Spike TV Executives Spotted at Bellator 48
by Mike Fagan on Aug 21, 2011 12:40 PM EDT
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Rumors of Bellator moving to Spike TV have circulated since the latter's broadcast deal with the UFC came into question. That move now looks like a forgone conclusion after the UFC's move to the Fox family became official this week.
Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney has played the PR game, telling MMA Junkie that they're only focused on MTV2. Despite Rebney's coyness, MMA Nation's Luke Thomas insists that Spike TV executives have told him that a Bellator move to Spike is "very likely."
There has been plenty of hints that Spike TV execs having been strolling around at Bellator events. Today, a Sherdog report confirms those rumors, reporting their presence at Bellator 48. Spike TV senior vice president of sports and specials declined comment to Sherdog. Rebney, however, offered the following (emphasis mine):
"They've been at all of our shows," Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said of Spike honchos. "They're part of the MTV networks family. Our deal is with MTV Networks, it's not a deal that we did with MTV 2, or a deal that we did with MTV Tres. So we've been able to leverage that expertise."
...
"I mean, I don't know," he said. "I know what the specifics are of our agreement with MTV2, but from a transitional perspective, our deal is with the bigger corporate entity and they make all of the programming decisions. [I'm a] big fan of Spike and an enormous fan right now of MTV2 as well."
That little tidbit makes the move sound like a formality at this point. Spike TV is in just under 20 million more homes than MTV 2, and, even with a small shift in demographic priorities, is still a better fit for MMA programming than a network trying to target the 12-34 market.
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Not surprised
Spike has been putting on the bottom of their programs that Bellator is on MTV2. I found it very intriguing that they were pumping Bellator…It started as soon as the UFC announced their deal with FOX so I figured something was up
Wednesday or Thursday night weekly tourney fights on Spike would be $ in the bank.
"If I wanted to spend a half hour between two hairy legs I'd go to your mother's house." -Don Frye
by mburtoni on Aug 21, 2011 11:40 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
i would like to see them on spike
simply to be back in HD.
That was a real kick and good for laughs and lashings of the old ultraviolent.
this would be a nice move
i just wanna see bellator get rid of their damn championship clauses so we can see alvarez in the ufc
"I have smoked weed with alot of UFC champions" - Joe Rogan
"Você ta fudido. Se vai levar muita porrada, ta ligado?" - Anderson Silva
It would kill the promotion if they did away with the champion’s clause. They can’t develop talent and have guys just walk away once they move up in the rankings. At some point a highly ranked fighter is going to challenge the clause in court and force the issue, unless Bellator develops into the kind of lucrative arrangement that no fighter would want to walk away from. It’s unlikely Bellator will grow that big, but you just never know.
.....
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by Scabby Knuckle on Aug 21, 2011 11:57 AM EDT up reply actions
I don't think the Champions Clause is what really keeps the guys there
Eddie Alvarez gets paid more to fight than Frankie Edgar does(not counting sponsorships and such), so unless the UFC offers him a crazy deal why would he leave Bellator?
by HaterSlayer on Aug 21, 2011 10:49 PM EDT up reply actions
I totally expect it to happen
But it’s not like it is a big deal. Of the 7 weight classes, how many top 25 talent, all together, does Bellator even have?
Strikeforce was, and technically I suppose still is, a solid #2 promotion. They had a decent number of top 25-ers in each of the main divisions, and even a few top 10-ers. Having someone like Fedor when he was #1 was also a big deal that gave them a lot of credibility and relevance.
Strikeforce was purchased by Zuffa and has slowly been bled dry. Their heavyweight champ Overeem released and is currently negotiating with Zuffa for a UFC contract. Fedor cut after 3 straight losses. Their light heavyweight champ Hendo is a free agent and will more then likely try to get to the UFC. Jason Miller, one of their more interesting and exciting middleweights, signed with the UFC when he had the chance. Their welterweight champ Diaz vacated the title to go fight for the UFC title.
By the end of the day, Strikeforce will have none of the top guys, or they won’t even exist as a promotion. Bellator may become #2 by default…but no big TV deal will cover the ground they would have to cover to become anywhere near as relevant as the UFC.
That’s the thing, there are all of these talks like ‘oh, can ProElite get a deal, can Bellator get a deal, what about M-1 Global?’
They all have virtually no leverage in the top 25 of each division, they have nothing on Zuffa…who cares if they can get a good deal, they will never be any sort of real competition to the UFC. Just decent, smaller scale, alternatives.
That’s why I find it hard to really get excited or worked up over any of this news. As time goes on, any sort of ‘competitor’ with the UFC just seems more and more unlikely.
PACIFIC RIM
in theaters
July 12th, 2013
But it’s not like it is a big deal. Of the 7 weight classes, how many top 25 talent, all together, does Bellator even have?
eleven
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by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 21, 2011 12:00 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, not too impressive
Beyond that, they only have 5 top 15 guys and two top 5 guys…both right at #5.
PACIFIC RIM
in theaters
July 12th, 2013
by Chris Groves on Aug 21, 2011 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions
And, obviously, Sandro is about to fall out of his 5 spot
Managing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Aug 21, 2011 12:16 PM EDT up reply actions
Great point
I wonder if it’s a scenario where Curran jumps to his spot…or because Sandro lost to a guy who was ranked as low as Curran…that both of them are deemed as not worthy of the top 5 by the general consensus.
