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PRIDE’s Las Vegas backer
By Zach Arnold | September 2, 2006
By Zach Arnold
According to Kami no Puroresu (a PRIDE-oriened media magazine), one of the main Las Vegas backers of PRIDE in the city is Ed Fishman. Here’s a profile of Fishman. Here’s more on Fishman:
Ed Fishman, Board of Directors/Marketing – Mr. Fishman is an international entrepreneur, television and film producer with forty years experience in the entertainment industry. Mr. Fishman was the writer and producer of “Dealer’s Choice.” He founded and was Chairman of Players International with Telly Savalas of Kojak as his company spokesperson. Players was a publicly traded company with his partners including Merv Griffin and was eventually sold to Harrah’s for $425 million. Mr. Fishman organized the world’s first blackjack tournament as well as the first casino credit card cash advance machines. He is partners with Chuck Norris In the Beverly Hills Casino Entertainment Complex in Moscow and has been involved in many successful marketing projects and productions
It will be interesting to see what role Fishman plays in the US production of the PRIDE 10/21 Las Vegas PPV and what the role of Jerry Millen (who has been the producer of the PRIDE US PPVs) will be.
Topics: All Topics, Media, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
[…] As Fight Report noted, PRIDE has major problems after New Year’s Eve. I predicted the Saitama show would do fine, and it did just fine. Even with their supposed mega backer in Las Vegas, I don’t see that show doing very well at all. First off, they are running at a 20,000-seat building (Thomas & Mack Center). Second, it’s not attached to a casino meaning PRIDE is paying for the costs up front (as opposed to the casinos paying UFC a “site fee” for each show). Third, I was talking with someone who is in the Las Vegas area and he stated that the whole town is UFC mania. You walk off the plane at the airport, there’s ads for UFC. You go around town, it’s UFC. Boxing isn’t drawing a lot of attention there (apparently) and nobody is talking about PRIDE at all. I don’t know how PRIDE will fare going into UFC’s home turf and trying to draw from a large population. I don’t think it will do well at all. You can get away with charging $700 for front-row tickets in Japan (because of who specifically buys them – make your own guess there), but that won’t fly in Las Vegas. More importantly, what plan does PRIDE have after New Year’s Eve? It looks that they are going throw everything but the kitchen sink against the wall for New Year’s Eve to try to stay relevant as a major player in the fight business. You’ll have Fedor vs. Cro Cop II, you’ll likely have Barnett vs. Nogueira II, and then Yoshida vs. whatever big name gaijin they can muster. What’s the future for matchmaking after these dream matches happen? You can only book so many dream matches before people start to get tired of them, no matter how great they are. The fight quality in PRIDE is not diminishing, let’s not make that statement. However, where are the new stars? The new cast of characters? MMA does share one similarity to pro-wrestling in that you have to be able to make new stars and be able to refresh the talent base every few years. I don’t see that happening at all with PRIDE. They’ll likely lose big in Vegas, do OK on New Year’s Eve (but be completely overshadowed by K-1 and perhaps Koki Kameda on New Year’s Eve), and then have to figure out what they are going to possibly be doing in 2007. […]
[…] Japanese blogger Gryphon has picked up on a lead that Ed Fishman, the rumored Las Vegas backer for PRIDE, is going to try to pitch a new PRIDE reality show for TV in America. […]
[…] Align with Ed Fishman. As we’ve cited before, Fishman made his name in the casino world (through gambling technology & security) in Las Vegas. He was the guy who created comps. for slot players. He’s also into poker and television (as he was/is a good friend of Dick Clark). […]