Do fighters get a cut of the live gate?

The Natural Born Runner said:
I just read a great thread from @frandie2b around Stipe Miocic's comments on his own pay.

It got me thinking...

PPV points/percentage

It's well documented that champions (automatically) get some PPV "points", but I'm presuming that the % depends on how much of a draw that person is e.g. Ronda Rousey as a champion was probably getting a good percentage, whilst Amanda Nunes probably doesn't get as large a percentage (I can only presume).

Some non-champions inevitably get PPV "points" also. Examples of this would be Conor McGregor when he fought Chad Mendes, or Chael Sonnen when he fought Anderson Silva. I have no facts to back this up, but using common sense you would hope that the main component of promotion would get some of the PPV cut, seeming as he/she sold the PPV.

Live gate?

So that brings me to this important question: "Do the fighters get any cut of the live gate?"

I ask this because if they don't, they most definitely should.

All you ever hear from the UFC brass and Sherdoggers alike are criticisms over someone's drawing power. Essentially if Stipe Miocic does not sell PPVs then he isn't a "big draw", same would go for someone like Fabricio Werdum who had his request for more money shut down lately.

Wait a minute, did Fabricio not headline an event which sold 45,000 tickets!? Didn't Stipe sell out an arena in Cleveland which has almost 19,000 seats? Someone is coming to watch them, a lot of people actually.

PPVs cost $50 from what I'm aware, you'd be lucky to find 1 seat in an arena for a UFC PPV which is $50. These guys are not only selling PPVs, but putting asses in seats. I understand that they are not selling millions of PPVs and I don't expect them to get McGregor money, but throw a dog a bone man.

Let me know, do they actually get a cut and if so do we know a ball-park percentage?
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Why did you put an apostrophe in the thread title?
 
giusti825 said:
i honestly dont have a problem with keeping live gate for the promoter.....it really is their work that goes into the setup of the event.....i also dont have a problem with the promotion keeping non-fighter-specific merch (ufc shirts, unsigned event posters, fake belts) and concessions as it is a direct result of their work and brand.

however, fighters should get a larger percentage of fighter specific merch, live bar streams should factor into the ppv formula at a proportionate rate but the promotion ahould get a decent portion of that as they work out the contracts for it.....the video games bearing a fighters likeness should absolutely pay in some sort of proportion to the fighters contract......

Anything beyond that should be split more evenly between the promotion and the fighters.....the contract ismdesigned to artificially reduce the fighters individual and collective value so the fighters can be underpaid.....

if youre going to use a restrictive contract to reduce fighter value, at least pay them a decently proportionate share of what they bring in.....15% is an insult.....im not saying go to 50 overnight as wme has a debt to repay, but make some sort of 10 year plan to bump up the percentage to at least 25% while paying down the 4.2 billion....the sport is still growing and it will help attract more talent....especially at HW.....it will increase revenue for everyone and expedite growth......
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I don't totally agree with that to be honest.

The live gate should somewhat go to the promoter, because yes, they put on the show, pay for the venue, production etc. but nobody is turning up to your great ole show, with no fighters. Stipe Miocic would have been the exact reason why majority of those Cleveland natives turned up, likewise with Werdum, Shogun and originally Silva for the Curitiba card that sold out 45,000 seats. No fighters, no show, therefore they definitely deserve a cut, specifically if they are the main event.

Agreed on fighter-specific merchandise, that much is obvious - my face on the shirt, I need a majority cut. Agreed on the live bar scenario, they are the one who does the contracting with those venues, and it's not really up to the UFC to be dividing out how many people view a PPV, it's just down to the buys in my opinion. Agreed also on your comments around video games, likeness etc.

I also agree that on the whole they are ridiculously underpaid in terms of the overall number from what they bring in. 25% is fair, should be 25% today, never mind 10 years.
 
Gate goes to pay the expenses of putting on the show.
 
I think the Ontario commission lets fighters get a portion of gate, but it's not part of the standard contract like PPV points are.
 
Yes they do.

They put their money in the same pile with the "locker room bonuses".
 
