Big For One’s Britches
Posted by Alan Conceicao on June 19th, 2008
In case you were in a cave today, Dana White decided to both debase the “MMA media” and concurrently announce that the big world shattering announcement was that some guy who part owns the UFC is now going to work in the office full time. It was quite the press release that Kevin Iole made up for the event and submitted as actual journalism, and I’m sure the glorified bloggers that imagine themselves to be reporters are spending hours trying to determine how to compare it to the night Andre The Giant stole the WWF title.
What was of particular interest was the discussion by the Two Musketeers of Ultimate Fighting of a plan to take the sport globally whilst demanding an “NBA style contract” for the airing of the programming. In fact, the plan makes the UFC the biggest sports league (and by virtue of that, MMA the biggest sport) in the entire world. Meditate on that for a second, because I have. And boy, is it hilarious. In fact, let me go forth to talk about that.
To understand how absolutely, mindbogglingly insane this is, first consider that there is no sport on earth with any significant global presence that attempts to be both promoter and sanctioning body at once. None. Not golf. Not auto racing in any form. Not soccer. Not rugby. Not basketball. Not tennis. Everyone single one of those relies on a vast system of local promoters, team owners, managers, and independent sanctioning. Basketball on a global scale works under the Fédération Internationale de Basketball, not the National Basketball Association. Sure, the NBA is its most powerful “rival”, however when it comes to international tournament play or creating rules for the Olympics, FIBA is responsible for that. Soccer features massive governing bodies like the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and, of course, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), who are responsible for running and maintaining the world’s largest events (UEFA Cup and World Cup soccer tournaments). Automobile Racing on an almost universal basis answers to La Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), who in turn sanction and create the rules for the most popular forms of the sport on this planet (chiefly Formula One, WRC, and sports car racing).
Even organizations that the UFC has patterned itself after such as NASCAR are reliant on local track operators to advertise coming events of a local, regional, or national status. Other international sanctioning bodies also rely on the facilities to promote their event first and foremost as well as set up television coverage. One only has to look at how professional tennis and golf jump around the dial.
The UFC totally diverges from this. They demand control of TV production. They demand to promote the events. They demand to book the shows. They demand to sanction the shows. They demand to set up and maintain the TV coverage. They demand all of this come directly from the front office, and their reluctance to give up an iota of control has cost them lucrative contracts with, it seems, virtually every major network, ESPN, and HBO. Its cost them the ability to run Japan. It cost them Fedor Emelianenko (remember how his management wanted to promote UFC shows in Russia?) They’ve purposely alienated themselves from fighters within the sport in ways that no professional league has done since the civil rights movement.
Not only have they embarked on a path that, quite bluntly, has accomplished none of their major objectives in the last 2 years and put them in a position that they must run a money losing show in July, they’ve embarked on one that has never, ever worked at anything remotely close the scale they are discussing. Oh yeah, money. Remember that Dana and Lorenzo are talking about being “bigger than soccer.” Money is sort of important. To demand an “NBA style” contract would be to establish that they can generate NBA style revenues, which if anything, the UFC has proven without a shadow of a doubt that they cannot.
The NBA has 30 teams of players in 2 countries whom play 82 regular season games plus expansion games plus playoff games. This means that there are roughly 1500 games a year across the United States, and averaged during the 2006-2007 regular season a staggering 17,757 attendees. That is per game. That is over 21,000,000 in a season. The UFC can’t fill 1500 seat theaters at The Palms. Even with such immense drawing power, the NBA still cannot even hope to get the production demands the UFC is looking for. On TV, PPV revenues are up, but they have shown nothing but flat ratings for their weekly programming, and even spikes in programming are nowhere near NFL regular season levels of popularity, much less most network NASCAR races.
Of course, there’s more. To compete with the biggest sports on earth, it would require you pay people accordingly. SI did a wonderful job collecting data for the US and the rest of the world. Tiger Woods made a staggering $130,000,000+. Floyd Mayweather Jr, who apparently competed in a sport that is dead and nowhere near as profitable as the UFC, made the tidy sum of over $40,000,000. The Formula One world champion, a total unknown stateside, made $46,000,000 in salary alone. And yet Sports Illustrated thought so little of every fighter in the UFC that they listed none of their signed athletes there to be potential additions to the list (though, hilariously, guess who got the honor for MMA?). There is not a single fighter in the history of the sport to gross $10,000,000 in a single year.
