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HEROs at LA Coliseum
By Zach Arnold | March 22, 2007
On the various Japanese hardcore MMA web sites, there has been discussion the past couple of weeks about K-1’s first big HERO’s show in America happening at a large facility in Los Angeles. According to Matt Donovan of BZA PR, a press release has been issued for HERO’s first event at the very big LA Coliseum. The parties listed on the show are FEG (Tanigawa), ProElite (Gary Shaw), and ShowTime. Fighters listed for the event including Choi Hong-Man, Royce Gracie, Brock Lesnar, and former NFL football player Johnnie Morton.
A press conference is scheduled for Tuesday, March 27th at the LA Coliseum for the announcement by Sadaharu Tanigawa. Pro Elite and Showtime officials will also be on hand.
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Topics: All Topics, HERO's, K-1, Media, MMA, Pro Elite, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Unfortunately, the event will be moved to the much smaller LA Sports Arena due to “terrorist threats.”
Johnnie friggin Morton! WTF!
This right here was the first quote I thought of when I read this news. Zack is alluding to Vince McMahon in 1991 when he booked the LA Coliseum for WrestleMania 7 with a main event of Hulk Hogan vs. babyface-turned-pro-Saddam heel Sgt. Slaughter. McMahon claimed that he had to move the event to the LA Sports Arena because of a terrorist threat.
Is Royce fighting or is he just the valet for Brock?
kudos to both Zach and Zack for that awesome WM reference.
agreed; what josh said about kudos!
No, he’s actually scheduled to fight. This has been something that K-1 has been discussing with the CSAC for a little while now.
Hopefully this means they’ll fly Norwegian fans in for free as part of the papering-job of the century 😀
Arena fits with K1’s Roman gimmick no? With Shaw and Showtime onboard I think tey can draw 20k.
Agreed JThue. Unless they want to hold MMA’s first empty stadium show, they better have a plan to paper like crazy, or more likely, eventually move the show to a smaller venue.
Could be a mix-up too, since the Sports Arena is also named LA Memorial. I’ll wait for the official announcement.
The day after Tanigawa said an announcement was coming (this was on 3/11), the rumor sites in Japan immediately wrote LA Coliseum (the big place).
The PR today is for the LA Coliseum. They’re not running the Sports Arena.
JThue,
10,000 maximum. Absolute maximum. Unless they do 2 for 1 ticket sales and $5 cheap seats.
Anyway, I guess this was the big surprise.
It’s too bad it looks like they’re basically shooting themselves in the foot by doing this in such a huge venue. It’s not a fatal flaw, but it sure seems dumb.
“The day after Tanigawa said an announcement was coming (this was on 3/11), the rumor sites in Japan immediately wrote LA Coliseum (the big place).
The PR today is for the LA Coliseum. They’re not running the Sports Arena.”
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I am aware of all this, but I want official wording that the event is scheduled for THE Coliseum. Other scenarios could be just the press conference scheduled there or Coliseum-name being used just for publicity. I absoutely believe it’s true and logical for japanese promotors to make this big mistake, but I’m just holding back on the HORRAH until it’s sealed 🙂
“Rollo the Cat Says:
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:56 pm
JThue,
10,000 maximum. Absolute maximum. Unless they do 2 for 1 ticket sales and $5 cheap seats.”
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Strikeforce(who may or may not also be involved here) have shown how much you can do with local promotion in CA, and Shaw knows his promoting, plus Showtime and K-1 both bring money and they have draws under contract. As long as UFC doesn’t counter with a show of their own in the state I can absolutely see this bring in 20k people with non-ridiculous ticket prices.
That big of an arena is stupid for an event. Even the UFC couldn’t fill it up. I wouldn’t want to go if I was sitting in a nose bleeds section.
I am a little shocked to see nobody complaining about the recent rumors with Elite XC. Fight fans always complain about “fighters need to get paid” and all of this stuff. Yet, the next two big rumored Showtime PPV deals have way too many hands in the pot.
With a UFC event, Zuffa needs to earn their money and that is it. With the Showtime PPV in June, the following companies need to get their money…. Showtime, Elite XC, & Strikeforce.
With this event…. Showtime, Elite XC, & FEG.
Doesn’t anybody see something wrong with this? I would rather see one company promote a show, and let the fighters gain the benefits. This is much worse then anything Zuffa has done.
This sounds like an awesome idea.
Oh, wait. No it doesn’t.
There\’s no way they sit the cage or ring down in the middle of the coliseum. They\’ll run the \”empty\” half of it with temporary bleachers and camera equipment. If they do 25,000-30,000 (not totally unreasonable with a stacked card of \”names\”), even with heavy papering, they can lay claim to the largest crowd to witness a MMA event in North American history, and I think that\’s the plan.
As for the idea of co-promotion being a bad idea, yeah, I really liked it more when fighters were signed only to one organization and couldn\’t fight in another. It was way more fun to think about how a fight would go than actually watch it, and I\’m sure the majority of fans would agree.