PACIFIC RIM
in theaters
July 12th, 2013
by Chris Groves on Aug 21, 2011 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions
Rankings are not a barometer of success.
Rankings are nice, yes, but they mean nothing to the ability to function as a successful MMA company. In fact, most of the highly successful MMA fights in history had little if anything to do with rankings.
If Bellator puts on a strong show every week (as we know they do) with Spike’s backing both TV exposure and financially, who knows where this will go. You can’t say anything is impossible. If you flipped the time dial back to 2004 everything we’ve seen in just seven years would have seemed impossible then as well.
I doubt there’s a promoter out there who is thinking in terms of challenging UFC for market supremacy. At the same time, though, there’s a ton of talent worldwide in the weight classes below LHW, and Zuffa can’t sign everyone without diluting its own product. There’s plenty of opportunity for WEC-style promotions that focus on a narrow range of weight classes. Bellator would be best served by dumping their HW class and focusing on the weight classes where talent is most abundant. As long as they have the tournament format they’ll have a legitimacy that’s lacking in other promotions when it comes to the championships.
.....
Get on board the Jake Train® . Next stop: Fight Night 25® Winner's Circle!
by Scabby Knuckle on Aug 21, 2011 12:04 PM EDT up reply actions
Sticking to that tourney format has also cost them a few big fights or taken the luster out of them.
http://unintelligentdefense.blogspot.com
by MattParker117 on Aug 21, 2011 12:19 PM EDT up reply actions
I don’t really see why another MMA promotion on the rise has to be some sort of direct competition to the UFC. I don’t really see how that matters. It would be nice if Bellator got more top fighters, but it’s very obvious that their focus is on getting top prospects, not necessarily top-ranked fighters. The prospects are going to be important for Bellator’s growth as they can get more homegrown talent instead of getting UFC castoffs.
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People arent going to watch soley based on fighter prestoge
Bellator is putting on good pro fights with great production, raking in top prospects and a have good gimmick. Getting a deal done with Spike means more to that org than getting both Overeem and Hendo. They are making all the right moves.
A note on Bellator
Plainfield Asset Management the promotions majority shareholder is currently liquidating its assets and is expected to return all investor capital by June after that who knows. Without Plainfield however I doubt Bellator can meet it’s operating costs. Plus there is the matter of the curent lawsuit.
Both of hese are worth keeping an eye on
http://unintelligentdefense.blogspot.com
That’s kind of creepy to hear, but I’m not sure it would affect Bellator in terms of operating expenses. Bellator is more of a captive of its limited revenue stream from broadcast rights than it is of an investor who sunk money earlier. Their live gate probably doesn’t net them anything, since they’ve only occasionally had even 1,500 in attendance. I have to think that even if they move to Spike it has to be considered merely a step toward a larger television deal down the road. Whether they ever get a bigger deal is speculative, of course. If they don’t, the chances are they will eventually fold (and believe me, as a Bellator fan I hate to think that).
.....
Get on board the Jake Train® . Next stop: Fight Night 25® Winner's Circle!
by Scabby Knuckle on Aug 21, 2011 1:24 PM EDT up reply actions
Have you heard of TNA?
When WWE left Spike, Spike sought out the #2, and for the last six or so years have been pouring money into them due to TNA being unable to make their own. They pay for many of the larger contracts, have given them everything they wanted, and in general have been a big sugar daddy. TNA is run by incompetent idiots who could never capitalize on any of it.
If Spike puts 1/2 the money and advertising time into Bellator, Bellator will quickly become a force.
have you heard of TNA? They are not doing near what the WWE did on that station and are not in the best shape right now.
That has nothing to do with Spike. It has everything to do with TNA. Anyone with a functional brain with that setup should have succeeded. You could have taken a no-name Independent company, given them that TV deal, and they’d have done better. Or at least fired their head writer after six straight years of being incompetent.
Bellator is a much better run organization then TNA would ever hope to be. With that money being funneled into Bellator allowing them to run events without a loss and bring in more high profile fighters? They might not rise up to challenge UFC but as a solid #2 to give fighters a viable alternative? Entirely possible.
Bellator is great cause they know what they are
They know they don’t have the top top talent in America so instead they have created a cool tournament-concept basis for their promotion to create excitement. Its smart.
Vote Quimby
man but I don't like Spike was looking forward to never having to watch anything from them again
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They may as well just announce it now.
We all know it’s gonna happen.
They only way I see this not going down is if Bjorn starts to think he’s Pavelich and he demands an insane amount of money or something and Spike tells him to fuck off.
"Last time a Russian hit a brother that hard, Ivan Drago killed Apollo Creed"- Some guy on Sherdog, referencing Fedor vs Rogers
Hopefully when they move to spike they change the mat
Drink til I'm full, Eat till I pass out.
Spike TV is going to capture Bellator
Keep the West Coast tape delay MTV2 has along with the awful pacing of cards, and it’s like the UFC productions they did never lleft!
I went whale watching the other day. I think. There were a lot of people in that lake.
It will probably happen...
and if it does, Bellator can’t treat it like a victory, they have to treat it as a fist step of a good opportunity.
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