Well, to be fair, Lorenzo made 9 figures last year. That is pretty damned impressive. Oddly, absolutely nothing has been said asking why someone would choose to leave what seems on the surface to be such a plum job to promote a fringe sport. Nothing. Such obvious questioning has instead been replaced with infinite optimism. That he may be sensing potential revenue problems for the casino chain he runs alongside his brother for a company that primarily operates to pull in locals in a town with imploding property values as the American economy begins what is forecasted by virtually all economists to be a long term slide gets tossed out the window. That as someone who has made hundreds of millions of dollars, he may not be willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars without hope of necessarily making it backfor sometime is ignored. Hell, not even fathomed, much less argued is the obvious fact that spending hundreds of millions of dollars when in the middle of a power struggle within your sport in order to gain power (which may only be accomplished through a horrific pyrrhic victory) may not be the best idea.
The more one thinks about it, the more questions arise. What history as a fight promoter does Lorenzo Fertitta have? His other attempts at branching out, such as Zuffa Music, have generally failed miserably, and the UFC itself was on the fast track to extinction before backing into a reality show concept they paid for largely out of pocket. What has he done to establish a link between himself and blue chip sponsors, networks, production facilities, et al? He can run a casino, but that certainly doesn’t mean he can run a fight promotion. People with as much or more money have come and gone. Dana at least had a history as a mediocre boxing promoter. What is there other than casino earnings to establish where Lorenzo fits in?
What exactly am I saying? Well, to put it succinctly, the pipe dreams put forth yesterday are some of the most absurd this sport has ever seen, and that’s quite the accomplishment. If the goal is to top all sports on earth, then there is no reason to believe that failure is anything but imminent. The only hope for such success is to completely change their business model, and I’d give James Irvin better odds of beating Anderson Silva than a conscious decision being made that would benefit themselves and the sport.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:20 am
Hater.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:31 am
“…I’m sure the glorified bloggers that imagine themselves to be reporters are spending hours trying to determine how to compare it to the night Andre The Giant stole the WWF title.”
Um, this is a blog.
Um, you’re not a reporter.
Um, yeah.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:42 am
And oh yea, um, reporters proofread and edit.
That was a nice blog post, Mr. Blogger.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:10 am
“Um, this is a blog.”
“Um, you’re not a reporter.”
You’re right on both counts which is tremendous. Proves we have intelligent readers. It’s what separates us from other wordpress sites who pride themselves on BREAKING NEWS, which in effect means they have an RSS reader and know how to copy and paste.
June 19th, 2008 at 10:28 am
That I’m a blogger is indeed true. I have zero delusions of grandeur, dear. The same cannot be said about virtually everyone else.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
To be fair, most bloggers couldn’t afford the pay cut to become a reporter. I do like the idea of a Mr. Blogger character who lives in his mom’s basement and screams at the television while eating Cheetos.
Also, does anyone think inserting, um, into sentences is, um, a little awkward?
June 19th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
That may not necessarily be an incorrect view when it comes to the general nature of the “media” for this sport. But I digress. I do admit to inserting links in sentences because, well, most everyone else does it. There is some internal debate about copying their news as well. Given my history as a boxing fan, I could have gone wild with speculation on the Mayweather to UFC story, even if it was obviously baseless and tremendously irresponsible to even repeat.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Your statement “To understand how absolutely, mindbogglingly insane this is, first consider that there is no sport on earth with any significant global presence that attempts to be both promoter and sanctioning body at once. None. Not golf. Not auto racing in any form. Not soccer. Not rugby. Not basketball. Not tennis.” is factually incorrect. This is exactly the way Formula One operates. It is the largest racing competition globally and is both the operator, owner of IP, and sanctioning body.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Links and ‘um’ don’t really equate to the same thing.
Ideally, though, what this website could do with is more stuff about how the rest of the MMA media is rubbish. It seems to be something that you’ve barely collectively touched on, lately. I’d like to hear something about it.
June 19th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
It is the largest racing competition globally and is both the operator, owner of IP, and sanctioning body.