I don’t get the part about this being negative for fighters either. The only ones getting cuts from PPV money and/or the gate(which is what *could* be hurt) would be the absolute top names, and they’ll get more than they need anyway. The way I see it, this is 2 + 1 companies paying for what the 1 company(k-1) would probably have endavoured on on their own anyway, so it’s basically more financial security and a bigger and more experienced promotional machine, two positives, both for the show and the fighters on it.
“If they do 25,000-30,000 (not totally unreasonable with a stacked card of \â€names\â€)”
This is where you are so very misguided. They don’t have enough names to draw that many people. Royce is no a draw. Lesnar has some drawing power but nothing like that. Also, it is only partly about the fighter and the rest is about the organization. Lesnar in the UFc would be 10x the draw he will be in Heros.
Another Pro rasslin comparision. When the old NWA was trying to fight back against WWF expansion, they started putting on cards in the northeast USA. In Philly they drew 2,000 people with a very stacked card. Next time out they managed to steal the absolute hottest property of the WWF, Sgt. Slaughter. They drew 2,000 people again. Brand names are a big thing.
I agree with JThue on the promotional pluses of working together. The only way this WONT work is if people start getting greedy and we have a whole NWA circa 60s-70s fiasco.
Also D Capitated I hope that second stanza was sarcasm cause hell I would RATHER see Fedor kill Sylvia or Silva/Liddell or Shogun/Liddell than imagine how it will go down.
Rollo the Cat: How big a brand name was Strikeforce before their first show? Or Art of War one moth ago? They both have drawn solid crowds with crap to decently good cards and not one single top 5 fighter. Meanwhile WFA failed and IFL failed at attracting crowds. It’s all about money, draws and promotion. EliteXC + K1 have the money, they do have names that can draw in California, and even though Tanigawa has no clue about US business, Shaw and Showtime do.
I hate to get pro wrestling nerd on everyone’s ass again, but aside from the Wrestlemania 7 implications, it also reminds me of this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SuperClash#SuperClash_III
I think some of you people are underestimating a few things when you say that this HEROS card will not draw:
A) Strikeforce was a HUGE draw with only ONE fighter (F. Shamrock) to carry the card
B) These guys are really good at getting the “local” fans and drawing in a great deal of interest in the area they’re running
C) They have several seasoned promoters running this thing
D) Royce Gracie – to the casual, hardcore, newbie etc. – IS A DRAW
MOST IMPORTANT:
E) Love it or Hate it I believe that a guy like Brock Lesnar who was a huge WWE star will draw a lot of mainstream interest and interest of the casual fans.
I think a lot of people are really interested to see if these supposed larger than life superstars and tough guys really can hack it in a legit fight.
“B) These guys are really good at getting the “local†fans and drawing in a great deal of interest in the area they’re running”
For the first show, yes. How about the Fresno one?
I don’t care anyway. I definitely plan on being one of the 1500 people there.
The IFL seems to draw a consistent crowd of somewhere around 5,000. Correct? Art of War did about 5,000, I think. Strikeforce is down to I don’t know what, but it isn’t up where it was for the first show. And what did Elite draw in their first show? Around 5,000? (Those are all from memory, I could be off a bit)
5,000 seems to me the magic number for alternative promotions.
Also, let’s say they draw 15,000 or even 20,000. If that is their only source of revenue, will they will take a big hit finacially? I think so. Can they get over 100,000 PPV buys when Piide couldn’t?
Seriously, hardcore fans knew Royce was done years ago. The casual fan saw it in the UFC recently. Royce has a small, cultish following among his students and certain old time UFC fans. That isn’t enough.
If I could place a bet on whether this show will go off or not at the Coliseum, I would bet a few hunded that it won’t.
Zach, funny thing is, when i saw the “alliance” of promotions involved, i thought Pro-Wrestling USA, and what a dud that was.
K-1’s source of revenue always has been TV. If they can manage to get a few million USD out of Tokyo Broadcasting System or Fuji TV, then they will likely cover their costs on the LA Coliseum show alone. Add in Showtime and it could be a real sweetheart deal — at least up front.
There is an interesting summary of the comments of the Hero’s president
http://forum.kakutougi.info/showthread.php?t=7291
One thing he said is he doesn’t like the way UFC fights unfold: punches, takedowns, guillotine choke and that he wants to change that. How does a promoter going about changing that?
Man I hope Brock gets knocked the fcuk out.
This is where you are so very misguided. They don’t have enough names to draw that many people. Royce is no a draw. Lesnar has some drawing power but nothing like that. Also, it is only partly about the fighter and the rest is about the organization. Lesnar in the UFc would be 10x the draw he will be in Heros.
Royce is definitely a draw. His bout with Hughes is what made Hughes a headliner. Is it possible his drawing capacity is diminished now? Possibly. However he’s not the one being solely depended on to draw in this context. Hell, wasn’t June the target for the EXC/Strikeforce PPV? If they’re running Brock Lesnar, Royce Gracie, Shamrock/Baroni, etc on the show, I’d be shocked if they couldn’t pull together a decent drawing crowd.
Hello? Has anyone here actually noticed that all the press release says is that the *press conference itself* will be held at the Coliseum? I’d take even money that they announce the show will be at the Sports Arena.
Mike…this is the internet. We are here to criticise without truely reading anything.