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IFL fudges numbers?
By Zach Arnold | June 26, 2007
By Zach Arnold
When the IFL held their June 16th event at the Las Vegas Hilton (in the facility’s ballroom), they stated the following in a press release:
LAS VEGAS, June 16, 2007 – The New York Pitbulls and host Nevada Lions claimed victories in the final 2007 regular-season International Fight League matches for each team, before a sold-out crowd of 3,200 at the Las Vegas Hilton. The Pitbulls took out the Toronto Dragons, 3-2, while the Lions scored a 4-1 win over the Tucson Scorpions.
Today, The Fight Network is reporting that the claim of 3,200 paid is false:
The Nevada State Athletic Commission released attendance and gate receipt figures for IFL Las Vegas Monday, and the numbers were shockingly poor.
According to the NSAC, only 996 tickets were sold for the June 16 event, which showcased two matches with playoff implications at the Las Vegas Hilton. The show produced a total gate of just $93,270. The struggling promotion provided 1,842 complimentary tickets.
The IFL had originally scheduled the June 16th date at the Reno Events Center, which is about an hour away from The Lions Den facility in Susanville, California.
Fightlinker claims that the IFL is fudging more than just attendance figures.
Topics: IFL, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
How long until the IFL finally goes belly-up? 6 months? A year maybe?
Bas Rutten alone cannot save a promotion.
Put into perspective 996 paid. I don’t have the numbers on the Tuff ‘n Uff event at South Point, but it would be fair to say that perhaps they did more paid than the IFL show.
Why the IFL moved their show from Reno (Shamrock’s home area) to Vegas just baffles me to no degree.
It depends on how much of a money pit they are willing to make it, really. If Gareb Shamus and Kurt Otto are willing to infuse their own cash into the project (which is likely to be nothing more than a money pit at this point), they may able to keep it alive a little while longer, but with ‘great’ business like the Las Vegas show, the liquid cash (equivalents) will be gone by the beginning of the fourth quarter per the annual report.
Not a good sign, at all.
If they were spending their own money they would never do this. Did they used to work for the government?
I used to like the IFL but I can’t watch anymore. Overall the production is second class.
I never got the whole IFL thing. Forgetting the lame team concept. I went to a few of their shows and got back stage. At first it was run like a “mini UFC” it was set up exactly that the old UFC with the 3 ex Zuffa employees (KE, LF, ST) basically running the ship. (Good thing) Then they went public, a lot of people who never were in the business all of a sudden thought they were BIGGER then the NY FN YANKEES and they got big egos. They started bringing in “corporate types” who didn’t understand the sport.
They had real potential, when they started but a series of moves by people with no MMA experience killed that. Here is a “Kiddy Friendly” MMA company upstart and yet the most of the “support the sport” crowd really wants them to fail. How crazy is that? That has to tell you something.
As far as the ticket sales, 1. Hilton is a b level hotel off the strip who didn’t really care about the event, “Fight Show? What fight show?” was the buzz around the hotel. 2 WEC has done less paid at the hard rock in recent months. 3. STUPID move leaving Reno.
Some organizations have distributed tickets paid for by sponsors. So an individual sponsor might, as part of their sponsorship, receive a certain number of tickets, which are then distributed and counted as paid attendance.
Attendance in general is a really dicey area. Baseball pretty consistently uses turnstyle, some use paid, some use distributed…some will do sold out based on whether or not tickets are available for sale, which could be really iffy if online ticket agencies have control over tickets.
I’d argue that the IFL has been as poorly run from day one as it is now. They merged with a public company specifically so that they would have a way to pay off creditors with paper that allegedly indicated ownership. Since those shares weren’t enough to actually give them control over the operations of the company, it was IMHO practically a fraud. A lot of people have bought into what these guys are selling because apparently they are extremely personable, knowledgeable, and charismatic. However, their business practices are EXTREMELY suspect, in my opinion.
When this thing falls apart, there are going to be a lot of lawsuits.
I hope the IFL doesn’t fall apart. The IFL has grown on me in recent weeks; between FSN and MNT I can catch a few hours of MMA almost everyday. I am making plans to take a roadtrip from Massachusetts to New Jersey to catch the IFL semis on August 2nd. Stacked up against the top MMA promotions out there right now IFL is probably my least favorite, but it is MMA, and that is what I care about.
The trend on wall street is to go private not public. Investors want a return now,not five years from now. Every move they have made has been wrong. Kurt Otto has no energy and niether does his product.
Only 996 tickets is insane.
MMA Fan, do you have any sources on the new WEC getting less than 1000 paid?
You’re right TG, they never should have went public in the first place. Alot of companies are going from public to private and they may do the same. Don’t be surprised if some private group buys them on the cheap and turns it around so its at least profitable. Time will tell but I have to suspect a deal will happen sooner (post-playoffs) rather than later (next season).
Until they get live TV, none of it matters. Watching taped fights on TV with no historical context, title/ranking implications, or time frame will not move the organization forward. They have hit a plateau, and become a money pit. They need to try something to shake things up.
The TV stuff isn’t doing bad though … it’s the live gate that’s fucking them.
TV is just as bad. They get almost no revenues from it, and the ratings for a Network TV show are absolutely horrible.
Look at source here. The Fight Network? lmao The same site that broke the fake news about Shamrock fighting Bisping? I wouldn’t trust anything these guys say.
[Look at source here. The Fight Network? lmao The same site that broke the fake news about Shamrock fighting Bisping? I wouldn’t trust anything these guys say.]
I hear you, but the source isn’t TFN, it’s the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
I know smaller events in Oklahoma City that do better then 500 tickets sold a show and they are nowhere anything like the IFL is.
The IFL is a great Org. I was in Vegas and it was packed and the crowed was really into it. I hope the IFL makes it they are one of the only orgs that really cares about the fighters.
If you gave up on there TV show battleground you should give it one more try. They have really improved it. Much more fights and a higher level of production.