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Big talk, little interest
By Zach Arnold | August 10, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Consider this an opinion piece, if you liked to be warned in advance.
For the last week or so, I’ve seen reports online about comments PRIDE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara has been making about how his guys would beat the UFC fighters. UFC, to their credit, has literally said nothing about any sort of “interpromotional war” with PRIDE. Yet, all we keep hearing about online is PRIDE vs. UFC.
I want to pose an important question to everyone: Why is PRIDE focusing a lot of their attention to the Las Vegas show in October? Could you imagine if UFC decided that they would bank their entire company’s future by running a show in Japan, and then telling the media over and over again how their guys would destroy fighters from other leagues? It sounds silly, right? It also sounds silly that PRIDE is asking for $300-700 USD for top seating at the Thomas & Mack Center. Yes, UFC has charged $350 for front row tickets, but Americans know what the UFC brand is. There are still very few Americans (casual fans) who know what PRIDE is. If PRIDE thinks that they can waltz into Las Vegas and draw a sell-out crowd like last year’s Sumo tournament at the Mandalay Bay Events Center did, then they have another thing coming to them.
And then I look at the ticket sales for the upcoming PRIDE shows in Japan. They are, after all, a Japanese-based company. Their 8/26 Bushido show at Nagoya Rainbow Hall still isn’t a sell-out, as they have two weeks left to promote it and try to fill the house up. Their 9/10 Saitama Super Arena show (featuring Barnett vs. Nogueira and Mirko vs. Silva) has a large amount of tickets available for purchase still. You can get any good ringside/floor or stand/bleacher seat you want.
What it boils down to me is this: Why is it that a Japanese organization, that has two big shows in Japan coming up, seem so focused on attaching themselves to the UFC name and focused on a foreign market that isn’t going to sell a single ticket at home for any of their shows? I remain puzzled by the strategy being employed by PRIDE, as I find it hard to figure out how much of their claims is simply “talk” and how much of it is really a fact.
I kind of find myself bored by the “big talk” exhibited by both PRIDE & K-1 these days.
A more interesting PRIDE-related news item that I saw a press release online stating that Mauro Ranallo is signing a full-time deal to work for The Fight Network in Canada. What does this indicate about Ranallo’s future with DSE?
Update: Dave Doyle at Fox Sports has a cautionary tale (using the WFA) for PRIDE:
The show, which featured a stellar main event in Quinton Jackson’s decision win over Matt Lindland, drew 2,133 paid for a gate of $248,530. Of those, 1,205 bought $50 tickets, the cheapest seats in the house. There were also another 1,246 comped patrons in the building.
But the WFA’s experience is the latest example that you can’t just throw the name “mixed martial arts” on the marquee and charge high-end ticket prices and expect to fill a major arena.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
ONce again zach does not think, and lets his anti pride feelings take over.
Since when has pride sold out, or even done well on a bushdio show, bushido shows typically draw only a bit over 10 000.
There big shows like the grand prix, do sell out, and even though you constantly post advance tickets are down, they always sell out, infact most feel there last show did so well, because more people came to the arena, due to a lack of fuji tv.
Ufc has not responded? Did they not respond with chuck vs vanderlei? Did you miss that show, all this is, is sakakibara hyping up the show in japan, this should be obvious to you, but yet its not. Your hatred for pride, leaves you clueless, and over annalyzing everything yet again. I also like how pride just made yahoo news, but no mention of this from you. Of course thats good pride news, if you want to find good pride news, dont come here.
Why are they so concentrated on america? Once again i wonder how smart you are, maybe you did not notice the mma boom going on, and with ufc idiotically helping promote your product and fighters like vanderlei silva (Hence the yahoo record breaking search results for vanderlei silva) of course there putting alot of effort into america, as well as korea with there latest signing. They will sell out the grand prix finals easily, it is the american show that will require a new begining and building to the future.
Zach your pride hate has made you utterly incompetent, if you started reporting news non biased, you would have a more accurate depiction of pride.
And if ranallos gone, big deal, im sure your next post will be pride folding, ranallo leaves, many fans except yourself do not like his commentating to begin with.
