Strikeforce's Title Vacancies Prophesying Promotion's Inevitable Demise

In the interest of fairness – maybe I am entirely ignorant – can you provide the sources for everything you have stated?

Maybe I simply gleaned over the reports detailing the non-competition and exclusivity clauses.

No condescension here, as you are doing enough of that for both of us. I am honestly interested – maybe I am missing a piece of the pie you have seen.

Bolded for emphasis, so you can consider something beyond a singular detail I was never unwilling to concede. (Despite the fact you are absolutely speculating.)

“How do you know Showtime won’t pay for those types of shows?”
How do you know they will? You seem to be inferring this conclusion from Showtime’s current promotional relationship with M1 – a promotional relationship which exists solely as one of Showtime’s accession to M1’s demands. Without Fyodor, M1 on Showtime is a non-starter.

Beyond that, neither the UFC nor Fox have released the specific non-competition components of their contract, so let’s avoid pretending as if we know them. The entire time UFC was on Spike they were capable – and did – broadcast elsewhere, had the option to sign with networks, and so on. It is highly unlikely that the UFC has consigned themselves and all their existing and potential subsidiaries to Fox alone.

Far more likely is that the UFC is irrevocably tied to Fox and its affiliate networks, whereas Zuffa/Forza as a whole is not. If the UFC can fold Strikeforce as it is, rebrand as UFC Challengers/Development, and tie it to another network, they will. Simply attaching that name in a lessened format will command a greater licensing fee then Strikeforce, will increase advertising and revenue, as well as boost ratings on whatever network it airs on.

As Monte Fisto said, “Who cares what it’s called?” I could be embarrassingly wrong about the possibility for attaching that brand name – though, there are already corporate precedents for that type of maneuver – the important content of the points remain.

I agreed with this:

There is no way they’re going to close Strikeforce.

And if Strikeforce isn’t making money, which, under that scenario, they won’t be, what’s to stop the UFC from killing it, firing everybody and focusing on its moneymaking ventures?

Strikeforce would be making money though, and this goes back to Leland’s erroneous assumption that Challengers cards lose money. They don’t. The Palms pays a rights fee and they distribute as they see fit. Both of them do well. SF (or Forza) make money, Palms makes money, Showtime (if they negotiate a smaller rights fee, which they would) gets cheap live programming and makes money.

Win win win.

which nobody really wants to be associated with.

Strikeforce will be infinitely less attractive than Bellator, or even M-1, because in those promotions you can at least pretend like the best fighters are going to stick around for five minutes.

A lot of these arguments are predicated on assumptions like this which are far from concrete.

Strikeforce’s business model is going to be changed. They could switch or add networks. The WEC changed too. A change in the business model is one thing, a dissolution is another.

The problem for zuffa in doing that is that it giftwraps a bunch of fighters and a Spike network deal to Bellator. They didn’t buy SF just to destroy it and leave a vaccume to be filled by someone else. It would be interesting to know if Spike and Zuffa have expressed an interest in working together to do some SF/UFC chacllenger shows There’s already a quality relationship built up between the 2 companies so it makes sense that they work together on this if possible. To me that seems like the most likely outcome. We dont know if the Fox deal allows Zuffa to do an unlimited number UFC branded challenger shows on a different network ( you can be sure it does not allow them to do a bunch of UFC on Versus/Spike). If they could do it then UFC challengers on Spike clearly makes the most sense. If they cant then simply SF on Spike (heavily promoted by dana) would be a good second choice. ZUffa will keep enough quality guys and gals on the roster ( probably everyone who hasn’t been moved over already) to make it as good or better than a Bellator product. If it stays as SF they should keep the belts since everyone likes a title fight.