What will the UFC do with the many unsold 196 tickets?

There are loads, loads of unsold tickets for 196. I could get my 3 refunded because the main event got changed and then try to rebuy cheaper. Prices were high already for McGregor-RDA, now they are way high for a non-title main event.

Logically, tickets will drop in price on secondary markets as the fight approaches. But that somewhat relies on the UFC doing something with the the unsold inventory: lowering prices, doing 2-for-1 offers, comping them. Surely they wouldn't just leave them unsold at current prices?

Does anyone what they've done before/what is likely to happen?

 

Bonfire, smores, laugh about the money they still made from ppv sales.

 

What the fuck Conor wants

 

Dim the lights like they always do. Then let Dana go on about how the event was sold out and it was the highest selling gate of all time.

 

Have empty seats.

They had plenty of empty seats when I went to UFC 175




Ps, even if you sell and buy new cheaper tix, if you had good seats, keep them to stub down. I used my $49 UFN 20 seats for UFC 175 and sat in seats that would have been over $1000

(Both events were same venue same weekend)

 

McGregor said that the he expected the gate to be $13m - assuming he expected it to be sold out. Meaning that the tickets are ridiculously overpriced for the event. Also, plenty of Irish fans won't travel for a glorified freakshow fight.

I think what we'll find is that people were premature in assuming that McGregor was a Lesnar or a Rousey, where he can sell a million PPVs on his name alone every time. UFC 194 sold so much because it was the most hyped fight in years.

 

We'll see! I predict the Irish fans to be loyal

 

1- Aldo and Conner were promoted for a year, had the most extravagant and expensive press tour in MMA history plus epic amounts of trash talking, videos, interviews etc and a lot of people still considered Conor "unproven"

196 ain't gonna break those numbers or if they say it does I would be very hesitant to believe it. This card is pretty weak and even the biggest stars still need support to hit big numbers, UFC 100 had GSP as the fucking co-main... Holly vs Meisha is an interesting fight but it has been criminally under promoted

 

I have personally been to 4 live UFC events and everytime there was empty seats, but when I rewatch the event on TV the next week it says its sold out, and in the media they say its sold out. but it clearly was not.

 

It may be the case that McGregor reached his ceiling of popularity. I don't think McGregor's journey for a second belt has as much of a pull to casuals as the first title fight against Jose Aldo. I don't think his press conference with Nate Diaz was something particularly compelling to casuals. The "money fight" storyline is also silly as hell. Not a lot of genuine emotions there like in the Aldo build-up. Hard to keep people interested over time.

 

woah woah.....hold up here. So you are saying McGregor's star and drawing power isn't equal to/greater than that of Lesnar or even Rousey?!!!??

You do realize that 189 was with a no name replacement (to the greater public) and it smashed the freshman PPV headlining record? The ticket gross was larger than Rousey's stadium, anything Brock did and he was dealing with only the old MGM. Move fwd to 194 and it is the second highest grossing PPV of all time (and only Conor's second PPV headliner) and smashes the ticket gross for US, second only to GSP's hometown stadium show (but smashing any and all records of price per ticket avg). Lets not even talk about his drawing records for Fight Pass and FS1.

Conor IS the biggest star the sport has ever seen.....it really isnt even a question at this point. Simply because he is not American and in American media has nothing to do with the potency and reality of his ability to generate income. Rousey has been in the UFC how long and how many PPV's was she on before she cracked 1 mil (and she had SJW's, white knights and main stream media shilling on her behalf for AGES)? Say what you want about hyping and marketing but facts are facts.

I understand that Conor has legions of haters, and that the haters wish that he is not succesful, not the biggest draw and desperately want to see him fail. The UFC is a business and back him with money because they know his star to be bigger than anyone else before or since. The following vid is just proof and point that Conor is a global phenomenon and his star will only get bigger, badder and more lucrative, and sad for many; even if he loses. The Conor McGregor meme has caught on everywhere and is multiplying and spreading like wildfire, not even Floyd gets such a passionate reaction.

 

Hes a star, yes, but not on the level where people in droves are gonna pay 400usd for nosebleeds.

 

Ronda still is the biggest star... Conor comes 2nd. Just go to Google Trends and check it for yourself.

 

My friends and I will buy them since we are going there for my Bacholer party this weekend. I will be fat, drunk and happy on Saturday night watching people smash faces...and then I will watch the UFC event

 

People will be scalping tickets for $900 in the street

 

Do you really think people who were planning to go didn't already book the trip?

 

Perhaps a dumb question but how do you get a refund? Ticketmaster said that the card is "subject to change" which led me to think tickets are nonrefundable???

 

It's Nevada law that if the main event of a fight card changes, refunds must be offered. The UFC does not like to publicise this but if you contact Ticketmaster for a refund, they cannot refuse you.

 

They will just dim the lights. That is what they usually do.

UFC 182 Jones vs Cormier for example had an 11k attendence (2/3 sold out) and a 3.7 mil gate.

UFC 195 Lawler vs Condit had a 10k attendance (<2/3 sold out) and had a 2 mil gate.

UFC 196 as of now seems to be about 50% sold out, so it will probably reach close toabout 2/3 sold out come fight night and will have a 4.something mil gate (since the tickets are more expensive than 182 and 195).


All in all UFC 196 will most likely have a pretty decent gate of 3-4 mil. Conor has just shifted a lot of people's perceptions/expectations of what a good gate is since he was continuously breaking gate records and he would have continued to do so had RDA not pulled out (before RDA pulled tickets were 80% sold out).

 

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They always give a ton away and upgrade as well. That's why they are always sold out