I call BS on Tokyo Sports story about PRIDE going to war. They’re the only paper that published the story that I’m aware of and if Sakakibara really made those statements you’d figure it’d be in some major paper in Japan instead of only in a tabloid.
At least all that talk has gotten the fanboys over at a certain mma-site/messageboard all excited, as they always dreamt about the day that Sakakibara would materialize in the middle of Vegas, swing his magic wand, sell out every major venue in the united states at once, abolishes all the athletic comissions who take away their precious soccerkicks and stomps, and makes Dana and the UFC disappear for good…
I agree with everyone who says that it sounds like Pride is trying to grab headlines. There’s no reason why the UFC would put over Wanderlei (not so much Pride mind you–Yahoo searches were on Wanderlei, not Pride) and not want the fight. Its totally logically that Pride acted in bad faith and never intended to send Wanderlei and only wanted the free publicity.
However, I disgree that this somehow makes Dana White look like fool. What I see is a man trying to put together one of the greatest fights in MMA history and if it doesn’t succeed, it probably wasn’t his fault based on what was said above. If anything, I appreciate Dana’s effort and upset at Pride’s lack of honor and commitment.
Chi
“Why is it that a Japanese organization, that has two big shows in Japan coming up, seem so focused on attaching themselves to the UFC name and focused on a foreign market that isn’t going to sell a single ticket at home for any of their shows?”
There is no way you are as stupid as you pretend to be in this piece. You’ve spent the last several months covering PRIDE’s economical legs and mainstream rep being shot down in Japan, and now you manage to write over 400 words asking yourself why they’re trying to break into other markets? Whether it’s desperation or a long term plan finally coming through, there is no way this can be called a bad or questionable action by PRIDE.
Absolute GP finals are what, a month away? Oh my God, somebody call the police – they haven’t sold out yet!!!!!!!
…
If you want to talk about silly handling of foreign promotion, look no further than to UFC pulling out of Japan just as the boom happened there. What PRIDE is doing now is the opposite, be it by coincidence or not.
FYI: I really like this site and your news insight. Sakakibara’s MMA SuperBowl-comments made me bang my head in the wall. PRIDE definitely have their faults, and a lot of people are being way too optimistic about that company’s situation these days. But what you’ve written here has a similar smell to the scent of certain anti-MMA articles in American newspapers.
I think most of you see where Zach is coming from. It’s obvious that Pride has a certain sense of desperation in this move to the U.S. The Fuji T.V. problem has forced them to find other means of paying their fighters. Now, if Pride actually intended to have the announced Silva/Liddell fight then they were simply attatching themselves to the biggest name in the states, and by taking the UFC titles they would dominate the market here and generate revenues to pay fighters. If they did not intend to have the fight then they obviously got a lot of free advertising from the compettition in the country where they have planned to promote a show. Either way, they are peaking the interests of many American MMA fans which could only produce favorable results in the long run. There is no way that any of us could know their true plan of action, but the end result is clear; Pride needs to expand RIGHT NOW in order to survive as a company.
* Shaolin- Blasting someone for having a biased opinion only magnifies your own biases. If you come on here and attack a persons intelligence you may want to use a spell check.
I find it amazing that anyone can slam the UFC with nobody getting upset. If somebody writes anything remotely negative about Pride, outrage will soon follow.
Is there anything that Zach just wrote that you can prove is incorrect? Has he written things that turned out not to be correct?
The point he was making is that Pride is looking to the U.S. as the once boomng market is not so strong for Pride right now. If anyonce can show what he said is inaccurate, then do so. Otherwide it is just Pride die-hards showing anger over anyone criticizing their precious company.
I am not surpirsed to find Bushido tickets still available. The last Bushido show drew only 7000.
all this talk about company politics sucks. everyone wnats to know where the best fighters fight, obviously if you think ufc fighters are the best you are eithter a.) a new fan on mma, or b.) uneducated in the fight game. who cares why pride is coming to the states or what there motivation is? We in the U.S. should just feel blessed that we have the oppertunity to watch the greatest fighters in the world compete live.