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Ed Fishman lawsuit being finalized
By Zach Arnold | March 19, 2007
By Zach Arnold
Update: NHB News (Japanese) points out an article from publication Cyzo in which its writer makes the claim that PRIDE’s debts have increased since running shows in America and that the company could be one billion yen in debt. That would be roughly $8-9 million USD.
UFC Junkie picked up on a news story from Sherdog writer Greg Savage claiming that UFC has bought PRIDE for $65 million USD. (Obviously, this would be interesting timing given that Sakakibara is headed to Las Vegas right now).
Well, a major roadblock in any sort of purchase of PRIDE is about to be finalized. Ed Fishman and his attorneys are expected to finalize their lawsuit against Dream Stage Entertainment either tonight or early tomorrow. The lawsuit will be over breach of contract, and it will include a focus on putting all of PRIDE’s major players past and present (Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Yukino Kanda, Hideki Yamamoto, etc.) under court deposition. What could be revealed under court deposition?
- Who is the mystery owner of PRIDE (Shukan Gendai has been claiming all along that it is Mr. I aka Mr. Ishizaka aka Kim Dok-Soo, former loan shark from the Osaka area)?
- Where revenue streams from PRIDE-related USA activities specifically went in regards to being sent back home (Japan or South Korea?)
- Details or stories regarding police investigations into the company (could we see details about the Kanagawa Police investigation involving Seiya Kawamata and also potentially discussion of related-matters from Tokyo Metropolitan Police?)
- The status of fighter contracts (and whether or not those said fighter contracts can be enforceable in the US or if the top fighters are essentially all free agents at this point)
- Tax and immigration-related issues (i.e. proper or false tax filings in the US, traveling or working visas, etc.)
Once the Ed Fishman lawsuit is officially filed, we will try to look at the legal claim and analyze it further.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 57 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Is the lawsuit really a roadblock? I though lawsuit was against DSE and not PRIDE.
DSE owns PRIDE… if UFC was to buy PRIDE, essentially it would be buying into DSE.
Well Zach it would appear you got your wish. The end of Pride. Now we will see how much the fighters will suffer on payday when the UFC controls most of the major talent. In my opinion it is already a joke. The fighters are already underpaid when you look at the millions the promoters are taking in from an event. I think it will prove to be a bad thing for the fighters, the fans and MMA in general.
If UFC bought PRIDE, they would want to keep it up and running. And likely a lot of the old guard would hang around or advise in different capacities.
My first thoughts about stories of UFC wanting to purchase PRIDE are not thoughts about PRIDE’s death, but rather the trouble UFC is potentially getting into.
Wow. Lost all my new bookmarks earlier, and had just gotten around to readding UFCJunkie, only to be hit with that headline. My brain is refusing to react to it as being anything but a rumor just yet.
I think the legal implications of purchasing PRIDE are largely overblown. I also doubt the Ed Fishman lawsuit will go very far past the simple facts regarding what is on his contract and what actually occured in relation to that contract. The idea that PRIDE’s murky history will somehow surface via a contractual lawsuit is kinda laughable. And PRIDE’s questionable ownership was the problem all along. A change in ownership basically removes the shady aspect of the promotion.
Anyways, I don’t pretend to know any more than anyone else, but Zach i think you’re falling victim to the echo chamber that you mention in the past – your involvement and in depth knowledge of the whole thing makes you overanalyze the situation and blow many aspects out of proportion. There have been countless shady businesses which have been bought and legitimized over the years. Las Vegas is a living example of a dirty city ‘cleaned’ by this kind of deal. And if Zuffa really did buy Pride, I’m pretty sure they’re not walking into this blind. I try not to hug no nuts, but i don’t think the Fertittas are so stacked they’d throw 65mil at anything without looking at it closely.
