Dana Responds to PPV Numbers

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: veritas
Date: September 25, 2009 at 07:10 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/dana-responds-to-ppv-numbers.17958/

White continuously boasted that his card would best the Mayweather card at the pay-per-view box office. He said UFC 103 did far more than 100,000 buys, but he conceded that boxing scored a heavy victory.
White said he thought before the fights, a home run for Mayweather-Marquez would have been 650,000. But he said Friday he had been hearing from his contacts that the fight may have reached as high as 1.6 million.
“I’m an emotional guy and if we’d only have done 100,000, or barely above 100,000, I would be suicidal,” White said. “Bottom line, we did a good number and we still got our asses kicked. What they did was phenomenal and I’m happy for them. This was our fourth pay-per-view in two months (actually 10 weeks) and we still did a great number, but this was only their second all year.
“We honestly thought we’d do our number and that if they knocked it out of the park, they’d do around 650,000. We are ecstatic with the number we did, but they did a huge, huge number.”
http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_ylt=AoemzHqUwEi6TKLqkqcaz3U5nYcB?slug=ki-boxnumbers092509&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Click to expand...

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: wolf
Date: September 25, 2009 at 07:26 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/dana-responds-to-ppv-numbers.17958/

Interesting. I wonder what number they actually did? 300,000 thousand? If so that's horrible compared to the numbers in the past couple of months. But he's right, it was Boxing's 2nd biggest card this year, Mayweather was coming out of retirement etc. And bottom line, all I heard about on ESPN radio and other sports radio networks was the boxing fight. NO ONE was talking about UFC 103. Boxing is still bigger than MMA, it's only a matter of time though.
If you think about it, UFC 103 was headlined by an aging Franklin who has no championship aspirations anymore, against Vitor Belfort who no one but the hardcore fans know. That guy hadn't fought in the UFC in a long time. The other fights were ok as well, none were really hyped that much. Mirko is a big name, but also aging and hasn't been the mirko of old for a long time, and he was facing an up-and-comer. It was a weak card, and if Dana's happy with the numbers, I'm happy with the numbers.
I also heard that the MGM Grand didn't sell out, although they did get a huge gate of 6 million. The capacity was around 15,000 and they only filled 12,000 seats or somthing like that.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: JCOLE81
Date: September 25, 2009 at 07:32 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/dana-responds-to-ppv-numbers.17958/

If the Mayweather fight had gone against a card with a title bout(especially Lesnar) it may have been different but really I'm not surprised. Right now the people who decide what gets hyped on ESPN an other sports networks are older so the majority prefer boxing. Give it time though.

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: MartinezClinch
Date: September 25, 2009 at 07:40 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/dana-responds-to-ppv-numbers.17958/

Boxing is still bigger than MMA, but they are going in opposite directions. MMA will be bigger eventually. It will just take some time...

 

[Nastycrow]

Originally posted by: keystone
Date: September 25, 2009 at 07:42 PM
Source: https://forum.mmajunkie.com/threads/dana-responds-to-ppv-numbers.17958/

ok ok, funny joke, what did he really say