Credit agencies leak some UFC financials: Revenues fell by $100 million in 2018

Too bad frankienyc ain’t here to refute this
 
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RIP Frankie...

I was going through my old PMs and found an old message Frankie sent me a while ago when we were arguing over the legality of a hypothetical contract issue.

He of course won but he sent me a message after complimenting me on my ability to argue a point and saying he enjoyed the interaction. He was a class act all the way.

<DCrying><DCrying><2><2>

Yeh, he was great at making mumble jumble make sense.
Weird how accurate his info was.
The writer of that article, sent a nice tweet about him when he found out.
I talked to him in messages too. Nice guy as far as taking time to explain things.
 
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"They increased their senior loan to pay off their junior loan which has higher interest rate. Their total debt goes up a small amount but they are no longer paying the higher rates for the junior loan, saving them several million a year."

"The US media agreement with ESPN replaces the existing agreement with Fox that ended in 2018 and is expected to lead to a material increase in revenue and EBITDA. UFC also recently entered into an agreement with ESPN for the domestic residential PPV rights for the next seven years and extended the media rights agreement out to seven years from five years. While the media rights deal is projected to lead to a material increase in revenue and EBITDA for the company, the PPV agreement is expected to dramatically reduce the volatility of the business."

"UFC estimates that about 70% of its total 2019 pro forma revenue will be contractually fixed, which compares with less than 40% previously. This will mitigate the company’s business risks by replacing the volatile revenue from its event-driven PPV business model with a fixed-fee revenue stream."


Read the yellow.

This is in a long run very good thing for the company. They'd probably break $800m for 2019 and $1b for 2020. They're secured for the next 7 years basically.
 
ADDITIONAL INFO:
Endeavor has been rumored to take UFC public. Even the possibility of Endeavor itself.

So, they wanted guaranteed money projected for the next 7 years instead of the non guarantee of PPV.
They also wanted Dana's deal to coincide with ESPN (ESPN loves Dana)

So now if they go public, they figure to do so at a higher price since they are guaranteed huge money for 7 years with a yearly revenue of over a billion in reach within a few years

@Bend NvR Break I know IPO's was a Q you had for me

"They increased their senior loan to pay off their junior loan which has higher interest rate. Their total debt goes up a small amount but they are no longer paying the higher rates for the junior loan, saving them several million a year."

"The US media agreement with ESPN replaces the existing agreement with Fox that ended in 2018 and is expected to lead to a material increase in revenue and EBITDA. UFC also recently entered into an agreement with ESPN for the domestic residential PPV rights for the next seven years and extended the media rights agreement out to seven years from five years. While the media rights deal is projected to lead to a material increase in revenue and EBITDA for the company, the PPV agreement is expected to dramatically reduce the volatility of the business."

"UFC estimates that about 70% of its total 2019 pro forma revenue will be contractually fixed, which compares with less than 40% previously. This will mitigate the company’s business risks by replacing the volatile revenue from its event-driven PPV business model with a fixed-fee revenue stream."


Read the yellow.

This is in a long run very good thing for the company. They'd probably break $800m for 2019 and $1b for 2020. They're secured for the next 7 years basically.

Cowboy as you were posting that, I was lost in Sherdog search for something i thought I remembered. @FrankieNYC discussed this in March and even called Endeavour going public.
You seem to have an idea on this as well.
 
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But the truth is with the UFC eliminating all over avenues of PPV distribution, and insisting you only buy the event from ESPN Plus (Which you need a subscription for) it is hard to imagine the PPV numbers ever being the same. And they were not high outside of Conor fights prior to this deal. What they did was eliminate all casuals for UFC PPV. People that will buy an event occasionally, but will never pay for a monthly subscription. So they pass on the PPV now..
 
You mean these fight night level, shit watered down cards aren't selling? What a shock

<LikeReally5>
 
But i've always said that it's a risky business, and for fans to think fighters should have some fixed % of revenue - this shows the folly of such a position.

I don't see why?
 
I think you missed the most important part, which was that in 2018 all the contractual agreements kicked in, via ESPN, you also had a Conor bout vs Khabib which drew huge numbers, and a GSP bout which drew huge numbers as well as Jon Jones to end it off. With all of that they still fell 100,000,000$ short of 2017

The projection with 2019 seems far less promising than 2018, where they had lossed GSP, Jon's PPV number fell by 25%, Conor is still unbooked, and the ESPN+ PPV model is pulling in horrendous numbers.

With UFC being under WME which is operated by share holders, a loss in revenue by a significant magnitude could lead to investors withdrawing from the promotion.

The UFC could still generate 100 million in revenue and you could argue that it would still be doing well, but what you tend to neglect is that a company that pulls in 100 million in revenue isnt worth 4.2 billion $$

The ESPN money is 2019, not last year. They should get a huge increase in 19.
 
If they are hurting for money just pay fighters less and cut a few from the roster
 
He's just advocating for the employees to assume all the risk. A very American philosophy.
??

How do you get that?

The org has the risk that their profits can be highly variable. Obviously fighters have their own financial risks but it’s not tied directly to the overall performance of the org.
 
??

How do you get that?

The org has the risk that their profits can be highly variable. Obviously fighters have their own financial risks but it’s not tied directly to the overall performance of the org.
I've been following mma for nearly 15 years. The entire time the fighters have made a tiny, tiny cut of overall revenue with the excuse they have to grow the sport. Well the sports grown and the pay still sucks. Outsourcing all risks and development costs to the employees is gutless. It isn't fair but the fighters have no leverage so they'll do it until they unionize.

That's life but let's not act like they're doing it for any other reason than pure unadulterated greed.
 
The ESPN money is 2019, not last year. They should get a huge increase in 19.

The 1.5 billion dollar deal was signed on may 8, 2018, the 5 year deal expires in 2023.

Which means it kicked in when they signed it on may 8th, 2018.
 
I've been following mma for nearly 15 years. The entire time the fighters have made a tiny, tiny cut of overall revenue with the excuse they have to grow the sport. Well the sports grown and the pay still sucks. Outsourcing all risks and development costs to the employees is gutless. It isn't fair but the fighters have no leverage so they'll do it until they unionize.

That's life but let's not act like they're doing it for any other reason than pure unadulterated greed.

as the sport has grown the pay has grown. what does it mean outsourcing all the risks and development costs to the employees?
 
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