[…] UPDATE: Should the sale happen, there could be an additional layer of problems, according to Zach Arnold at FightOpinion.com. […]
Fishman is one of the few guys in Vegas who has enough juice to even contend with the Fertittas for power in the town. You’re underestimating what a dog fight this could turn into legally.
I’m not a lawyer, but if Fishman’s lawsuit is against DSE and not Pride, I don’t see how this would prevent the Fertittas from a purchase.
If the lawsuit is against Pride itself, maybe it will be like when Zuffa purchased the WFA (who Lappen was suing at the time), they settled the Lappen suit pretty quickly.
…but just as the Fertittas are likely to be aware of what they’re getting into in regards to the ownership/”shady past” of Pride, they are surely as aware of the Fishman situation. If this whole thing indeed is true, the Fertittas probably hada good reason to buy now rather than to cautiously sit back and see where Fishmans lawsuit was heading. That doesn’t mean there won’t be a few lawyers thrown around, but I get the impression that the only sure thing here is that Fishman is coming out a loser. Given that he persistently gave the impression that he’s more interested in the casino gambling crowd than in fighting, I’m not exactly sorry for him.
With the lawsuit going forward, UFC would have to deal with it in one capacity or another if they purchased PRIDE (and/or shares of DSE). By dealing with it meaning watch it proceed forward or pay Fishman a lot of money to settle it. It’s not out of the question that they would pay him to go away, depending on what the $$$ is.
Quote from Meltzer’s fresh Monday update. Note the 11th hour bit:
“–Regarding all the Pride rumors, we’ve heard so much in recent days. Where there’s smoke there is fire, but Pride has been close to sold so many times that I don’t count on anything, particularly since some in the company have heard about an 11th hour fall apart once again. The funny thing is, in Japan, the belief is it is about to be sold, but not to the Fertittas.”
http://www.wrestlingobserver.com
Zach, I agree with fightlinker.com in that you’re way too deep in the echo chamber yourself. As usual with PRIDE news, you tend to exaggerate your analysis.
The Fertittas are much more astute financially than it sounds like you’re giving them credit for. Assuming this rumor is even true, the relatively low price tag ($65 million) tells me one of two things: 1) PRIDE has a lot of debt or 2) The Fertittas are building the cost of any pay off to Fishman and/or legal proceedings with regards to Fishman’s lawsuit into the price tag or 3) All of the above.
And so what if Fishman turns it into a dog fight? Either the Fertittas have done (or are planning to do) their due diligence and feel the pending lawsuit over DSE is a risk worth taking. Or, more likely, their purchase of PRIDE is pending resolution of said lawsuit.
Also, I notice you never denied wanting PRIDE to end. If anything, you would prefer that PRIDE does not get bought and just dies a slow miserable death. That would really just make your year, wouldn’t it?
Ed Fishman files a lawsuit against DSE/PRIDE. If I’m purchasing a company or doing an M & A for a rival company, one of the things I would take in account (besides debt) is whether or not the company I want to purchase has legal action.
That’s a totally legitimate business point.
I never once argued the net worth or business value of the Fertitta Brothers.
A person earlier in the thread stated to me that ‘this is what I wanted’ for PRIDE to die, and my argument all along is that if UFC purchases them they won’t die, it will just become a money pit in Japan. But UFC won’t just close up shop in Japan if they pay anything over $5 million USD (which is really what PRIDE is worth these days, in my opinion) for DSE/PRIDE. You’re putting words into my mouth here.
WFA was getting sued too. and how would buying PRIDE be buying into DSE? a company can sell one of their sub companies off and have no relation to it from that point.
Zach, assuming the Fertittas are even in any kind negotiations with PRIDE, the mere fact that you stated “the trouble UFC is potentially getting into” implies that you think you know more about PRIDE’s legal and business situation than they do. They fully understand, much moreso than you, what the legal and business implications are and if a deal is in place, I’m sure they’ve already accounted for it or planned around it.