Conor probably does because he generates big gates. A $2 mil gate is a normal gate for a PPV. So hard to leverage that. If you command high ticket prices it would be wise to get a cut.
 
you cant forget that Base Pay takes those things into account;

$70k to show up to Press Conferences, promotional videos/interviews, and fight on certain date
 
kimocomplex said:
you cant forget that Base Pay takes those things into account;

$70k to show up to Press Conferences, promotional videos/interviews, and fight on certain date
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That makes the pay even worse then.

20k to show up to all of that shite? I'll pass and get a 2nd line support role in IT and get £35-40k a year thanks.
 
Jackonfire said:
Gate goes to pay the expenses of putting on the show.
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It's like saying to Jay Z:

"Hey, Mr. Carter

We'll give you a cut of money made from people streaming your concert, but regarding the tickets people buy to attend the event in person, we'll need that stuff - because we need it to recoup the cost it incurred to actually put on the event."

The fighters are the reason why they are in the damn arena in the first place, I deserve a portion of the gate, even if it's 5%, I need a portion.
 
gates are usually about $700k to $3m. let's say Stipe *demanded* a gate cut of 2%. he'll end up with a Reebok - like bonus check.

don't get me wrong. no one would scoff at an extra $60k (2% of $3m). but only a fool would make it a major negotiating point at the next UFC contract talks.

TS, it's an interesting idea, but do the math...and then be careful not to step over paper money to pick up nickles.
 
The Natural Born Runner said:
That makes the pay even worse then.

20k to show up to all of that shite? I'll pass and get a 2nd line support role in IT and get £35-40k a year thanks.
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yes that makes sense, but in the past we have seen that the "reported salaries" are often not the whole story

when fighters have sued the UFC, real numbers come out

for example Randy Couture attempted to leave to fight Fedor at Affliction and showed in his paper work he was getting paid way more than what most thought

another example was Rampage Jackson's strange Viacom contract with Bellator
 
kimocomplex said:
yes that makes sense, but in the past we have seen that the "reported salaries" are often not the whole story

when fighters have sued the UFC, real numbers come out

for example Randy Couture attempted to leave to fight Fedor at Affliction and showed in his paper work he was getting paid way more than what most thought

another example was Rampage Jackson's strange Viacom contract with Bellator
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right. there is ample evidence that (oh, let's just call them) 1%ers in UFC are making lots of money. Dana publicly saying they'd paid Rampage $15.2m over 11 fights (http://www.mmamania.com/2013/1/24/3913294/dana-white-rampage-jackson-career-earnings-ufc-millions). so when Dana says he has created over 40 millionaires, i believe him.

which made fighters just below that 1%er tier pretty upset. which now includes Stipe. and dozens of others, some of whom are going to Bellator partly because they can earn an extra $100k/fight in sponsorship money.
 
SeattleFightFan said:
gates are usually about $700k to $3m. let's say Stipe *demanded* a gate cut of 2%. he'll end up with a Reebok - like bonus check.

don't get me wrong. no one would scoff at an extra $60k (2% of $3m). but only a fool would make it a major negotiating point at the next UFC contract talks.

TS, it's an interesting idea, but do the math...and then be careful not to step over paper money to pick up nickles.
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It's still money.

2% of 700k is $14,000. That's probably a McDonalds' worker's annual wage. That can buy a car, that can get you a beautiful trip to the Caribbean or a tour of Europe.

Never mind if you had 60k.

Money is money.
 
No, and they shouldn't. Most events have the around the same people so it doesn't make much of a difference who headlines it.

The Curitiba event that had 45 thousand, would have the same 45 if the title fight was with JDS, Werdum, Jacaré, Belfort, Aldo, Lineker, etc. It was the first event ever on a city that has a good history of fighters.
 
The Natural Born Runner said:
It's still money.

2% of 700k is $14,000. That's probably a McDonalds' worker's annual wage. That can buy a car, that can get you a beautiful trip to the Caribbean or a tour of Europe.

Never mind if you had 60k.

Money is money.
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you kinda missed the whole point.

consider this: if Stipe currently earns ~$600k but thinks he deserves ~$4m, and they negotiate for somewhere around $2m to $3.5m (depending on whether PPV's sell 500k or 700k), then Stipe is not going to derail negotiations over $14k.
 
The live gate is kinda too small to bother with as a negotiating point. Unless you're mcgregor and can literally draw an 11 million dollar gate, a cut of live gate would be peanuts next to other revenue streams.
 
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