My Take On 01.18.07: The MMA Migration Edition
Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.19.2007
My Take On becomes a syndicated special as it expands from its wrestling roots and goes into another favorite area, MMA.
Introduction:
Welcome to the inaugural "sports" edition of the Wrestling Mainstay column My Take On! For those of you that may not be professional wrestling fans and therefore do not read that part of our fine site, let me introduce myself. I am Larry Csonka, former running back for the Miami Dolphins editor and chief of the 411mania Wrestling Zone. I am a huge fan of pro wrestling, have done some wrestling on the side and love to do nothing more than break down and analyze the business of pro wrestling. In doing that I have done a lot of comparison study with MMA, especially in regards to PPV buys and such, and through that study and the birth of the Ultimate Fighter TV show have become a HUGE MMA fan. I now try to order as many of the UFC PPV's as possible, as well as check out some PRIDE, IFL and other forms of MMA. MMA is exploding and I have decided to bring "My Take On" to the sports zone and through this column I will discuss MMA. For those of you not too familiar with the column, it has several formats. Sometimes I will discuss one topic, other times I will use it to discuss several small topics (usually 3-5) and finally I may use it as a character study, or biography of an athlete. You just never know what you will get! With all that out of the way, sit back and relax kids, business has just picked up here in the sports zone.
The Topics:
A return to the "Natural" order of things - Off of the heels of UFC 67 and Tito vs. Chuck II it was announced that Randy "The Natural" Couture announced that he was coming out of retirement. On February 4th, 2006 Couture had his "last fight" in a losing effort to Chuck Liddell. Couture vs. Liddell III was a culmination and at the time set the UFC buy rate record at 400,000 buys, and the company was elated at that. In my opinion with the advent of the Ultimate fighter show and this feud, that is what started the UFC upswing. Couture, who had worked for small checks the majority of his career made a huge payday (and they got bigger due to him) and hung it up in a loss. Fighting is a lot like wrestling in a lot of ways, and one of those ways are retirement. In a lot of ways, no one ever really retires. Couture did some announcing for UFC, made appearances on the Ultimate Fighter follow up shows and stayed in shape (great shape for a man in his forties) as he trained for a submission match with Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, a world champion in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu. The match went to a draw and Couture was reportedly not at 100%. Now the only man in UFC history to win the Heavyweight and Light-Heavyweight title is returning with a 4-fight, 2-year deal. He will challenge UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia for the title in March in an effort to regain his title. If Couture can regain his title, I expect UFC to build the huge match of Couture vs. Mirko Crocop; which would be one of their few heavyweight marquee feuds.
UFC gets Video Game Deal - In a huge piece of news in the last week UFC has signed a 5-year deal with THQ for the production of a UFC Video Game, which was something that they not only needed but something that MMA/Video Game fans have wanted for a while now. As far as I remember it has been a few years since UFC had a video game, going back to the initial Tap Out, Throw Down and Sudden Impact games. In my opinion they were not very good games, especially compared to the wrestling games and other "fighting" games of the time; with poor graphics and limited replay value. A for this new deal, it gives THQ, "the rights to create videogames for all current and next-generation consoles, PC and handheld platforms, in addition to certain wireless rights. Rights also include online, downloadable and multi-player capabilities in connection with the various gaming systems". With the explosion of next generation systems and success of games like WWE Raw vs. Smackdown 2007, things look good for UFC. Speaking of WWE, it is interesting because THQ also produces the WWE games, and when the UFC deal was announced it apparently sent WWE into a frenzy as internally they recognize UFC as their primary competition. This is a huge deal for UFC, all they need is a DVD distribution deal and they will be beyond set.
Nobody hypes and sells a PPV better - I love the All Access UFC shows leading into a PPV. They are not only interesting shows but also very effective ways of letting you get emotionally attached to the fighters, which in turn can make people want to spend money. These specials have a knack of making the underdog look like he will win. They also make you love the guy with the good traits and despise the guy with the ego. And that is what it is all about. You love to root for the underdog. Pro wrestling history shows that people pay money to either see their favorite win, or to see the asshole "heel" get defeated for self-gratification. WWE and TNA Wrestling, based off of TV Ratings do roughly a 4% conversion rate from TV Viewers to PPV buyers. Of course there is a vast difference in viewers so for WWE 4% is 300,000 in some cases and for TNA 4% is 30,000. UFC averages 1,000,000 viewers for their PPV hype specials and they have broken 400,000 buys on almost every PPV in 2006 as well as many over 600,000. That is an astonishing 40 to over 60% conversion rate! Of course some will say that not all of the viewers are TV viewers. This is true, but you base who buys your PPV off of the effectiveness of your TV and in comparison to Pro Wrestling UFC KILLS them in the execution of the PPV build. There is just nobody building and selling PPV better than UFC right now, and I will be very interested to see what kind of numbers Tito vs. Chuck does. People inside the cable and PPV industry had estimates as high as 1.2-Million buys. Most think it will hit 900,000 without a problem. Even if they don't hit the "Million" mark, they will no doubt have hit another homerun with the buys, continuing their trend.
Smart and Friendly - Speaking of UFC PPV, according to the company press release regarding UFC 68, the event will be priced at $39.95 for the standard definition broadcast and $49.95 for the HD broadcast. This is both SMART and Fan Friendly. Let's say the average UFC PPV will do 400,000 buys, and that they get half, or 200,000 of those buys to buy the HD version of the PPV. They will make an extra $2-million dollars PER show. Smart because you have just increased your revenue by $2-million dollars PER show. Fan friendly because you are giving your fans the choice. They aren't jacking the price by $10 and saying, "Now in HD," which means fuck all to me since I don't have HD. People appreciate the choice for things like this, we don't like having things forced on us and I feel this is a very good thing.
My Take On:
And that will wrap up the inaugural sports edition of My Take On. We discussed the Return of Randy Couture and how that could affect things, the great news of the UFC video game deal and how it is the perfect time for it, UFC's awesomeness of hyping and selling PPV as well as how smart and friendly they are in doing so. It is an exciting time to be an MMA fan as there is a ton happening. I hope you have enjoyed the column, and don't worry I'll be back.
PS:I am really NOT the former running back for the Miami Dolphins…just a distant relation.