Also, by saying that you put PRIDE’s value at $5 million (and calling it a potential money pit) without even a simple cash flow statement or balance sheet is laughable and utterly ridiculous.
And I’m not putting any words into your mouth. Now two people have accused you of wanting PRIDE to die and you still have not said, “No, I don’t.”
PRIDE is just a logo. DSE is the company.
Guys, Zach has been spot on all along with this stuff…remember all you kids saying that Pride WOULDNT be in trouble, that TV was a small percentage of their total revenue??
My major concern would be the trouble that UFC is buying into as Zach says. UFC will be buying assetts from a publicly alleged criminal gang with dodgy books and supposed inks to violent and threatning behaviour. Not that Im saying they (the UFC guys) are totally clean in all their tactics (the casino bizness is not like running a local Scout group) but UFC must not just jump at the low price tag as it could end up REALLY hurting them.
Zach has been correct the entire time about Pride.
However, I doubt The Fertitta’s will have much issue once they purchase the company. These are the same brothers that helped orchestrate a multi-billionaire buyout of their company. Any possible legal issues, I would have to assume, were ironed out before they purchased the company.
I have not seen the contract that Fishman has with PRIDE. However, if it’s a deal where there’s a clause that makes him an exclusive promoter in Vegas or America or has some sort of no-compete in it, that is a roadblock that anyone who purchases PRIDE has to deal with. Whether it’s UFC or BoDog, either they would have to work with Fishman as a promoter or make a legal settlement.
I don’t know any more insider knowledge than UFC does with their lawyers doing due dilligence (if that has been performed). Based on everything that has been publicly stated from all camps plus Gendai and other publications, it’s perfectly reasonable to try to put together a picture of why UFC could find itself in some trouble with PRIDE.
To me, the biggest issue for UFC buying out PRIDE (besides the money transaction itself) is how much money and overhead it would cost for UFC to keep PRIDE going. Japan is a very expensive market to do business in. If UFC goes into Japan via PRIDE, suddenly you’re dealing with K-1 on a rival level. Anytime you can avoid enemies, you try to do it. Putting out fires is never a desirable position to be in.
Right. There is a big difference between buying the PRIDE assets and PRIDE itself (DSE). If you buy shares into DSE, then certainly things get much more complicated. If UFC bought the assets only of PRIDE, then it would be a much cleaner transaction. Cleaner — as in less complicated and less hurdles to jump through.
You’re right, the Fertittas did take Station Casinos back from being a publicly traded company to private. That stated, we still don’t know if they face any legal challenges yet from shareholders on that. If they do, that’s a business deal that could get complicated (even if the price offered per share was in the $90 USD/share range).
Zach do u think Inoki will try and sign Pride fighters to his new promotion? If Pride falls into US hands is there a void in Japan which needs filling and does MMA take a bigger downturn in Japan?
Couple of things –
1) I think it’s safe to assume that Fishman’s lawsuit is meant to do a little bit more than rectify a breach of contract – did L&F anticipate this?
2) Concerning DSE’s shady connections – how did the Ferttitas bypass/work with these to acquire the company? Is Sakakibara going to turn up dead?
And some of you people are being just as presumptuous as you claim Zach is by arguing that you somehow know that he DOESN’T know what he’s talking about.
Does new owners gurantee Pride TV or is still going to be difficult?
That’s an outstanding question. If Inoki can convince his backers that PRIDE guys will be available shortly (like a Josh Barnett), then sure – absolutely – it’s conceivable he could make a power play. Funny how Inoki has a perfect sense of timing as to when to get out and get back into the fight business in Japan. The big question for Inoki is if any TV network would ever take him back. If he has trouble on that front, then I could see him working with Ishii once Ishii is out of jail.
I do think MMA would take a bigger downturn in Japan without PRIDE. HERO’s is a weird product. It’s fine to watch on TV but it’s not a product that you find yourself putting a heavy emotional investment into.