Patently false. Formula One is regulated and sanctioned by the FIA, which I point out in the post. The FIA is a organization featuring motoring clubs from all over the planet, even including AAA. This is why the Max Mosley (the head of the FIA) situation is of such immense importance that Bernie Ecclestone has discussed breaking Formula One away from FIA sanctioning, that the German motor clubs in charge of the two Grand Prix run in Germany are debating leaving, and so on. This is unequivocal fact.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Trey — That is interesting, who knew? (not us ignorant Americans who barely know it exists is who)
Russ — I’m torn, because I could daily round up the ridiculous crap people on the net do, but I don’t know if that would do as much good as writing something solid.
June 19th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
I agree that it would be very interesting Dave, if only it were actually true. I’ve been an avid fan of F1 since I was all of 3 years old having to watch tape delayed broadcasts on ESPN, and can recite all the particulars of the Concorde Agreement or the tales of the FISA/FOCA war off the dome. Max Mosley achieved his status in the sport as the head of the FIA largely because he’s friends with Bernie Ecclestone, and together they’ve built it up using some astonishingly Macchiavellan methodologies to the point where you need to prove you have $100,000,000 in liquid assets to even be considered to start a team.
But in the end, Max is the one on the podium claiming that he’s the only thing that prevents a full scale F1/GP2 breakaway from the FIA, which kinda entails that, you know, they’re in charge. Promotion, as stated, is organized by the locals, not Bernie or Max. This is why Tony George, owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, needs to find a title sponsor on his own before re-applying for enstatement of the United States Grand Prix (who’s date has in essence been given to Abu Dhabi for the future).
June 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
“Russ — I’m torn, because I could daily round up the ridiculous crap people on the net do, but I don’t know if that would do as much good as writing something solid.”
I’m really not sure if this is sarcasm or not.
June 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
[...] Total MMABig For One’s Britches [...]
June 19th, 2008 at 7:15 pm
It must be very hard to have to be this negative just to earn a paycheck. If Alan Conceicao is a REAL journalist and not some glorified blogger, well then I’d rather not be a real journalist.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Rest assured that no one here earns their living via blog. We enjoy putting food on our children and buying fine UFC products and/or merchandise.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Basically, you know how you go to the DMV, or an accountant, or your lawyer, and they make you wait in the lobby while they finish up something on the computer? They are blogging. And you are paying for it, however indirectly!
June 19th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Apparently only journalists with mainstream cred can say bad things about the MMA Media. Except they get hated on too. The Cult of Sam Caplan and Luke Thomas is mad strong.
June 19th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Although I am all about the ‘hating on’ everything, you do have some readers (and forum posters. By which I mean ‘myself’, of course) who aren’t interesting in defending the other shite (since it’s y’know, shite, and as such I don’t read it in the first place) as much as they are just getting fed up of this tedious ‘Total MMA will bring the other blogs to task’ meme.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:01 am
“Not only have they embarked on a path that, quite bluntly, has accomplished none of their major objectives in the last 2 years and put them in a position that they must run a money losing show in July, they’ve embarked on one that has never, ever worked at anything remotely close the scale they are discussing. Oh yeah, money. Remember that Dana and Lorenzo are talking about being “bigger than soccer.” Money is sort of important. To demand an “NBA style” contract would be to establish that they can generate NBA style revenues, which if anything, the UFC has proven without a shadow of a doubt that they cannot.”
What are these major objectives you speak about? Getting exposure that others in the business are yet to see? Yes, they have fallen short at getting a tv deal done with a more prominent station and lost one of their biggest stars along with other pitfalls. But they have also paid of their debt, and have themselves positioned in consumer eyes that all other promoters wish for. To say that they have (i will use your level of language for this) “unequivocally” failed at all of their goals is slightly delusional on your part, that is for sure.
As for laughing at Lorenzo and Dana for saying that “we want this sport to be as big as soccer”, the real joke is on you. Their statement is pure promotional speak, dialect that dana has been using all along and nothing new. Everyone knows to take those statements at face value and to not read too much into them. In the words of Office Space, “didn’t you get the memo?”.
June 20th, 2008 at 12:17 am
I’m looking at the ten articles currently on this blog and don’t find that to be the overarching theme. Even this article is more about the UFC’s ill-conceived plan than it is about MMA BLOGZ.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:02 am
As for laughing at Lorenzo and Dana for saying that “we want this sport to be as big as soccer”, the real joke is on you. Their statement is pure promotional speak, dialect that dana has been using all along and nothing new. Everyone knows to take those statements at face value and to not read too much into them. In the words of Office Space, “didn’t you get the memo?”.
