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Eddie Goldman: The Strikeforce HW GP show at the Izod Center was a disorganized mess
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2011
In his own words. It’s funny — every time I post something about Sherdog or someone else in the MMA media discussing Showtime’s role in MMA or how they produce events, the network’s office ends up reading about it (from here) one way or another and phone calls end up getting made.
“I got to say that the way this event was organized at the Izod Center managed to
pissoff and annoy and alienate most of the New York/New Jersey & East Coast Mixed Martial Arts media and notable people. They did not know how to set up the event for the media, putting people all over the building, behind fans. They did not have one media section like you do in boxing and has been done at other events. The seating showed no understanding, ZERO understanding and zero care for who were the people that really understand the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. And it showed some type of favoritism, even to the point where there were empty seats and some people that have been covering the sport while some of the people who did these credentials and did this seating were still in diapers and watching Hulk Hogan. It annoyed people so much that it was done in such an irrational way. The end result is that many people that I spoke with, despite a lot of people being positive about the event overall particularly the main event, not wanting to come back to any Strikeforce events. That is a huge failure because people felt that way before the first fights started.“They really blew an opportunity to become the anchor in the New York/New Jersey area and hopefully we will have Mixed Martial Arts in New York this year, again we’re fighting for it. We had our great rally on February 8th, Strikeforce Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem came to that, of course. Frank Shamrock, who announces Strikeforce events for Showtime, came to it and many, many other people and we put up a lot of information for that. Strikeforce was in a position, by supporting the really and working with the MMA community and media here, to really build some good will. Well, y’all squandered that Saturday night, February 12th. It’s not even just a question of apologies being due, it’s a question of having people that are respectful. Otherwise, you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to run this damn sport into the ground very quickly, just like has happened with boxing and people aren’t going to put up with it. You’re going to be run into the ground much faster than boxing because you won’t have that long, long period of prominence as a sport to buoy you up as is continuing to happen with boxing, which is really going on fumes to a large degree at this point. But we’ll see if there are changes made and, if not, you know it’s going to be bad for the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and if it does get legalized in New York, it won’t be the national promotions that exist that are going to be able to capitalize that much off it. They might run some big shows once or twice, but it will be somebody new, somebody brand new from this New York area that’s going to develop, that’s going to use this as a base and develop a major organization.
“So, you blew it boys. It’s time to fess up to that and make some damn changes.”
Topics: Media, MMA, StrikeForce, Zach Arnold | 42 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Eddie Goldman must’ve been a lifeguard in a past life. No fun allowed!!
Typically Goldman will praise anything that is not the UFC to the high heavens. It must have been extremely bad for him to complain.
Strikeforce’s ratings are going up…. But it seems like the bigger they get the less they can handle it. Reminds me of ECW actually. They kept on getting more exposure and it sent them in a tailspin because they didn’t have the quantity or quality of a staff to handle the issues that would come up when they made it to that level.
Interesting read to say the least.
I’ve sent quite a few people to Strikeforce shows in the Bay Area and in Chicago, and the consensus was after Showtime took over it became a gigantic mess.
I was wondering how you’d try to minimize/disregard the ratings report. Needless to say, I’m disappointed. A half-hearted ECW analogy? You’re slipping dawg.
Goldman’s just bitching about his press credentials. Big deal. Everyone knows that the guy is always going to find something to complain about. He has no joy in his life, unfortunately.
I wish him well, but he’s a muckraker with no idea of where he stands in the big picture or how things work. His gripes with the UFC are pathetic.
“They really blew an opportunity to become the anchor in the New York/New Jersey area…”
They really did! If only they would have given Goldman a better free seat! They would have been the East Coast’s number one MMA event.
My thoughts exactly. Shut up Eddie, you crusty old curmudgeon. The horror at being amongst the plebs!
At least Goldman is consistent.
He’s been raging at Zuffa for years because they didn’t treat him like royalty when they took over. Now it’s Strikeforce’s turn to face his wrath for some inconsequential perceived slight.
The guy’s ego is out of control.
The only show in semi-recent memory that Goldman professed to have loved without reservation was YAMMA. Take that into consideration when you read these comment by Goldman.
He loved the IFL. And typically praised every show as a way to put down the UFC and it’s current owners.