I think it’s a difficult proposition now, and it would become more difficult with foreign owners.
I honestly don’t think the Fertittas would keep Pride running for long. The logical move would be to simply keep the fighters they want and disolve the rest of it.
I don’t know the Japanese business scene, but I can’t imagine a Ferritta-owned Pride having an easy time of it in Japan. Maybe they would partner up with someone–a Japanese Fishman, maybe. Then we could countdown the days until that blows up in their face.
“My first thoughts about stories of UFC wanting to purchase PRIDE are not thoughts about PRIDE’s death, but rather the trouble UFC is potentially getting into.”
Hmmm, do the multi-millionaire casino heads at Zuffa listen to their consultants, who are probably the best that money can buy, or to the “thoughts” of some nobody on the internet, who is probably clinically obese. Now that is the real story here.
Wow Allen, are you being a bit harsh? If what you said was true, what would that say about YOU taking the time and posting your own comments on the thoughts “of some nobody on the internet”?
apparently MMAWeekly Radio show is also reporting that the Fertittas have purchased Pride. It looks like this might be real this time.
“Wow Allen, are you being a bit harsh? If what you said was true, what would that say about YOU taking the time and posting your own comments on the thoughts “of some nobody on the internetâ€?”
It would clearly say: “Takes a nobody to know a nobody.”
Zach Arnold: Your obsession with the everything bad about PRIDE is borderline pathetic. I am sure the Fertittas know a lot more about business and PRIDE’s current state than you do, seeing as they have been in talks with DSE since they lost the FujiTV deal.
Your comment about what you would do if you were purchasing a company was hysterical. You write articles for a website, they are highly successful businessmen.
Time to to move on.
Fishman’s pending lawsuit is shouldn’t be an obstacle if the Pride deal being reported is an asset sale (rather than a stock purchase sale). Asset sales are generally better for buyers (and worse for sellers), because the general rule is that liabilities don’t follow assets, and Fishman’s suit will be against DSE and its individual officers. I also highly doubt Fishman will be able to get an injunction to prevent the sale of Pride from proceeding, however the purchase is structured. Injunctions require an extremely demanding burden of proof.
I’ll be curious to know how this purchase is structured — if the parties decide to release that information…
Fan Futbol
One last thing, even if the deal is a stock sale, I don’t see how that means the Fertittas couldn’t proceed with the purchase. Outstanding lawsuits against a company do not legally prevent the sale of the company. Yes, they can make buyers demand to pay a lower price, or scare a buyer away from the deal entirely, but I know of no legal principle that says the deal couldn’t go forward. It happens all the time.
This is correct. However, the major asset of purchasing PRIDE would be fighter contracts. Given that those contracts are to DSE (a Japanese entity), there are serious questions about whether or not those contracts are enforceable. If the purchase of PRIDE assets requires buying shares into DSE, that is not good.
For the sake of argument, let’s just say that the Fertittas paid $65 million USD for PRIDE assets (name, VTR collection, etc.) That’s a laughable figure. No one else would even come close to offering that for a company that is now allegedly $8-9 million USD in debt. In total, the assets of PRIDE are (in my opinion) worth no more than $3-5 million USD. Overpaying by a ratio of 13-20:1 is incredible.
A bit off topic and without reading the threads. Zach, if Zuffa DID buy PRIDE, then (for the sake of argument) got into legal trouble cause of what DSE did in the past, do you think a bunch of PRIDE marks on the Sherdog forums are going to be like “serves them right!” to Zuffa? I kinda expect it.
The Pride Marks on sherdog will do exactly that. They are so annoying just because they refuce to accept reality. There response to Pride losing tv was insane. This people believed it was all one big lie and Prode wopuld just move to America and be ok.
If Zuffa has bought Pride personally I hope they really dont try and take a UFC style product to Japan. I hope the rules of Pride are not brought in line with MMA rules in the US and thirdly DO NOT TAKE THE PRO-WRESTLING ELEMENT OUT OF PRIDE!!!!