I think the term that you are looking for is conjecture, as dialect is like a regional variation on a language, not an exaggeration. Of course we all know that what they are spewing is conjecture; there is no way to back up if the UFC will go under tomorrow, will be sold to Vince McMahon at the drop of a hat or will become the biggest thing to sweep the world. At this point it is an absolute crap shoot.
The fact is, when spewing promotional conjecture, you usually try to weave some sense of realism and attainability into it as well. This, at this point in the game, is not a foreseeable, attainable goal. Someday, if they play their cards right, absolutely it could be immense, but at this point that is like me being an industrious 20-something moving up in my local government by landing a seat in the House of Reps and claiming that I am going to be president of the USA by age 36. They might be the new kid on the block getting lots of people talking, but don’t you think the established sports would fight back as hard as they can, with their large pocketbooks before they let UFC just waltz in with their shitty Affliction (or now Tapout in the style of Affliction) shirts, jeans and a suit jacket and say they own the “fucking” place?
June 20th, 2008 at 1:41 am
What are these major objectives you speak about?
There is no evidence to support that the UFC has expanded their fan base by any great degree. Their TV ratings don’t justify it, because they’ve only gone down except when they put PPV quality cards on TV. The best buyrate they’ve ever done was still December 2006. Their overseas ventures have, at the moment, lost them a bunch of money. They haven’t gotten on network TV. Their international expansion is limited to a single event in Canada and the aforementioned money losers in Great Britain.
That’s not to say they’ve done everything wrong. Clearly their buyrates, while none have been mind blowing record breakers, have been consistently pretty high. PPV doesn’t figure into what CBS, ESPN, Fox, or HBO get out of the UFC in a potential deal, however.
Getting exposure that others in the business are yet to see?
I’m sorry, did you just wake up from a coma? There was this thing that happened on May 31st. CBS televised it live.
But they have also paid of their debt,
I will give you this. It probably occurred within the last two years, though I’d venture a guess that they were probably on their way to doing it well before the end of 2006.
To say that they have (i will use your level of language for this) “unequivocally” failed at all of their goals is slightly delusional on your part, that is for sure.
Their position in the market for MMA in this country has never changed. The UFC, even at its lowest points in the late 1990s, was clearly the biggest promotion in the United States. They’ve not eliminated their competition, and the success of Elite XC’s first show on CBS established that brand distinctions were not going to force others into failure merely by not being the UFC.
As for laughing at Lorenzo and Dana for saying that “we want this sport to be as big as soccer”, the real joke is on you. Their statement is pure promotional speak, dialect that dana has been using all along and nothing new. Everyone knows to take those statements at face value and to not read too much into them.
I’m well aware of that, and yet I find it odd that the only thing most people in the MMA media seem to be able to talk about in regards to this is how much incredible business experience Lorenzo Feritta brings to the table and what it will do for the UFC. Whether its Sam Caplan bringing up “corporate accountability”, Adam Swift talking about his ability to take the sport to “the next level”, etc etc etc. Lorenzo ran casinos. Great. What about his success there and failures elsewhere establishes the managerial style he’ll bring to the UFC? How on earth does he plan on actually selling a country like India on the UFC? Who knows? Who cares? He simply will, or at least that’s what I keep reading.
June 20th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Wow, this was actually recommended as a “must-read.” Maybe its must-read in the sense of “you must read this if you want to see a cartoonish example of the over-the-top stereotype of a clueless blogger at its worst,” but otherwise, I just lost 10 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:02 am
“I’m looking at the ten articles currently on this blog and don’t find that to be the overarching theme. Even this article is more about the UFC’s ill-conceived plan than it is about MMA BLOGZ.”
I’m looking at 1) a series of articles written under a pseudonym that are centred around the matter; 2)articles such as this one that are (as you say) about something else but still can’t resist a sideswipe; and 3) a whole pile o’ crap on the forum.
I’m not saying it’s your only topic. I’m saying I think it’s overdone.
June 20th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
I agree it has been a topic. And it is a topic worth discussing. But maybe you are right and we should focuss our attention to the fighters and fights and leave MMA criticism in the hands of the Curmudgeon whose articles are easily identifiable and can be skipped by those not interested.