He was actually sponsored by the IFL. (And possibly by WAMMA too?)
He loved the IFL? LOL, I guess I missed that.
I just remember his effusive praise for YAMMA. He also shilled pretty heavily for “Real Pro Wrestling” back a few years ago.
He’s buddies with Peretti, so I expect him to love that stupid combat ballgame of Peretti’s should it ever actually see the light of day.
No doubt he loved X-Arm too!
Hey! X-Arm rocked!. Most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. The only thing that can ever outdo X-Arm would be the rumored fight between Canseco and Dan Quinn.
“The only thing that can ever outdo X-Arm would be the rumored fight between Canseco and Dan Quinn.”
I’m often astonished that someone has yet to convince some money mark to run a show featuring Kimbo vs. Dan Quinn. The two biggest internet fight sensations of all-last 5 years.
He also loves submission grappling, BJJ and, college and, Olympic/world wrestling.
i won’t complain about my seat at the event, but they had insane problems with Internet and WiFi. That probably has something more to do with the venue – although those problems did not exist when the IFL held shows there.
Ample bandwidth at the live events — another reason IFL will be sadly missed!
LOL at Eddie Goldman bitching about having to sit among the unwashed masses and deal with PR people who don’t bow at his feet.
I can smell his sense of entitlement from here.
The last #Strikeforce show was very good, and in term’s of Organization, one of the best (Speaking about Strikeforce).
On a completely unrelated note and for those who care about these types of things, I met Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta at a bar/show in NYC last night (self-plug!) and those guys couldn’t be nicer more down to earth guys (Lorenzo didn’t say a whole lot).
For all Dana’s bluster and vitriol in the public eye/promoting, I have to say I have not met a nicer “celebrity” and it was a very interesting chat.
My dealings with Dana White in person have always been very straightforward, polite and pleasant. Not that I’ve had many one-to-one situations (maybe 5 or 6), but at least one of them had every chance in the world to be very unpleasant and it wasn’t.
Did he say SF had a chance to be the anchor for mma in NY/NJ?
Is that a joke? UFC blows SF away with their events, wait till 128 comes to NJ, thats a great card.
Agreed – that’s just ridiculous. If he had said, “NY/NJ could be their [SF’s] anchor/base in the Northeast” that would have made sense given that if they really want to expand they need to not rely so heavily on their homebase in San Jose.
I wonder if Zach will devote a post to the shockingly good ratings for this card that came out today. And not as the perfunctory positive footnote in the latest “Strikeforce is a mess” post.
You smell of fanboy.
Did you jump around twice as hard when Chad Mendes got 2 Million viewers on SpikeTV this month?
SF has $30 Million of revenues. Who knows if they are web turning a profit. Typically if it’s a good profit, they would release that number instead. They are going up against a company that just got the same number of PPv buys for the last PPV that had 2 Brazilians headlining it.
That’s $16 Million in net profits from PPV not to mention over $3 Million gate that they get a portion from.
All this means is that the UFC will put on more pressure for free agents and probably more countering.
How do you think this is going to end? SF just frustrated White…. Only they don’t even have a PPV headliner to get the money to make it a fair fight.
750,000 is 750,000. I said it for the WEC got ratings under 1 Million. I said the same thing when the UFC got under 1 Million on ION. It’s funny how you don’t flinch when Mendes gets 2 Million on SpikeTV but you want Zach to write different articles when Strikeforce does less then half of that.
Only in a fanboys world….
And if anybody calls me a fanboy in return I will laugh.
I want one organization with all the best fighters and a fighters union. It just happens the UFC is the nearest to making that reality.
My thoughts are based on wanting to see all the best fight under 1 banner. That doesn’t make one a fanboy.
Going on various forums and celebrating 750,000 fans watching a MMA event is a special kind of fanboy. And that’s people like smoogy.
They sold 55,000 tickets in like 7 minutes and made $10M+ in gross revenues for UFC 129. They’ll probably do 1.3 million ppv buys which will gross them $30M+. This one show makes UFC the entire year’s revenue for Strikeforce.