[…] FightOpinion.com – Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry. Ed Fishman lawsuit being finalized By Zach Arnold Update: NHB News (Japanese) points out an article from publication Cyzo in which its writer makes the claim that PRIDE’s debts have increased since running shows in America and that the company could be one billion yen in debt. That would be roughly $8-9 million USD. UFC Junkie picked up on a news story from Sherdog writer Greg Savage claiming that UFC has bought PRIDE for $65 million USD. (Obviously, this would be interesting timing given that Sakakibara is headed to Las Vegas right now). Well, a major roadblock in any sort of purchase of PRIDE is about to be finalized. Ed Fishman and his attorneys are expected to finalize their lawsuit against Dream Stage Entertainment either tonight or early tomorrow. The lawsuit will be over breach of contract, and it will include a focus on putting all of PRIDE’s major players past and present (Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Yukino Kanda, Hideki Yamamoto, etc.) under court deposition. What could be revealed under court deposition? 1. Who is the mystery owner of PRIDE (Shukan Gendai has been claiming all along that it is Mr. I aka Mr. Ishizaka aka Kim Dok-Soo, former loan shark from the Osaka area)? 2. Where revenue streams from PRIDE-related USA activities specifically went in regards to being sent back home (Japan or South Korea?) 3. Details or stories regarding police investigations into the company (could we see details about the Kanagawa Police investigation involving Seiya Kawamata and also potentially discussion of related-matters from Tokyo Metropolitan Police?) 4. The status of fighter contracts (and whether or not those said fighter contracts can be enforceable in the US or if the top fighters are essentially all free agents at this point) 5. Tax and immigration-related issues (i.e. proper or false tax filings in the US, traveling or working visas, etc.) Once the Ed Fishman lawsuit is officially filed, we will try to look at the legal claim and analyze it further. __________________ "BJ is an ultimate fighter and my bf and I love ultimate fighting and we watch it all the time.We’re super into it and BJ is the best fighter out of Hawaii.I’ll spend Valentine’s day in NYC with my bf,the most amazing person in the world." -BJ’s GF […]
I hope it’s true as it will be a new era in Japanese Martial Arts.
$8-$9MM is not a lot of debt.
I’m sure the Fertitta’s have decent business advisers but that is completely different to having good advice on MMA. For god sake look at the share price of the IFL at one point!
Whatever people say MMA has far more to do with pro-wrestling promotion than any mainstream sport. Obviously Dana White leads on that side of things and has some close go to guys. One of those is Dave Meltzer, who Zach for better or worse has echos his views on Pride’s future (except in a more hyperbolic manner!). I imagine if they are going to buy DSE it will be for a very low amount of money – less than $10m cash certainly limiting the risks.
Its seems that the majority of the posters that are questioning the amount of damage that the Fishman lawsuit can do, have not done much business in Japan. In business, the Japanese put a large emphasis on pride (no pun intended) and honor, if the Fishman lawsuit can unearth damaging business relationships and/or questionable dealings Pride FC as a brand could be heavily damaged in the minds of many Japanese fans.
Just a few years ago when DSE’s former president felt that he had done a poor job managing the company he committed suicide instead of losing honor in the eyes of his family, friends and business partners (http://www.puroresu.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1819.html).
At the end of the day, Fishman could walk away with nothing from suing DSE/Pride, but the destruction of the companies image could be enough to make this purchase a mistake for the Fertittas if Pride’s home market no longer welcomes the product.
Here’s an excellent article from MMAWeekly clearing up a lot of points.
Zach, since you are so certain that you are accurate that PRIDE is only worth “$3-5 million”, care to back that certainty up with any quantitative justification? I’ve love to know how you arrived at this fair value without even a simple cash flow statement, income statement or balance sheet.