June 20th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
I find it both sad and funny that what passes for an MMA fan would blow off the substance of this article with retorts like ‘Hater’. Wow, what a deep thinker. Only someone who majored in self esteem, unable to think or express themselves critically and believing that subjective option should determine validity would begin to believe that attempting to label someone would be a legitimate and effective retort. These are the same folks who believe that labeling someone an ‘ist’ of some kind is effective….racist, chauvinist…whatever.
The author of this piece is quite correct. Dana White is a blowhard and an asshole of the first order. Can one argue that the nonsensical goings on depicted on TUF with guys getting drunk with the supplied booze and pissing themselves is a great way to introduce MMA to the masses?
Careers are ruined so White can get his ratings from the 15 year old mall rats without a clue.
Its just so unfortunate that the most well known MMA group is being led by an idiot like DW.
June 20th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
[...] [...]
June 20th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
I’m exhausted having read the literary jousting going on amongst the commenters as a result of this article/blog/whatever.
No has a gun held to their head to go out and read MMA articles, journals, blogs etc. As far as I’m concerned it’s all just entertainment- it has no impact on my day to life or a vast majority of everyone else’s.
Relax, read, enjoy- or don’t. Ignore the trolls. Say what you want or don’t say anything at all. That’s one of the great things about the freedom of the internet.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:54 pm
And for the record I liked the article…
June 20th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Actually Alan you are wrong when you say:
“Their position in the market for MMA in this country has never changed. The UFC, even at its lowest points in the late 1990s, was clearly the biggest promotion in the United States. They’ve not eliminated their competition, and the success of Elite XC’s first show on CBS established that brand distinctions were not going to force others into failure merely by not being the UFC.”
More than half the people Ive surveyed thought the CBS card was UFC and the rest thought it was some sort of cage fighting (the ones who didnt think it was UFC are people who have never heard of MMA or UFC before)
The only ones who knew it was elitexc already know about sites like sherdog, etc… ie: hardcore fans. (very small percentage)
“Elite XC” got almost zero brand equity for this show - In fact I believe UFC got all the Brand equity… good and bad.
Everybody thinks Kimbo fights “UFC”.
I did the survey for a big time network and used the standard practices.
UFC will probably get a deal - one more on their terms if the second cbs show is successful.
Imagine one channel has the xfl and the other has the NFL.
CBS made a big mistake by taking this gamble only to give the payoff to another network who signs the UFC.
Guess it wasn’t so bad for the UFC after all eh?
By the way when you say another org can succeed against the UFC you are wrong again.
All the new fans garnered by CBS mostly migrated to Zuffa… why? because after they got intrigued in the sport what mma do you find mostly on TV? UFC and WEC
Check the ratings and how they were higher than expected across the board for zuffa programs.
3 hours airtime on a network every 3 months does nothing for an org especially when it amounts to a “time buy” (which if you read the deal that’s what it amounts to)- and especially when you get almost no brand equity out of it.
You cant sell a pay per view with this set up.
Say they figure out a way to get profitable using the airtime with sponsors etc… that would also have to assume the show remains a success on CBS. If that’s the case like I said above another major network (probably the one that hired me) will ink a deal with the UFC.
Either way Elite XC is damned if they do and damned if they dont.
I predict they will be out of business within 12 months.
We now see even if you get to the point of putting on a pay per view you still have to go up against a free UFC card.
And if you find another avenue of monetization besides pay per view your only opening the door for the UFC.
In conclusion when Dana says he wont sign a stupid deal… that means he is smart and heads the biggest mma promotion in the world and based on your post you my friend are stupid who put up a word press blog because your nintendo broke.
Peace
June 21st, 2008 at 1:22 am
More than half the people Ive surveyed thought the CBS card was UFC and the rest thought it was some sort of cage fighting (the ones who didnt think it was UFC are people who have never heard of MMA or UFC before)
You run a scientific survey? Incredible. You should share the results and methodology. While you’re at it, maybe you can tell me how people’s association of “UFC” with “MMA” makes it so that its UFC on CBS. Because they still aren’t.
CBS made a big mistake by taking this gamble only to give the payoff to another network who signs the UFC.
No one is signing the UFC yet, in spite of all the incorrect conclusions people came to in advance of this announcement. This is probably because of, you know, the reasons listed in my post. I determined those were the likely reasons because they were admitted to be the reasons. Like the survey taking, quite scientific in nature.
3 hours airtime on a network every 3 months does nothing for an org especially when it amounts to a “time buy”
How is it a time buy when they are paid? This is the standard operating procedure for boxing, friend-o. Has been since Gillette was sponsoring boxing on the RKO network 60 years ago.
I predict they will be out of business within 12 months.
BOLD~
We now see even if you get to the point of putting on a pay per view you still have to go up against a free UFC card.
I’m sure the UFC is willing to spend an infinite amount of money for an infinite period of time competing against other promoters to make the fantasy of them standing alone for the sake of pro wrestling comparisons come true.
In conclusion when Dana says he wont sign a stupid deal… that means he is smart and heads the biggest mma promotion in the world and based on your post you my friend are stupid who put up a word press blog because your nintendo broke.
Dana wants to sign deals that he is happy with, which means he and Lorenzo control everything. When they get desperate, they end up resorting to doing anything they can to survive/succeed. History fleshes that out.
June 21st, 2008 at 6:20 am
Alan,
You said:
“How is it a time buy when they are paid? This is the standard operating procedure for boxing, friend-o. Has been since Gillette was sponsoring boxing on the RKO network 60 years ago.”
They are paid, but CBS receives stock for that payment… hence it amounts to a time buy. Its just structured in a slick way so retards like you can’t put it together.
Let me explain it in laymans terms - when they pay elite 2m they get 2m worth of stock and they also have a clause where they get another specified amount of stock at a fixed price…
Regarding Dana White wanting control…
This my friend is actually a good thing. They’ve done a good job so far so why allow anyone to fuck it up.
UFC and WEC are arguably the best products in this space so why jeopardize that? You run a 2 dollar Blog, Dana runs a billion Dollar company… your logic/arguments fit with your 2 dollar blog - his logic fits for his company nuff said.
Now go ask mommy for some milk money.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:43 am
UFC sucks. Hope they go bankrupt. I’m tired of seeing all the fixed fights.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:07 pm
They are paid, but CBS receives stock for that payment… hence it amounts to a time buy. Its just structured in a slick way so retards like you can’t put it together.
Showtime already owns a chunk of the company. The deal entails that Showtime gets more depending on its success. Again, time buy?
This my friend is actually a good thing. They’ve done a good job so far so why allow anyone to fuck it up.
Depends on what you consider “good”. If Noguiera/Mir or Silva/Irvin are “good” in your eyes, then I’m sure you’re overjoyed.
UFC and WEC are arguably the best products in this space so why jeopardize that? You run a 2 dollar Blog, Dana runs a billion Dollar company… your logic/arguments fit with your 2 dollar blog - his logic fits for his company nuff said.
Why they would jeopardize that? Well, I dunno man. Every major sport in the world gets its big TV deals by playing by the rules of the networks. The UFC is still on Spike. Oh, I know, Spike is paying them $100 million dollars over 5 years. That’s a pretty healthy sum. Of course, HBO will budget about $100 million this year alone for boxing. The attitude from Zuffa is that the UFC is a sure thing and that people will eventually come to them bearing airtime. Its been like that before. Then they got rebuked by everyone and the rest is history.
Now, maybe Dana White will somehow get a deal with everything he wants and then the UFC will take off into the stratosphere and Rampage will make $50,000,000 in FY2010. I would be fine with that. It would probably lead to a lot of very good things for the sport. It would also be really great if I won the lottery. Instead of enveloping myself in this fantasy, I like to keep grounded in reality. And in reality, a guy like Gus Johnson is, oh, only a few hundred steps up the ladder from Mike Goldberg, and not even in the same dimension as Mauro Ranallo (who would be doing nothing but NOAH voiceovers without EliteXC right now). I tend to think that a major network might be able to run cameras and lighting every bit as well or better than whatever crew Dana cobbles together. I have the odd feeling that ESPN probably isn’t about to budge from the whole “we’re not playing the UFC exclusive game.”
Maybe you disagree? That’s fine. There are also guys on cable access that disagree with my assumption that politicians are mainly just corrupt human beings, but instead psychic lizards intending to enslave the earth.
October 21st, 2008 at 10:37 pm
[...] this is really an aside though. Frankly, Zach Arnold means very well. I have no doubt about that. God knows that I personally have been plenty aggressive regarding the MMA media and the fashion in which they cover the sport, and that opinion ranges from the bottom to the top. [...]