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UFC vs PFL vs ONE Championship
Where were we?! We just had a first major mishap using Twitter/X Blue since signing up for the upgrade back in circa July of this year. We wrote about 1500 charactures into X primarily on the subject on our involvement of the PPV selling of combat sports packages in our Optus Vision/Communications days, as well as some contract and confidential work at FOX (Tel), and we lost that work when we went to publish it! That will teach us for doing such a long and detailed scribe on the smartphone directly without backing up onto a laptop first. Anyway, back to the story.
The compeition has heated up in the professional mixed martial arts world. That can be seen largely as a positive for fighters and fight fans. More options right.
We worked full time in the Aussie subscriber TV including pay-per-view industry in what I call the glory days of pay televison of Australia circa 1996. I headed up the retention of PPV with 5 people under me, and we worked with clients who has issues with programming, but who mainly loved sports and often combat sports. I created the PPV Liasion department of Optus Vision/Comms. I worked quite closely with the marketing department up a few levels about us at the Zenith Centre, Tower B, at Chatswood, Sydney. Used to get the raw PPV data and it was ultra impressive. Especially the numbers for pro wrestling.
From primarly Aussie shores we witnessed the growth of the UFC over the past three decades. We actually used to bring in the UFC tapes from the U.S in NTSC format before Optus and Main Event TV started carrying the UFC fights on their PPV broadcasts. The knowledge I gained actually helped get the full-time job at Optus which as for 5 years. Restructure came to the firm and I took generous voluntary redundany money and jumped ship to Telstra. I found the extra money too hard to refuse, plus there had been a management change at Optus as it wasn't as enjoyable or as lucrative work work there any longer. Still miss it however, but it just shows you how much management, moral and remuneration matters to hard working people!
Bean counters are employed by all sorts of companies, mixed martial arts firms included. They crunch the numbers, allocate budget to varoius arms of the operation including fighter pay and bonuses, work our PPV and merch revenue forecasts etc etc.
To state the obvious, MMA and professional fighting in general is a performance based profession. The champion mixed changes from time to time, and injuries and real life situations with competitors happen from time to time. It's all part of the fight game.
Many MMA insiders are pondering if the UFC (now part of TKO Group) business model has peaked, at least in the traditional way. We know that there's talk and possible plans to have company sports weekends in cities in the U.S for a start, where the WWE will put on a show, and then the UFC soon after for example, at the same venue, and this will help with cost efficiency. In additional, TKO Group for example can negotiatie with the host city while offering not 1 but 2 special PLE/PPV events, which do enjoy some cross-over audience. The cross-over numbers get disputed but its different at present than when Brock Lesnar and Rhonda Rousey were doing their thing back and forward. You get the point fight.
Most fans of WWE are casual and semi-hardcore. I think most UFC/MMA fans are most hardcore in nature. Of course, the internet has opened up the world of shared combat sport info (like figher PPV pays and bonuses, contacts etc)...like the release of data per court case and freedom of information related and the like. Talk about pulling back the curtain on the industry. Pros and cons related to that, but the genie is out of the bottle.
So, where from here? Fighters and fans have more options. More of the general public at large will become aware of the other promotions rather than just have UFC more deer in headlights in their minds eye.
The fight out of the cage is on for the fans imagination and entertainment budget. Business models can and do need to change and the events from the past week or so are disrupting the business of combat sports globally. Just look at the amount of balaned and largely postive news headlines the PFL (and ONE) news releases generate. How much converts to paying fans remains to be seen.
Us, we are used to getting free and heavily discounted tickets to sports and entertainment events, but we don't get free hotel rooms (not lately anyway), and we also currently have to pay for own our airfares. This makes us more selective as to what live sports and entertainment events to attend in person, no matter what part of the world. We'be been ringside for Thai Kickboxing in Bangkok, Thailand ages ago (get that Chatri Sityodtong). We knew than how exciting it was, but it was never broadcast on Aussie TV, but it did get some decent network TV time in Thailand, mainly on the weekends and sometimes late-ish at night from memory. There was also a strong VHS tape buying, selling and trading scene. We were also involved in the scence but internationally but more with pro wrestling and MMA fights from primarily the US, Canada, Europe (Germany and Austria), Japan and New Zealand. Combat sports fans are known to go to great lengths to get what they are seeking.
Back on point, compat sports business is ultra competitive and will continue to remain so.
UFC 300 is being put together by Dana White and the powers that be. Sphere business in Las Vegas is well on the same and Mr White is "very excited" and rightly so. "Loves a challenge". Well, more challanges are around the corner and its got more involved than setting up new venues.
Let's all aim for a strong Win-Win-Win. Should we say "A good, clean, fight", or would that just be a play on words at this stage of the fight game? In plenty of ways there's more at stake than a flash gold coloured belt. This is professional sports business at the hightest level. And yes, we are open for business and comms with any promoters etc that want to open up fresh discussions with us. Cheers from Sydney, Australia.
Greg Tingle, Founder Media Man Group/Media Man Australia/Media Man Int
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