What kind of "co-promotion" does M-1 want?
by Zak Woods on Jul 30, 2009 12:00 PM EDT
Email
Print
WKR has believed for some time that co-promotion would be the principle road block in any UFC-Fedor/M-1 negotiations. Thus we offered a creative solution or so we thought. WKR argued that both sides should agree on calling co-promotion "sponsorship" allowing both sides to save face while giving M-1 their desired cut. It now appears that Fedor's management won't do a deal with the UFC unless there is co-promotion.
But what kind of co-promotion does M-1 want?
This question came up in Michael David Smith's MMATwitter Mailbag
WatchKalibRun: Do we know if there is some wiggle room around co-promotion for the UFC. As in call it co-pro[motion] but really don't?
Good question. M-1 keeps on insisting that for Fedor to fight in the Octagon, it has to be a UFC/M-1 co-promotion. But as far as I know, M-1 has never defined exactly what "co-promotion" means. I want to see Fedor in the UFC, so I would like to think there is some wiggle room, like maybe having M-1 logos in the Octagon for all of Fedor's fights. But my sense from both M-1 and the UFC is that they don't see any middle ground on the co-promotion front.
It is now apparent that the term "co-promotion" is more valuable to each party than what would actually be shared and gained by a deal.
M-1 seems unwilling to accept any deal that would involve some revenue sharing unless it is called co-promotion. While the UFC is unwilling to do anything called co-promotion even if that simply entails putting up a logo that is more akin to a sponsor like Xyience. It is almost as if the word is more important than the result and neither side seems willing to try an maneuver around the term for fear of losing face.
Perhaps the term "co-promotion" has been lost in translation for a while. Russian is a complex language and the actual meaning of this term in Russian may be different than the English version. Perhaps this is grasping at straws (which is exactly what this is) but it is a possibility that we simply need better translators.
Someone call the U.N. and let's save these negotiations!
3 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Basically, M1 Global wants this:
M1 Global presents M1 Global’s UFC110: M1 Global’s Fedor Emelienenko vs Brock Lesnar for the UFC & M1 Global World Heavyweight Championship
An M1 Global Production
Co-promotion means 50/50
http://mma.fanhouse.com/2009/07/31/m-1-official-ufc-is-wwe-of-mma/
Jerry Millen: “You sit down with the hard numbers. What’s the fight purses? What’s the venue? What’s the advertising budget? Travel, food, throw it all in a pot, split it down the middle, and at the end of the event if the ink is black and there’s a profit, split the profit, and if the ink is red, then just split the loss.”
by PunchesAndKicks.com on Jul 31, 2009 11:08 AM EDT reply actions