Also, my take on this situation is not that the Fertittas are buying the fighter contracts or the video library. Frankly, I don’t think either is worth that much. I think what they buying is the PRIDE brand and the potential for it to get back on public Japanese TV.
On top of that, it gives the Fertittas the flexibility necessary to keep the majority of elite, marketable fighters in their stable (regardless of whether they are marketable in the US). The Japanese audience is much more accepting of “foreign” talent than the US is, and not only will the Fertittas be able to keep more fighters under contract, but be able to send them to the organization better suited to market them. It is really the flexibility to sign fighters at what they are worth internationally, not just in the US. For example, Wanderlei and Shogun and Fedor are justified high-price signings for PRIDE in Japan. Not so for the UFC.
I also see this more as a move to give them the ability to consolidate talent (both current and future) at an international level, rather than just at a US level as it is for Zuffa currently and subsuquently be able to have real fighter exchanges. The reason I believe they are doing is not because they see PRIDE as a future independent threat but as a move to consolidate power and fighter stables (again, the *ability* to sign more international fighters is probably just as important here as PRIDE’s current roster) as a preemptive strike against boxing promoters and other orgs like K-1, Inoki, Bodog, etc.
Regardless of what Pride may or may not be worth on paper right now, the Fertitta’s are really buying the potential to make money in the future. Many of the barriers that are crippling Pride right now may go away with new owners. At that point, the company is worth a lot more. The Fertitta’s are know for risky business moves, so this wouldn’t be out of line for them.
Let’s look at this from an assets perspective. If Zuffa LLC bought simply the assets of PRIDE, then let’s look at what they would get:
– VTR library (as proven by the ineffectiveness of the value of the video footage on the FSN shows and in America in general, the video tape library has very little monetary value in the US. The only way to make money with it would be through a distributor like Pony Canyon in Japan to sell DVDs of old fights, but generally speaking that’s not a big market at all for ancilliary cash).
– The PRIDE name and logo (these are damaged goods in Japan. Doesn’t matter if you replace management, no TV network wants to touch it now. Too hot to handle. My argument always has been – why bother with the name when it’s value is less and less each day? PRIDE management had also thought about that conclusion to the point where they were considering going under the name of Condor for a show last year on TV-Asahi).
– The fighter contracts (right now, a lot of the top fighters are not under deals. Fedor does single fights, Wanderlei Silva is not under a deal, etc. Realistically, Josh Barnett’s the top guy they have under contract, and to say that Japanese contracts are not always enforceable in the States is an understatement).
You combine these factors and apply some common sense in regards to what PRIDE’s value is in Japan versus what it would be in America, and the answer is that you’re looking at no more than $3-5 million USD for an asset transaction. I’d shudder to think if UFC actually bought shares into DSE in order to get DSE Inc. to enforce the contracts. Then you’re talking about a potential major money sinkhole for business.
For the sake of argument… let’s say that UFC buys PRIDE’s assets and runs their own deal in Japan. Who would they get to run it? Likely a lot of the old characters (Ken Imai, Sotaro Shinoda, etc.) involved in the PRIDE deal in the first place. Second, do you really think that Japanese office employees are going to take their orders from a gaijin boss or from someone who knows where they and their family live? It is such a difficult task in the fight game (especially in Japan) for a gaijin boss to run an office in Japan effectively. Why do you think Vince McMahon, who has plenty of money to burn, has never done it?
Grape Knee High has some really good comments there!
O.K, my biggest fear is the harmonization of the sport to the UFC’s standard. Will pride (or UFC NIHON?) be in an octagon with with nj rules?
I could care less on who owns pride as long as the product isn’t radically changed.
“You combine these factors and apply some common sense in regards to what PRIDE’s value is in Japan versus what it would be in America, and the answer is that you’re looking at no more than $3-5 million USD for an asset transaction.”
So…uh…what’s this magical formula you’re using to get this number? I mean, besides “I pulled it out of my ass.” I understand that you feel PRIDE is not worth much but that’s not a quantitative analysis.
