Kevin Iole predicts 100,000 - 150,000 buys for WEC 48:
"On paper, WEC 48 has a great card, with Jose Aldo defending the featherweight title against Urijah Faber, a rematch between Benson Henderson and Donald Cerrone for the lightweight championship and former featherweight champion Mike Brown meeting Manny Gamburyan. But what are expectations for the sales on this? I think it does around 100,000, maybe 150,000. Is that a bomb? For the first time out, I don’t think so. But in any event, I don’t think the WEC will merge with the UFC, even though I like the idea. WEC general manager Reed Harris, matchmaker Sean Shelby and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva are all strongly against it."
almost 2 years ago
Nick Thomas
40 comments
0 recs |
Email
PrintComments
I will be very very sad if it pulls 150,000 buys. We will never get to see the top WEC fighters for free again. It will be a sad day in MMA.
i can’t imagine how they came up with that #. i’m curious to see if hooters and sports bars will be carrying this. i just cant imagine a great number of households making the buy.
I'm old school hating Lesnar, I've been hating Lesnar since '08
I buy every UFC card, ordered Showtime
to watch Strikeforce, I am having HUGE issues with paying for something that was free for so long. Feels like I am getting married AGAIN.
I'm right there with you buddy.
My cable bill is at the MMA BREAKING POINT. I love this sport and I put my money where my mouth is, but they can only come to this well so often. If they need to make more money to pay top teir talent in lower weight classes they need to find new revenue streams because I’m not playing ball.
I SOOOOOOOOO want to see this card, and I probably will, but it won’t be because I bought it again on PPV. I know Dana always says “Oh, you have 8 or 20 people come over and you all pull lose change out of your pocket and it easily pays the cost of a PPV.” Well Dana, I watch at home with my wife most of the time. I live in the fuckin’ sticks and my friends won’t drive all the way out there to watch with me.
So at this point I’m not buying in PROTEST. I think there are many others like me that they are relying on for the PPV numbers on this card. I think it’s going to show and I think Iole’s numbers are going to be way off.
Just because you weigh 135 or 145 lbs doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have the ability to market yourself as a “UFC Fighter.” Just being in and on the UFC will effect a fighters sponsor pay. Not to mention purses. The fact that Urijah Faber, Torres, Bowles, Brown and Aldo aren’t getting paid what UFC champs get paid is a travesty brought on by Zuffa’s desire to control MMA programing on Versus.
Exactly how I feel.
I watch it with my sons, 8 ans 13. I have no luck in getting cash from them!
This prediction is kind of ridiculous and random. If they did this number it would be a huge success, hardly a bomb of any kind.
I would love for it to do great but I find it impossible to believe it will do more than 100,000. That is the largest number of buys ever for a non-UFC ppv event. WEC 48 may be Zuffa but is not the UFC/ Also it has has no Fedor (not a casual draw but probably the biggest draw for serious hardcores – 50,00 buys right there) and is coming in a stacked season of mma and boxing events. If it does 100,000 they should be ecstatic.
That would be a monster number. I’m sticking with my 55,000-ish number, which is still quite good.
From my SB Nation piece on this a while back:
Judging by the price point of $44.95, 50,000 buys would bring in $2,247,500. Assuming roughly 60% takeout by cable/satilite companies/other sources there would be a leftover take-in of $899,000. The total disclosed fighter payout for WEC 46 was $272,000. Now we can assume somewhere around a 50% increase in the payouts based on the rumored card being much more stacked top-to-bottom than the average WEC event. That brings the total payout of $408,000. $899,000 – $408,000 = $491,000. This doesn’t take in ticket sales, building rental, production costs…etc. But it would seem they would have to lose close to half a million dollars in these other areas for the event to be a “loss” should they manage to do 50k in PPV buys.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 2, 2010 5:19 PM EST up reply actions
cable/sat companies do not keep 60%. I've heard more like 30%-40%
by snakecharmer1340 on Mar 2, 2010 5:43 PM EST up reply actions
Right. I was using the most extreme cuts I’ve ever heard of.
Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
MMA Editor - SBNation.com
by Brent Brookhouse on Mar 2, 2010 5:51 PM EST up reply actions
Pretty sure Iole graduated to Kool-Aide server some time OK.
"It would appear that the strain was more than he could bear".- Doc Holliday
by MyFistYourFace on Mar 2, 2010 5:31 PM EST up reply actions
150 to 200 is what I think. Theyre doing a countdown show, theyre gonna be using the same marketing that ufc ppvs use with the barrage of commercials with the only on ppv creepy voice guy. Lol
I'm gonna make a bold prediction here and say Cain "pillowhands" (as some of you have called him) lol Velasquez catches Nog right on the chin and finishes via strikes on the ground. Nog looked good against an old Randy. It didn't show me much. We’ll see.
by xFenixKnightx on Feb 18, 2010 11:09 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
Will the countdown show be on spike?
Cause that’s the only way I can see it having a chance at those numbers.
by timetosaygoodbye on Mar 2, 2010 9:18 PM EST up reply actions
Not sure, be cool if it was. Then I wouldnt have to go over to a buddies house.
I gots teh DirecTV blues… =/
Maybe they run it on both Spike and Versus???
I'm gonna make a bold prediction here and say Cain "pillowhands" (as some of you have called him) lol Velasquez catches Nog right on the chin and finishes via strikes on the ground. Nog looked good against an old Randy. It didn't show me much. We’ll see.
by xFenixKnightx on Feb 18, 2010 11:09 AM CST reply actions 0 recs
by xFenixKnightx on Mar 2, 2010 10:08 PM EST up reply actions
wish someone would interview joe silva about it
i’d like to hear his opinion on that (and many other topics).
He might as well of said 500,000 buys...
That number is way too high. 150k, really?
Follow me on Twitter @lelandroling
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
50k if they are lucky. I wouldnt be surprised to see it be as low as 20k.
This will be the end of WEC PPVs
I'm going to buy it for sure.
this is such an amazing card. Faber VS Aldo alone is worth it
If I remember correctly, hordes of people said they wouldn’t buy it if it was stacked because they were so used to getting it for free. Kind of disappointing, but that’ll make the number low.
Follow me on Twitter @lelandroling
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
by Leland Roling on Mar 2, 2010 4:25 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah this is a foolish place for some kind of protest vote. It’s one of the best cards of the year for any org. I don’t think it means that suddenly we’ll be paying for 10 WEC cards every year.
by Kwisatz Haderach on Mar 2, 2010 4:42 PM EST up reply actions
I don’t think that will make the number low.
The UFC makes all their money from the people that have been saying all of their cards suck for years. Now, those people are also the WEC fans, but the success of this experiment, just like the success of every mma PPV, comes from the casual fans.
“UFC Presents..” could mean a lot of things. It really depends on how it all plays out.
On a related note
Dana White
Joe Silva
Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta
Mike Goldberg
Joe Rogan
All completely agree with Iole and think I could possibly even do more than 150.
" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "
As a fan I would be disappointed if it only did 100k. To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dud WEC card, not recently anyway. Add to that Faber, Aldo, Cerrone, Henderson.. guys known for exciting fights and it would be a real shame.
I’ll buy it but I know it will be difficult to pay for another PPV even if it’s a good one. They better pull out all stops for the show/event because if it’s a dud they can kiss doing more PPVs goodbye.
I'm not familiar with
the typical views a WEC event carries on versus. I think the buys would be far less than half of those if not even a fourth
You're all forgetting Faber is a draw
If you were simply putting the WEC brand out there, then yes, PPV would probably flop. But Faber dominates all of the WEC’s biggest ratings and gates and they only need to get a fraction of his fan base to pay for this fight to make it a success. I don’t think 100K is unrealistic at all.
His fans have never had to pay to see him fight before, I doubt all those surfer kids in Cali have an extra $50 to drop on a fight what with all the flip-flops and weed they have to buy.
by ufc4 on Mar 2, 2010 7:01 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Man as much as I’m b*itch*n and moaning ill probably end up ordering it if no one plays it locally,
Glad this weekends fight is free, I’ve like bowles since his first fight in the WEC
all you gotta do is...
by imapimp08 on Mar 2, 2010 5:32 PM EST via mobile reply actions
if you miss one live mma card, it really shouldn’t be this one.
I personally cannot wait to order it, gonna be an amazing night of fights.
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.
