Putting some numbers on the 10 Year "Mountain" that Dana White thinks the UFC will climb
by Zak Woods on Jan 25, 2010 3:07 PM EST
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PrintDana White's 10 year plan --where he proclaimed MMA will be the biggest sport in the world in 10 years-- ruffled a lot of feathers. But here at WKR we decided to put some numbers on how much the UFC will actually have to grow to reach the top of the mountain.
In the United States football is undoubtedly king. The latest example of football's prowess is the Saints-Vikings NFC Championship game, which averaged 57.9 million viewers throughout the entire broadcast. The highest rated UFC product on Spike was the Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson episode of TUF which averaged 6.1 million viewers over the final 15 minutes of the episode. The episode as a whole averaged 5.3 million viewers.
But the Saints-Vikings games was on network television while the UFC is on cable. Even on cable the UFC highest rated product was still dwarfed by Monday Night Football, which averaged 21.8 million viewers on one broadcast earlier this year.
Now, I know some people will state that Dana White was talking about the world not just the United States. This is an accurate statement but WKR posting these numbers is our attempt at quantify the necessary growth the UFC and MMA as a whole will need to undertake in order to even be in the discussion of being one of the top sports in the world.
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why is everyone so negative about this whole thing. I belive it will become the top sport in the WORLD. not United States. And yes it doesnt compare to the the nfl yet. But once again , he said in ten years not this year. LOok how much it has grown in just five years since it was on cable. Once they have a newtwork deal watch out. Most of hardocre fans are hardcore fans because they have cable tv and get to watch ufc on spike regulary. Imagine all the people who live in large cities and do not subscribe to cable. They r barely scrathing the surface with this thing.
seeing what kind of growth is required in understanding what White’s statement really means.
can any live UFC event, for free on network average 60 million viewers here in the States? Could it average 60 million in the world?
the purpose of this exercise is to quantify what needs to happen in order for this to become a reality.
watchkalibrun.com
MMA will never be the top sport in the world. Maybe Dana believes that, maybe he does. It could be his passion talking or it could be him hyping his sport.
Regardless, I don’t see it happening.
That said, I do think it will continue to gain more mainstream acceptance and grow overall.
That said, I do think it will continue to gain more mainstream acceptance and grow overall.
I agree and I even believe that the UFC could achieve a serious international presence, which could, someday, elevate the UFC over other North American sports leagues but we are a long way off from that but there is the potential for that to occur.
MMA will never be the top sport in the world. Maybe Dana believes that, maybe he does. It could be his passion talking or it could be him hyping his sport.
I think this is nothing but promoter hype speak but as it gets everyone talking I thought it would be prudent to throw out some numbers
watchkalibrun.com
I cant wait to laugh at everyone in ten years and say , we told u so. I think true mma fans would be more optomistic and would stop hating so much. Always so much negativy from alot of so called hard core fans.
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