I just want to know how you came about this number since, if the rumors are true, the Fertittas are paying $65 million (no doubt under the guidance of more than a handful of Harvard MBAs). Now compare that with claims from a pro-wrestling fan who has an axe to grind with PRIDE that the deal is only worth $3-5 million. You tell me who has more credibility here.
Also, in case I hadn’t vocalized this earlier, I do agree with you that it won’t be easy managing PRIDE as a foreign asset. Just looking at PRIDE USA’s missteps is proof enough. However, with the right leadership, Zuffa could succeed in bringing back the PRIDE brand in Japan. I think one important sign will be ticket sales for PRIDE 34. If they are not as strong as other comparable PRIDE events, that would definitely be a bad sign that the brand itself has suffered immensely already.
Also:
“Second, do you really think that Japanese office employees are going to take their orders from a gaijin boss or from someone who knows where they and their family live?”
Look up Carlos Ghosn. Foreign CEO of Nissan who was brought in to turn around the Japanese car company. Did a fantastic job, which basically turned him into a celebrity in Japan.
I’m not saying that the Fertittas can and will do this. Just that it is possible for foreign management to come in and succeed.
On this point, I also disagree with you that PRIDE is “too hot to handle” for Japanese TV. Foreign (and clearly non-Yakuza) ownership of PRIDE could be *exactly* what Japanese TV executives are looking for in trying to get it back on public TV.
You’re dealing with a company that is allegedly $8-9 million USD in debt. If PRIDE’s VTR collection was so valuable, wouldn’t you think that would be helping them generate revenue in Japan right now during lean times without TV? If PRIDE contracts were so valuable, then why are many of their top stars not under deals right now? If the PRIDE name is so strong as a value play, why aren’t TV networks jumping to get on board with the program (considering that it drew good ratings on free TV)?
There have been plenty of Japanese fight companies (mostly in wrestling) in the past that have folded up shop and not managed to sell its assets because those assets were not deemed to be high-value. FMW boss Shoichi Arai killed himself after his company was $3 million USD in debt. All Japan Women folded after that deal was anywhere from $27-30 million USD in debt (wonder how things got that out of control?). All Japan Women had an incredibly strong brand name. So did FMW in relation to Atsushi Onita (who ended up becoming a politician due to his fame).
The mistake people are making is taking brand recognition and equating it with brand value in Japan. Doesn’t work.
Carlos Ghosn is in Japan. Dana White or the Fertittas are not moving to Japan any time soon.
Look at the actual history of the fight game in Japan. Since you claim I’m a fanboy pulling stats out of my ass, let me ask you a simple question:
In the history of the Japanese fight game since Rikidozan (who portrayed a Japanese hero and hid his Korean heritage), how many gaijin Presidents or bosses of fight companies have been successful long-term in Japan?
I await to hear your answer.
“The mistake people are making is taking brand recognition and equating it with brand value in Japan. Doesn’t work.”
Glad to see a gaijin pro-wrestling fan be able to speak so authoritatively about marketing in Japan. Besides, how many of these defunct pro-wrestling orgs pulled high ratings on NYE? Or regularly packed 40,000 seat arenas? I don’t know the answer, but I’d guess the number is very low. Or zero.
“In the history of the Japanese fight game since Rikidozan (who portrayed a Japanese hero and hid his Korean heritage), how many gaijin Presidents or bosses of fight companies have been successful long-term in Japan?”
I don’t know and I don’t care.
Just because there have been none (or all failed) does not mean that the Fertitta’s will fail. They might. They might not. It’s a calculated risk, just as any business deal is.
The problem is that you’re looking at this situation as a person that wants PRIDE to die, and die soon. The Fertittas are no doubt looking at this strategically as businessmen to see how they might possibly leverage this acquisition into international dominance of MMA, not just the US.