Why no UFC or boxing stadium events in the US?

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Mihauki

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In the last few years we had MMA events in stadiums in Sweden (UFC on FOX 14), Brazil (UFC 198), Canada (UFC 129), Australia (UFC 193) and Poland (KSW 39). During Pride days we had a few stadium shows in Japan.
Big boxing events happen also at stadiums around the world: Klitschko brothers fought in Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Poland and the UK in stadiums. AJ had his last 3 fight in stadium, with the 90,000 attending his fight against Wladimir. Chavez fought in 1993 in Mexico in front of 132,000 fans. Froch vs Grove II was in front of 80,000 fans in London. Hatton also had a stadium fight in Manchester.
But somehow the biggest MMA and boxing events in the US are always held at smaller arenas. Even when Dana talked about a stadium show with Connor, the stadium in Dublin was considered as a venue.
I've been to an MMA stadium event. The atmosphere was great. Sure I was watching the fights on the telebeam, but even having expensive tickets at a small 5,000 arena you end up watching the fights on the telebeam most of the time, because especially when the fights get to the ground it's hard to see what's happening.

I am not that familiar with the US. Is it a cultural reason or maybe american football and baseball stadiums lack recracteble roofs (fought that didn't stop Pride or a few boxing events)? But that also seems a strange reason, since 2010 NBA All-Star game was held in front of 108,000 fans in Dallas. UFC has a huge following in the US, the UFC breaks gate records, so they should be able to make even more, when they switch from a 20.000 arena to a 80.000 stadium.
 
Americans don't really give a shit about combat sports.

<Fedor23>

Plus, the UFC probably wouldn't price appropriately for an 80000 person venue so they'd end up with a bunch of papered tickets or lots of empty seats. This isn't the days of UFC 129 anymore.
 
State of the cards these days.. you think they will sell 80k seats?
Have you been sniffing glue?
 
DarkneT said:
State of the cards these days.. you think they will sell 80k seats?
Click to expand...
McGregor vs Diaz II sells 1,650,000 PPVs, gets 7,700,000 gate, but 80k seats are out of reach? Common.
 
Mihauki said:
McGregor vs Diaz II sells 1,650,000 PPVs, gets 7,700,000 gate, but 80k seats are out of reach? Common.
Click to expand...

McGregor doesn't fight anymore? Did you not get the memo?
 
Mihauki said:
McGregor vs Diaz II sells 1,650,000 PPVs, gets 7,700,000 gate, but 80k seats are out of reach? Common.
Click to expand...

Yes, they're really going to fill an 80k stadium at UFC 202 ticket prices.

<{hfved}>
 
Dana said years ago he doesn't like doing stadiums because of how it ruins the "Las Vegas" fight experience being in such a big arena where the sound escapes, plus the viewing is awful.

This isn't a big presentation like Football or Soccer where the pitch is 100 yards, or like Wrestlemania where they spend up the ass for insane displays and a crazy ramp. Do you know how shit it looks when you have a gigantic arena and a tiny little shitty looking cage in the middle? They would have to revamp all the designs.

Yes, for a Conor vs. Nate-esque card they can probably fill a stadium, but why? You can just book them in MSG or Vegas and charge $600 per ticket at a fraction of the cost to the event organizer. Whereas you have more costs in a stadium, and you end up giving away tickets.

They do stadiums overseas sometimes, but that is usually when they go to areas they don't go to often with a big card so all the fans have a chance to attend. In the US, you have cards and Fight Nights everywhere every week.
 
Mihauki said:
In the last few years we had MMA events in stadiums in Sweden (UFC on FOX 14), Brazil (UFC 198), Canada (UFC 129), Australia (UFC 193) and Poland (KSW 39). During Pride days we had a few stadium shows in Japan.
Big boxing events happen also at stadiums around the world: Klitschko brothers fought in Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Poland and the UK in stadiums. AJ had his last 3 fight in stadium, with the 90,000 attending his fight against Wladimir. Chavez fought in 1993 in Mexico in front of 132,000 fans. Froch vs Grove II was in front of 80,000 fans in London. Hatton also had a stadium fight in Manchester.
But somehow the biggest MMA and boxing events in the US are always held at smaller arenas. Even when Dana talked about a stadium show with Connor, the stadium in Dublin was considered as a venue.
I've been to an MMA stadium event. The atmosphere was great. Sure I was watching the fights on the telebeam, but even having expensive tickets at a small 5,000 arena you end up watching the fights on the telebeam most of the time, because especially when the fights get to the ground it's hard to see what's happening.

