Dana: More Events Needed, Regional Champs?

[REDDzone]

"Lorenzo and I were literally talking about this before the show started tonight, and we're coming up with some ideas on how to – believe it or not – do more events so that we can feed these markets that are dying for it," White said. "The U.K. keeps terrorizing us. Ireland is part of it, but (we're) going back to Ireland, too. And Scotland. A guy here tonight was asking about Norway. Germany we haven't been back to. Every time we got to Australia, it's insane.
...
One solution is country-specific fight circuits – an idea White has suggested in the past. Instead of moving all international fighters to the UFC's primary shows, smaller events could take place in the international markets. In fact, they could take place on nights the UFC hosts shows in North American – creating dual-event nights.

"We talked about [regional champions]," he said. "We talked about rankings – just like boxing, guys ranked in other countries. So you end up being ranked. I don't know. You have UFC champions, and then you have guys that are ranked in different countries. It absolutely makes sense. In the big picture, long-term, it absolutely makes perfect sense."

This is crazy stuff. I know I am personally of the camp "the more mma events the better". But there are a lot of guys who fall on the other side of the coin (on this board iirc), who like to have time before/after events to absorb the matchups and the fights. I know for example Ariel recently stated his belief that the UFC will end up settling on one event per month, but Dana seems to have the attitude that he wants more, more more.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/28263/white-s ... um=twitter

[CPT]

I would be fine with more events if they would save the PPV stuff for PPVs (and maybe 4 big events a year on Fox).

My ideal schedule would be to have one good PPV/Fox card every month, and one FX/Fuel event every month, 2 weeks apart. If they want to have an event every week, or several events every week, the events would be so diluted that I think it would hurt the UFC's numbers. Might still make them more money, since I don't really know how much it costs to run an event, but I think attendance and viewership for each event would go down.

Don't really like the idea of regional circuits either. I don't want a situation with 3 LW champions. I think Dana White just gets excited sometimes by a good result in a new market. The same demand isn't there when they go back again, especially if they bring a weaker card.

[Bernman]

I like the idea. While they're at it they should also create an intercontinental, hardcore, and tag team championship. Dana takes all his cues about how to operate a sport's organization from Vince McMahon.

[REDDzone]

If they were going to do all of this, they should have ended up buying that crappy video game network and rebranding it the ufc network. Sounds like a ton of programming, and I'm not sure if fox or its sub channels are really going to be interested in "the ultimate indian fighting championships". lol

[Cammo101]

The only way something like this makes sense if if they have a UFC: Europe, UFC: Asia, and UFC: South America and they function like minor league feeder systems. They can have their own events and titles and what not.

[Cammo101]

If they were going to do all of this, they should have ended up buying that crappy video game network and rebranding it the ufc network. Sounds like a ton of programming, and I'm not sure if fox or its sub channels are really going to be interested in "the ultimate indian fighting championships". lol

Have you seen what is on Fuel when the UFC isn't? I would think they would be happy to have more UFC stuff to air.

[CPT]

The only way something like this makes sense if if they have a UFC: Europe, UFC: Asia, and UFC: South America and they function like minor league feeder systems. They can have their own events and titles and what not.

That could work, but I'm not sure what the point of the titles would be. Once a guy is good enough to be champ of his region, why wouldn't he get promoted to the UFC?

If they were to do this, I think a set promotion/relegation system would make the most sense. Even a subjective one might be okay. If you win 3 fights in a row (or 4 of 5 or whatever), you get promoted to big UFC. If you lose 3 times in a row there, you're relegated back to your regional UFC promotion. They would have to have a UFC: North America division though, because you can't exactly exile guys to another continent when they get cut. UFC: North America sounds so much lamer than the other ones though, so they would need a new name. They could call it...Strikeforce.

It's not so much different than the way things are now, it's just that the UFC would own and control all of the developmental leagues. I can see good and bad things about that set up.

