the most recent in the facility, WEC 42 which featured the headline of Miguel Torres vs. Brian Bowles, 1,640 paid entry. 442, or 21% of all 2,080 in audience, were given complimentary tickets. 870 tickets were neither sold nor given away. Ignoring the promotional side of things, whether or not profit can be made in a situation such as this, one must allow that 2,080 is not a sufficient viewing party for some of the best athletes and competitors in the field.

In terms of ratings WEC 42 took in an estimated 670,000 viewers which matches WEC 37 as the high water mark for events not featuring Urijah Faber. Faber vs. Pulver I holds the WEC record with over 1.5 million viewers. Torres also participated on that card against Yoshiro Maeda and looks to be the number two draw for the promotion after "The California Kid".

Going forward, WEC 43 is newly scheduled for October 10th under the headline of Donald Cerrone vs. Ben Henderson without DirecTV. The last events not featuring Faber or Torres were Brown vs. Garcia and Condit vs. Miura, drawing 530k and 423k respectively.

Table in extended entry. MMA in Numbers: UFC.

	Main Event	Location	Rating	Gate	Salary	Bonuses
WEC 28 June 3, 2007	Faber vs. Farrar	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada			$134,000
WEC 29 Aug. 5, 2007	Filho vs. Doerksen Condit vs. Larson	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada			$199,500
WEC 30 Sep. 5, 2007	McCullough vs.Crunkilton Beebe vs. Yahya	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada			$154,000
WEC 31 Dec. 12, 2007	Faber vs. Curran Filho vs. Sonnen	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada			$295,000
WEC 32 Feb. 13, 2008	Condit vs. Prater Varner vs. McCullough Torres vs. Beebe	Rio Rancho,New Mexico
WEC 33 Mar. 26, 2008	Marshall vs. Stann	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada			$213,000
WEC 34 June 1, 2008	Faber vs. Pulver Torres vs. Maeda	ARCO Arena Sacramento, California	1.4 HH 1.54 mil viewers	$738,855	$260,000
WEC 35 Aug. 3, 2008	Condit vs. Miura Stann vs. Cantwell Varner vs. Hicks	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada	.5 HH 423,000 viewers	$116,900	$230,000	$7,500 each $45,000 total
WEC 36 Nov. 5, 2008	Faber vs. Brown Filho vs. Sonnen	Hard Rock Hollywood, Florida	.5 HH 497,000 viewers	$563,578	$287,000	$7,500 each $37,500 total
WEC 37 Dec. 3, 2008	Torres vs. Tapia	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada	.5 HH (DL) 671,000 viewers	$90,125	$219,000	$7,500 each $30,000 total
WEC 38 Jan. 25, 2009	Varner vs. Cerrone Faber vs. Pulver	San Diego, California	.65 HH 700,000 viewers	$486,324	$217,000	$7,500 each $30,000 total
WEC 39 Mar. 1, 2009	Brown vs. Garcia	Corpus Christi, Texas	.6 HH 531,229 viewers	$297,990		$7,500 each $30,000 total
WEC 40 April 5, 2009	Torres vs. Mizugaki	Chicago, Illinois				$10,000 each $40,000 total
WEC 41 June 7, 2009	Brown vs. Faber II	ARCO Arena Sacramento, California	1.1 HH	$815,415	$215,942.05	$10,000 each $40,000 total
WEC 42 Aug. 9, 2009	Torres vs Bowles	The Joint Las Vegas, Nevada	670,000 viewers	$175,835	$235,500	$10,000 each $40,000 total
WEC 43 Oct. 10, 2009	Cerrone vs. Henderson	AT&T Center San Antonio, Texas
WEC 44 Nov. 11, 2009	Brown vs. Aldo

DL = dead link.

Sources for missing entries or items which need to be updated are always appreciated.

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Comments

Great post, and I was waiting for you to do an update after my post.
=)

by MMASuPreMaCy on Sep 2, 2009 3:40 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

The next show will be huge, since the WEC will have 1 month to pray that Direct TV and Versus work out a deal. If they don’t, the next WEC show could be one of their lowest in terms of gate, attendance, and viewers. Thats not something they want heading into the end of the year.

The good news is that Faber may be back by the end of the year to give them some higher numbers. Torres will probably be out until later on this year or early next year as well.

by MMASuPreMaCy on Sep 2, 2009 3:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

44 will also be a good test on how much better can Mike Brown draw on his own..

weoweoweo .deviantart .com -- @antontabuena

by Anton Tabuena on Sep 2, 2009 5:51 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Just merge their fighters into the UFC already. The longer they keep them from fighting under the UFC banner, the more money they are taking away from them. All it will take is one Brown-Faber or Torres-Mizugaki fight and every fight after that will be a ppv winner.

Sorry for the rant, but I’m sick of this. And drunk.

by nottheface on Sep 2, 2009 4:07 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs