UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta Discusses UFC's Growth, Fox TV Deal
by Brent Brookhouse on Nov 4, 2011 10:05 AM EDT
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You don't see many in-depth interviews with Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta, but when he does sit down with the media it's usually a very insightful, interesting read. So the interview conducted by Sergio Non of USA today with Lorenzo is must-read stuff.
While I have a deep appreciation for the impact that Dana White has had on the UFC's success, Lorenzo's role often gets overlooked and he represents a voice that I think is going to be much more important in the network TV era. His ability to express the same points as Dana without the seeming confrontational attitude is simply easier for many people to swallow but he still exudes a great degree of confidence and doesn't suffer from the same lack of personality that many complain about with a Roger Goodell type.
Some interesting parts of the interview:
Your co-owner Dana White says you're not mainstream. How much would you agree with that?
I agree. We have definitely carved out our market and our niche, but we are not mainstream. We've had a lot of success, but you certainly can't say, at least here in America, that we're on the level of an NFL or anything of that nature.
But the good news is we have room to grow. I think this is a platform -- a platform like Fox is what can get us there.
I think there's still a large group of media and large group of just what I'd call sports fans, casual sports fans, that maybe kind of know what UFC is, but they're not saying, "Hey, right now I have to be home to watch this fight." That's what we're hoping, is to bring millions more people in to see the UFC.
I know that we've had some controversy from some of the boxing promoters, like Bob Arum, saying we're stupid; why would we put the heavyweight championship on free TV; that's a stupid move.
The reality is this: Our model has been very successful for us, as far as putting our product on free TV to generate new fans, and that's the way we look at it. I'm not concerned about what our bottom line looks like in November; I'm concerned about what it looks like five years from now.
The whole idea is to draw millions of more fans into the group. If I can convert 100,000 of those millions that will be watching for the first time into customers for the next 20 years, then our investment on Fox has paid off.
This is, of course, the ultimate value to the Fox deal. Dana White isn't being quite accurate when he says they're losing money on the Fox shows. They're not making the same amount of money that they would off of a pay-per-view, but between the broadcast rights that Fox is paying and the live gate they're certainly not coming out in the red.
But they are serving as basically a commercial for future pay-per-views. Exposing fighters, getting fans hooked, it's all part of a larger strategy that should pay off down the road. And they're able to do it in a way which should result in actual monetary gains.
In effect, they're being paid to advertise their product.
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Great Read
Esp part about Viacom, expanding in Internationally, and Fox
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
"Dana White isn't being quite accurate when he says they're losing money on the Fox shows."
Wasn’t he talking about the november Fox Show only ?
I don’t quite remember the itw.
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I think it is a reference to opportunity cost
Obviously if they slapped a price tag on the free shows they would make more money, so in a sense they are “losing” money
Head conductor of the Charles Oliveira hype train.
Haha poor Kenny
That quote will be his epitaph :1
"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."
They know what they are doing
im not too sure about having so many fight cards, i miss the old days where there werent 2-3 cards a month, better quality fights with stronger outcome implications.
I am willing to test myself against the toughest fighters in the world, in front of hundreds of thousands or even millions of fans, over and over again. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, but I always come to fight. I've been doing this for the past fourteen years, and I have at least a few more strong years left in me. What have you done in the past fourteen years other than act like a moron on this forum and hang on Anderson's nuts? - Dan Henderson.
I don't think multiple cards per month are going to go away
The UFC has said they’re doing 34 cards next year, so that’s going to be at least 2 every month, but there will only be 12-13 PPV cards. That should mean that the PPV cards will be more stacked, while the TV cards will be used to build fighters to go on the PPV cards.
by MS_Dos_Santos on Nov 4, 2011 1:01 PM EDT up reply actions
They all need to accept, the UFC will NEVER be anywhere close to mainstream
not hating on MMA or the UFC or any fighter, just speaking what is evident to anyone unbiased. Forget about the headstart the NFL has, forget about the history, forget about the college fans players bring along with them, the UFC has none of that. If you move to Dallas, even if you don’t really care about football, eventually you become a cowboys fan. You move away from Dallas, you still follow the cowboys. A girl living in Minnesota might not be a big football fan, but she follows the Vikings because her dad/brother is a fan. So they might not necessarily love football, but they want to be in the conversation when people at home after church on Sundays talk about how the vikings suck.
The UFC has none of that. No legion of fans follow a fighter from the smaller shows up to the UFC. Most fighters have no known history that might draw the casual fan. Fighters don’t typically represent a town or city, and if there is no history or emotional attachment, then it’s just two guys beating on each other, and the overwhelming majority of mainstream audiences just do not get that, nor do they enjoy that. People like ‘clean’ violence. Sanitized. Violent as the NFL is, helmets cover up bloody lips, tight jerseys obscure bruised ribs. In fighting, all the blood and gore is laid bare, which is a major turnoff for about a majority of the casual fan. The worst thing that could happen for the fox show is that velasquez or dos santos is cut early and bleeds profusely for the next 20 minutes.
The UFC is an awesome company, with incredible fighters and unbelievable action, but it will never be mainstream and it will never ever come even close to the iron grip of the NFL.
And if anyone should ask you, I've got the gamblers blues.
Um, what you say is mostly right through not exactly true.
They are trying to build the sport to something that is actually possible in a combat sport. At the very least they want to get to the place where boxing was in the seventies; remember the Fight of the Century, Rumble in The Jungle, Thrilla in Manila, etc? That is more likely.
Now, given the technological breakthroughs since then, it is not insane to assume that it is possible to reach the endemic levels of Football (soccer, I mean). Not quite as practices, but still successfull.
The Internets: Where there are no girls and men become children.
by Unabomberman on Nov 4, 2011 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions
*practiced*
The Internets: Where there are no girls and men become children.
by Unabomberman on Nov 4, 2011 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Well I guess that all depends on your definition of “mainstream”. By your definition, would boxing be mainstream? If not now, would it have been say 30 years ago before it started it’s decline? I’m not talking NFL level, it’s on it’s own level entirely. But mma as a whole is Becoming the de facto “combat sport”. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to expect the growth to continue.
by alibabba on Nov 4, 2011 10:48 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Wow very Aggressive...
“One of the things we’re doing is bringing a handful of Chinese fighters over here for a month to train in Las Vegas, giving them access to the gyms and other resources here. Read more: ”http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/11/03/ufc-set-for-macau-singapore-amid-asia-expansion/#ixzz1ckUbkMEU" target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2011/11/03/ufc-set-for-macau-singapore-amid-asia-expansion/#ixzz1ckUbkMEU
I’m not resting until I’m officially Anderson Silva status.- Jon "Bones" Jones
Singapore?
Bring some clean living guys for that one.
"Now you see that evil will always triumph, because good is dumb."
by menckenstein on Nov 4, 2011 11:16 AM EDT up reply actions
I really don’t think MMA will ever be truely mainstream. There are a lot of people that just can’t cross that line where they’re OK watching two people punch each other in the face. Boxing has been allowed to creep down to kids competing but I don’t know if MMA ever will. Kids can compete in various disciplines which are used in MMA but as far as I know you have to be 18 to compete in a sanctioned MMA match. This disconnect is just a portion of what will keep MMA from actually turning the big 3 (baseball, basketball, football) into the big 4.
Hmm
looks like it is 32 events now in case nobody else caught that
Head conductor of the Charles Oliveira hype train.
What was the original number of events reported for 2012?
We’re going to pull back a little bit on the schedule next year. We have 14 pay-per-views. Trying to find the right balance and mix between the free fights on Fox; the free fights on FX; we’re going to have, I think, four free fights on Fuel. Then we have to feed the pay-per-view. So we did throttle back a little bit, but they’re certainly not going to take the place of it.
4 Events on FOX
6 Fight Nights on FX
2 TUF finales on FX
4 Events on FUEL TV
14 Events on PPV
That adds up to 30 UFC events
I don’t know where the other 2-4 events will come from, but I’m glad they’re doing fewer PPVs. 12-14 is much better than the 16 they’re doing this year.
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