[REDDzone]

If they were going to do all of this, they should have ended up buying that crappy video game network and rebranding it the ufc network. Sounds like a ton of programming, and I'm not sure if fox or its sub channels are really going to be interested in "the ultimate indian fighting championships". lol

Have you seen what is on Fuel when the UFC isn't? I would think they would be happy to have more UFC stuff to air.

Unfortunately I'm not one of the 62 people with the good fortune of having fueltv.

But on a serious note, I think there is a big difference in ufc shows and some of this regional stuff they are talking about. The appeal of the ufc is quality fighters, the brand is strong, but take away quality fighters and the appeal wears off after awhile.

[REDDzone]

That could work, but I'm not sure what the point of the titles would be. Once a guy is good enough to be champ of his region, why wouldn't he get promoted to the UFC?

Yep.

[SDM]

It can be very successful and if Zuffa's worried about Bellator getting prospects, this is how you'd snuff them out. However, these regional promotions can't be called UFC... it would be far too confusing. And they'd have to be prepared to lose money on this right out of the gate.

[NZB2323]

I'm guessing that they start this off in Japan. It's a win-win-win. Zuffa makes a lot of money off of Japanese events, the Japanese fans get to see lots of shows with their countrymen, and we only see good Japanese fighters in the UFC.

After that they could add the UK, India, China, ect. They could even have it in America and Brazil and it could feature guys from TUF that didn't make it.

If a guy is able to defend his regional belt, then after a while he could enter the UFC with some hype.

[blkout]

Sounds like a ton of programming, and I'm not sure if fox or its sub channels are really going to be interested in "the ultimate indian fighting championships". lol

Yeah but the Indian tv channels would be, that's what they'd be aiming for. I think if they used it as a feeder/devleopment system and maybe topped each event off with a headliner from that country (who couldn't headline a normal UFC card) it'd work. Like if they had a card here full of Australian/NZ fighters that had a main event with G-Sot or Noke or someone like that it would definitely do well and I guarantee OneHD or one of the Fox Sports channels would broadcast it.

[REDDzone]

Yeah but the Indian tv channels would be, that's what they'd be aiming for. I think if they used it as a feeder/devleopment system and maybe topped each event off with a headliner from that country (who couldn't headline a normal UFC card) it'd work. Like if they had a card here full of Australian/NZ fighters that had a main event with G-Sot or Noke or someone like that it would definitely do well and I guarantee OneHD or one of the Fox Sports channels would broadcast it.

I just don't see some of the markets mentioned being as viable as Australia. But who knows how they'd do it? What buckets they would put countries into?

[SDM]

I still see the same problem... high initial start up costs. A successful promotion company needs contacts at every level-- fighter management, venue management, security contacts, government contacts. In India, Singapore, the entirety of Africa, the former Eastern Bloc countries and possibly even China, bribes are essential to get these contacts. Nothing's going to stop officials in China from wringing out money from the gwai lo who would effectively demand a monopoly on the MMA scene in exchange. Now, that's not to say that Zuffa has no experience with "persuasion" as I'm sure they experienced this recently in Japan, but it's a sunk cost that can't be on the books anywhere. It's too much, too soon to go into these markets and it's debatable whether the talent pool countrywide is better than the talent pool in rural Missouri, where MMA and promotions infrastructure already exists.

I really don't see this working outside of MMA-experienced, Western markets like Sweden, Australia/NZ, and Brazil. I still think they'd need to call it something other than UFC Country X though and not attempt to market those fighters outside of their respective countries until they're ready for the call to the big league.

[Shaazzam]

I think they will 100% market it as UFC something. The UFC wants to be the Kleenex of MMA.

[CPT]

I wonder if they may be better off just doing seasons of TUF in other countries/regions, similar to what they are doing with TUF: Brazil.

Serves the same purpose in a way, but doesn't require a constant presence in the new territory. Not sure how the trade off would shake down financially though.

[REDDzone]

I think one of the concerns though is getting all the guys on their ever expanding roster fights. And TUF just brings more dudes in all the time...