These companies aren’t competitors. Strikeforce is a niche player – there’s room for them to growth in the mma space, but unless there’s a massive paradigm shift they’ll always fill the niche. Frankly, if there’s any paradigm shift it will be a massive mainstream crossover star becomes so big and/or pissed off at Zuffa they decide to promote themselves and make ODLH money…it wouldn’t make sense to jump under a promoter umbrella and give up the profit they could make on their own if they were that big. And maaaaaybe then would Strikeforce’s willingness to copromote give them a real advantage.
45, if you don’t understand how TV ratings work, why do you insist on engaging in discussion about them? You’re embarrassing yourself.
I didn’t make any comment on the 126 prelims ratings because hey, I don’t see the need to bring up UFC and Dana White every time there is a positive mention of Strikeforce, but to each his own. Since you’re so lost, let me assure you that prelim show did in fact do a good rating. Meanwhile, Fedor vs. Silva pulled an astonishing rating that nobody predicted would be so high. The peak and average figures stand up to ANY programming on Showtime in ANY timeslot aside from Dexter (by far their most popular program).
Times are good right now for Strikeforce AND for the UFC. Sorry that you’re such an ignorant, petty, disgruntled FANBOY to enjoy it.
too much of a*
1) If peak numbers were so important, then why doesn’t the UFC release those numbers 99% of the time? They are the industry leaders. Why would they not release those numbers?
2) Here is why you are a FANBOY. Today I decided to read some comments on various MMA websites. i don’t do that often anymore because most of the time it’s pointless jibber jabber. This is the only site I post on anymore. I use to post on MMA Junkie, but that place became so crazy it wasn’t my cup of tea. But I decided to amuse myself today reading various websites. It seemed like every website I went to…. There was smoogy or smoogy2.5 or some version of your name posting on this same topic. Holy Sh!t. One website wasn’t enough? You had to find any place there was this topic to go crazy? Yikes! And then there is how big of a deal you are making of my 3rd point….
3) “Fedor vs. Silva pulled an astonishing rating” – This is my point with you. That is not an astonishing rating. It’s 750,000 average. That’s not much. It’s an IMPROVEMENT. It’s a GAIN in viewership for Strikeforce. It is not astonishing. You are going crazy over something that any respectable MMA event should be indifferent to down about in terms of overall viewers.
And to The Gaijins point…. Strikeforce is a niche to the MMA public. Which is why the UFC can do $$$$ wise in one event what Strikeforce does all year. And the reason why i would never want to see the UFC on HBO is the same reason why Strikeforce on Showtime has such limitations. What Strikeforce pulled for ratings is near what is maximum for what that channel can do. And it’s just not good enough to put on quality MMA year round. Which is why if you look at that card, it was a combination of garbage fighters and an event circa 2006. It’s why the prelims were basically garbage. MMA cannot survive properly…. And the way it should…. The way Strikeforce is doing it….
But you don’t get that….
And the reason why i would never want to see the UFC on HBO is the same reason why Strikeforce on Showtime has such limitations.
So you prefer to pay PPV dollars for cards instead of seeing them as part of a subscription to a premium network? You like throwing money away. OK.
What Strikeforce pulled for ratings is near what is maximum for what that channel can do.
Didn’t we hear this when the peaks were at like 500,000?
It’s why the prelims were basically garbage.
No one cares about the prelims. They are a waste of money to invest heavily in.
MMA cannot survive properly…. And the way it should…. The way Strikeforce is doing it…
If they can repeat the rating of the prior show, not even this one, when the next GP round, they could probably ask for more money than what they are getting now from Showtime. You are clueless.
1) The UFC is thriving much better then boxing is on the “Basic Cable & PPV” model compared to boxing’s “Premium Channels & PPV” model. It has nothing to do with what I want to pay. The UFC model is doing better, gets more eyeballs to casual viewers and is far more accessible.
2) I don’t remember anybody saying 500,000 was the best that it could do on Showtime. Boxing does better, so obviously Strikeforce had room for improvement. But the point is that there is a ceiling, and it’s not very high compared to even a 2nd rate cable station like SpikeTV.