I am not that familiar with the US. Is it a cultural reason or maybe american football and baseball stadiums lack recracteble roofs (fought that didn't stop Pride or a few boxing events)? But that also seems a strange reason, since 2010 NBA All-Star game was held in front of 108,000 fans in Dallas. UFC has a huge following in the US, the UFC breaks gate records, so they should be able to make even more, when they switch from a 20.000 arena to a 80.000 stadium.
Click to expand...
SpedDaddyV said:
Dana said years ago he doesn't like doing stadiums because of how it ruins the "Las Vegas" fight experience being in such a big arena where the sound escapes, plus the viewing is awful.

This isn't a big presentation like Football or Soccer where the pitch is 100 yards, or like Wrestlemania where they spend up the ass for insane displays and a crazy ramp. Do you know how shit it looks when you have a gigantic arena and a tiny little shitty looking cage in the middle? They would have to revamp all the designs.

Yes, for a Conor vs. Nate-esque card they can probably fill a stadium, but why? You can just book them in MSG or Vegas and charge $600 per ticket at a fraction of the cost to the event organizer. Whereas you have more costs in a stadium, and you end up giving away tickets.

They do stadiums overseas sometimes, but that is usually when they go to areas they don't go to often with a big card so all the fans have a chance to attend. In the US, you have cards and Fight Nights everywhere every week.
Click to expand...
good answer.

and to elaborate a bit, the only reason for a huge stadium is for the "splash" effect. the PR that comes with having a big stadium sell out, not because it's actually better.

so in newer markets, it makes more sense.

in 2009 when the Jerry Jones / AT&T stadium was completed there were some talks about having a (assuredly Brock Lesnar headlining) event there. people debate how serious those talks actually were. ultimately it never went anywhere. if there was ever a time for a stadium event splash, that was it.
 
Becasue they can't fill out a stadium..also becasue gate revenue matters. Sure you can sell 70k seats in England but if you're still getting the same gate for a fight in Vegas..

Whats it matter?
 
Op I get where you're coming from and I like the fact we are selling out 70k stadiums here. But check the gate out for Pac vs mayweather and you'll see that ticket prices and gate taken were mental. And that's at like 12k.
 
Not always more profitable. The UFCs two biggest gates were UFC 129 GSP/Shields @55,000 and did a gate of $12mill and UFC 193 @56,000 and a gate of $6.8 mill. Now compare it to the first MSG show that had a attendance of 20,000 and gate of $17.7 million. Conor/Diaz 2 did 15,000 people and a gate of $7.7 million, Conor/Diaz 1 did $15,000 people and gate of $8.1 mill and Aldo/Conor did 16,000 people and gate of $10 mill. UFC 200 did a gate of 17,000 and $11 mill.

Stadium are risk because to rent the venue it costs more than a arena. But you have to sell 3x more tickets to fill the venue. They are cheaper tickets but to sell 50K + is still not easy.
 
Mihauki said:
McGregor vs Diaz II sells 1,650,000 PPVs, gets 7,700,000 gate, but 80k seats are out of reach? Common.
Click to expand...
They didn't even sell out T-Mobile Arena for that.
They wont price their tickets correctly. UFC 225 is the first time where tickets were priced correctly and i'm gonna guess they will have 20,000 in an arena for like the 4th time ever.
 
I always thought it would be cool if the UFC invested in their own arena, custom built so every seat in the house could see into the octagon, something like a roman amphitheatre but with a modern clever design. I think if they had a really cleverly designed building where people didn't need to watch fights on the big screen that it would be a really big attraction and probably end up making them money in the long term, they could also rent it out for other events whether it would be boxing, concerts or live theater. I realize something like this would cost a lot of money but I think the UFC could pull it off if they wanted too, I'm sure they could get lots of sponsors or partners if the design was cool enough.
 
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