Cage Cast 76: The 'Those numbers are bad' Edition

by Zak Woods on Mar 12, 2010 7:42 PM EST in Cage Cast Comment 7 comments

Bad_medium

I am sick and instead of doing the sensible thing and skipping out on Friday's podcast I decided to solider forth. I hope you enjoy a nasally, sick sounding voice. Don't worry, you won't have to listen very long as this episode is a short one.

With our available time we talk about UFC 110's trending pay-per view buyrate, which, at the moment, is dismal. Also, we talk about WEC 47's ratings, which were also dismal. Basically, it is bad news all around but thanks to NyQuil we got through it.

You can download the episode here, subscribe to our RSS feed here and check us out on iTunes. The streaming version is below and you can open up a new window to listen here. Send feedback to watchkalibrun@gmail.com

SBN coverage of UFC 110: Nogueira vs. Velasquez and WEC 47: Bowles vs. Cruz

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Cain Velasquez may not be able to beat a meerkat in the ratings

But will those adorable critters step in the cage with “Citizen” Cain Velasquez? Hell no! Fucking pussies.

by some schmuck in texas on Mar 12, 2010 10:50 AM EST reply actions

This story is running wild on the blogs!

Seems like it’s a combination of things; poor economy, PPVs without title fights, weaker cards due to injuries, and possibly over-saturation.
I think some fans saw these weak cards (Dana calls us spoiled, but some were downright weak dude) and said “I’ll pass” and more recently fans saw all the amazing PPVs coming up and said “well I’ll skip 109 or 110 because I’ll be getting these next couple”.
It’s possible the UFC is putting on too many events, maybe it’s better to go one PPV a month that brings in 500+ buys every time, and sprinkle in the free events on Spike/VS. This way fans can save up money, and if there are injuries Dana can have some better quality backup fights/fighters that can fill in.
The UFC may not be recession proof as they originally thought.

by Doors Hate MMA Fighters on Mar 12, 2010 1:06 PM EST reply actions

I thought I was very well reasoned. And nasally :-)

Yeah , it is a big story because the numbers are going down. But as I said in the podcast, we are dealing with an incomplete picture.

watchkalibrun.com

by Zak Woods on Mar 12, 2010 1:40 PM EST up reply actions

Haha it was indeed that’s why I tune into your Cage Casts.

Agreed this is an incomplete picture and it was said (maybe by you or elsewhere) that we need to see how UFC111-UFC116 (possible Brock return) go to see if this is a shrinking core audience or just a “bad” string of PPVs that lost the fans interest temporarily.

The other interesting piece of information I got from this story is how much title fights do matter to fans. The avg. buys for PPVs with title fights compared to ones that didn’t was double (or more) I believe. Maybe UFC should really make an effort to put at least one title fight on each card if this is the case.

by Doors Hate MMA Fighters on Mar 12, 2010 3:30 PM EST reply actions

also, if true

that’s a good argument for adding weight classes, whether by subsuming the WEC or creating intermediate classes, especially a cruiserweight class ~230lbs.

by some schmuck in texas on Mar 12, 2010 3:44 PM EST up reply actions

high voice In the yeeeaarr 2000.....

I would like to see WEC eventually scrap their LW, move better guys (Cerrone, Henderson, Varner, etc) to UFC like with their other defunct weight classes.
Develop their feather, bantam, and flyweight classes eventually moving them to the UFC. Then the UFC has a majority of the world’s best from fly to heavyweight. I’m just not sure if WEC can make it on it’s own with the smaller fighters. Especially charging $44.95 for a PPV, if the UFC is down at the moment I fear what WEC numbers will be.

by Doors Hate MMA Fighters on Mar 12, 2010 11:07 PM EST reply actions