3) “No one cares about the prelims. They are a waste of money to invest heavily in.” Of all of the dumb things you have said lately, this one takes the cake. It’s worth every cent. It’s an investment in the future. It gives good prospects a chance to get the UFC jitters out of their system. To improve their craft before being pushed more on the main cards. Jon Jones is a perfect example of what can come of a prelim fighter. So is Frank Edgar. Phil Davis isn’t far behind. Prelims create the foundation of tomorrow for an organization. The UFC has proved this for years. It’s not a shock that the organization that has legit prelims produces a constant line of good title challengers. And the organization that basically doesn’t care about their prelims are constantly hurting for relevant challengers and instead have Cyborg and Lawler in title fights in 2011.
4) So Showtime is going to highly increase both their boxing AND MMA payroll within a fiscal year? I don’t have to look at their books to know that is highly unlikely. Not to mention the PPV model is what brings the UFC and boxing their riches. Not event fees from SpikeTV or HBO or Showtime. Those are nice, but not enough to pay the big stars of the sport. Which is why all of the boxers have to go to PPV in order to get the big paydays (unless they fight internationally like a Klitchko and money can come from enough other sources).
Even with a $5 Million larger commitment from Showtime to Strikeforce per year…. It’s not enough to rival the UFC’s money. It’s not enough to cultivate enough talent across 5 divisions. Heck, as they are right now, they have no real challenger for Melendez. Diaz is on his last challenger in Daley. Souza has no real challenger. And let’s not even get started on hos neglected their female MMA is most of the time. How much money do you think it would take to fix those problems?
Hmmmm…. Well, the UFC has 7 divisions also, and it takes a LOT more money to run things properly and have well functioning divisions. Far more then Showtime is ever likely to pony up.
And Showtime doesn’t have the draws to put any show on PPV that people would care to pay for at this point to change that gap.
“1) If peak numbers were so important, then why doesn’t the UFC release those numbers 99% of the time? They are the industry leaders. Why would they not release those numbers?”
Yeah, why don’t they?
http://mmajunkie.com/news/22210/ufc-fight-night-23-troops-2-ratings-peak-with-2-5-million-viewers.mma
http://www.mmaforreal.com/2010/9/17/1694737/ufc-fight-night-22-ratings
http://mmajunkie.com/news/18566/ufc-fight-night-21-ratings-broadcast-peaks-with-2-million-viewers-for-florian-gomi.mma
http://mmajunkie.com/news/17545/ufc-fight-night-20-ratings-broadcast-peaks-with-2-million-viewers-for-maynard-diaz.mma
http://mmajunkie.com/news/16230/ufc-fight-night-19-peaks-with-2-9-million-viewers-second-most-in-series-history.mma
http://mmajunkie.com/news/13967/ufc-fight-night-17-on-spike-tv-peaks-with-two-million-viewers.mma
http://mmajunkie.com/news/5322/ufc-fight-night-15-tops-out-with-2-3-million-viewers.mma
http://mmajunkie.com/news/4867/ufc-fight-night-14-peaks-with-3-8-million-viewers.mma
http://www.ufc.com/news/FIRST-EVER-UFC-FIGHT-NIGHT-IN-TAMPA-NETS-BIG-RATINGS–FOR-SPIKE-TV
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/mma/story/index.html?id=10112
Yeah, 99% of the time Brian Fontana. STFU when you don’t know what you’re talking about. You are clueless as usual.
“1) If peak numbers were so important, then why doesn’t the UFC release those numbers 99% of the time? They are the industry leaders. Why would they not release those numbers?”
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&tbs=dsc:1&q=site:mmajunkie.com+ufc+peak+rating&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&fp=3895b6108693d27e
Yeah why don’t they ever?
The UFC is thriving much better then boxing is on the “Basic Cable & PPV” model compared to boxing’s “Premium Channels & PPV” model.
That’s irrelevant as to whether or not the networks see Strikeforce as a success.
I don’t remember anybody saying 500,000 was the best that it could do on Showtime.
You and the terms “ceiling” and “Strikeforce” are generally synonymous in the comments section.
Of all of the dumb things you have said lately, this one takes the cake. It’s worth every cent.
Paying significant money for fights you don’t show is money down the drain. The UFC is in a position where they have to do it because of their business model. For Strikeforce, they have been gifted a developmental show to
produce at a virtual guaranteed profit instead of spending money on prelim fights. Again – waste of time. Let those guys “build” in the billion “fight leagues” as you like to think of the various promotions. LOL
So Showtime is going to highly increase both their boxing AND MMA payroll within a fiscal year?
Its sure looking that way. With boxing apparently heading to CBS and the network looking to expand its CBS College Sports into a full bore sports network, add in the success of viewership for Strikeforce, and yes – I don’t see them contracting their obligation to the promotion or reducing income spent to them. You argue that you see it because of some imagined finite pool of money that they are drawing from in which $10 million is simply too much for CBS to handle.
How much money do you think it would take to fix those problems?
If people are watching in increasing numbers, “the problems” as you see them are irrelevant.
Keep it up, dude.
Goldman is 100 percent correct.
This is one of those things that is tough to explain, because no matter how you frame it, it comes off to the average fan as “the entitled media are complaining about their free front-row seats.”
But it is more like this: If Showtime want to be treated like a big deal, they need to learn how to put on a big-league event, and part of that is making sure the media have the ability to do the basics of their jobs right.
Sticking the media on the back of the floor, so that they can’t see anything in the cage when the fans stand up, doesn’t cut the mustard. Again, this isn’t about wanting a free front row seat: Why should a media company bother paying to fly someone in and put them up at a hotel for several nights if they’re literally unable to see the actual fights on which they’re reporting? In that case, they’re better off watching at home on TV.
Lack of wifi, and this isn’t the first time this has happened at Strikeforce, is completely unacceptable. MMA fans expect real-time updates from ringside. The reason why a bunch of those seats on the floor were empty, as Goldman noted, is because many of the A-list reporters gave up and went back to the press room so they could get online and watch the fight on the monitors. I considered joining them, but there was, of course, no sound on the monitors in back when I checked back there.
That’s just the media half of it. Then there’s the fan-unfriendly stuff. Weigh-ins started 15 minutes late, and were laid out in a way that the most of the fans who showed up, who are hardcore enough to get out there on a Friday afternoon, couldn’t see anything. The show itself had one fight in the course of 90 minutes during the prelims, and they never made any announcements to the fans, just kept them hanging all that time. And that was with them starting about 20 minutes late with the opening match. UFC, if there’s as much as a 15-minute break in the action they let the fans in the arena know in advance. Oh, and I heard they were late opening the doors for the fans on a freezing-cold night, too.
I know some people will read this and just instantly go “well the reporter is just whining here.” But the bottom line is, Showtime needs to get its act together. And it’s on Showtime, not Strikeforce, because pre-Showtime Strikeforce events were a breeze to work. If not for the sake of the media, then for the fans buying tickets and the fans reading along at home. Showtime wants to be treated like the big-time but their events are total amateur hour.
Whatever you say, Eddie.
Boom-tish!
Kind of hard to take that post seriously when the author logs in behind an internet handle. If you want credibility, you really should use your actual name.
Holy shnikes I was just about to write the identical thing. Clearly an “A-list” reporter would come on here to write a comment on an internet mma blog rather than write their own story on it.
That’s the problem with the so-called mma media…98% of it is a bunch of amateur fanboy hacks that want to “hang with the boys in the back”, get VIP access and run around with their lanyards to impress each other while doing youtube interviews with 4 viewers. If the poster even is a reporter, it just shows the true colors of these guys because they’re more concerned about the possibility of jeopardizing their free seats and “VIP access” than writing a story on it.
There’s no story to be written on it, and no one is feeling “entitled” (well, maybe Eddie Goldman is). But the point “someone who knows” seems to be getting at is Strikeforce/Showtime made it hard for the media to do their job. That’s it.
I’ve covered 170+ events from cageside in the span of ten years – some promotions make it easy to do, some make it hard. Saturday’s Strikeforce in New Jersey was hard. But c’est la vie. The other extreme would’ve been the IFL, which handed out info sheets and press releases like they were Watchtowers, held your hand to the presser, and had plants in the audience to ask the questions and get things flowing. In my opinion, a middle ground between the two is best.
I can agree with that.
I just have a problem with some guy coming in under an anonymous internet handle and making an ‘appeal to authority’ argument. You can’t make that argument under an assumed name and be taken seriously.