Affliction “Banned” PPV Buys “Definitely” Greater Than 100,000
Though official pay-per-view statistics for Affliction “Banned” have yet to be released, the event “definitely” exceeded 100,000 buys according to Affliction vice president Tom Atencio through Yahoo! Sports:
“I don’t have everything on that yet, but for the people who felt this was going to be a total flop in that regard, I have news for them,†Atencio said. “It’s already done a lot better than what I’ve heard people speculating. I’m not going to release the (official) number, but it’s already well beyond what people have been saying. Well beyond.â€
Atencio would only say the final number “definitely†would be beyond 100,000.
The strong pay-per-view buy rate coupled with a $2.085 million live gate and less-than-expected fighter salaries, which totaled greater than $3.4 million but were rumored to exceed $4 million, prove that Affliction is indeed legitimate competition for the UFC.
Affliction’s next event is tentatively scheduled for November 8th.
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Is it me or is 100,000 ppv sales a little weak ?? Perhaps those figures would have been higher if the event were made available to other countries, I for one would have made it at least 100,001 !!
I watched part of the Afflication show and thought it was boring. I hated the ring. What the hell is the deal with Megadeth? I want to see fights not washed up metal bands. Megadeth was fine and dandy when I was in the 7th grade, but now? lol. Next their gonna get Sepultura and then Queensryche. Last what a surprise Fedor beat Tim. Weird. I can’t see the show getting much better. I love watching all fighting networks. I’ll even tune to see elite xc and their stupid antics, but I am not an affliction fan.
IM TOTALY WITH YOU ON THAT ONE WOW…
JPM 100,000 IS WEAK
WOW,
I feel very similar to you. I am hoping Affliction will give us Fedor vs Arlovski but after that I don’t care to see much more of the match ups Affliction has to offer. I don’t believe a word these Affliction people say anyway. They are not to be trusted. Elite XC has a pretty decent card coming up in Stockton. As much as I hate all the non sense that comes with an Elite show, I am still excited for this event.
fedor arlovski? KOuch…Affliction is probably the org we’ll finally get to see fedor/couture in. If they can keep up there spending and high fighter salaries (i don’t see why not…100million in Affliction clothing sales last year, not to mention trump), i see a lot of UFC fighters jumping ship and going to Affliction in search of better salaries. Dana’s ego will destroy the UFC mark my words.
100,000 what a joke…
I agree you could see some fighters jump ship, but Affliction will realize they cant pay everyone $300,000 and the salaries will start to come down. Once Trump sees any kind of decrease in profits he will most likely quit, he is in it for the money not the MMA.
i think after reading forbes and seeing the UFC’s projected gross turnover of over a billion in a couple years has certainly persuaded trump into going into this for the long haul knowing you got to lose some to make a lot.
mma_k9
affliction are only getting fighters the ufc doesn’t want, (except fedor) the ufc is still the place to be unless ur an old washed up fighter looking to make a quick buck then u go to affliction, no one could destroy the ufc not even dana plus i dont see what the big deal with dana is anyway i like the guy for what he stands for and the shows he puts on, the only thing that will destroy the ufc/mma is money look how much boxing sucks now days thats all to do with the money!!
ufc shouldn’t dismiss competition, but i really don’t think they’d let it get to the point where they start losing ground. they have the cash to pay higher salaries if they choose to, it’s just that until this affliction thing, they haven’t had to. i can see ufc being able to afford those salaries, but for affliction it might not be the case cuz trump’s only gonna stay if there’s profit. and the sales that the clothing pulls in isn’t all profit, they gotta pay for a lot of expenses so adding 3 million in fighter salaries for every card isn’t going to help.
over 100,000 viewers at $40 each is over $4,000,000. The Live gate probably garnered affliction another 2 or 3M, then add to that their merchandising …. Affliction DID NOT lost money on this ppv.
Anyway, if they did pull something like ‘calavera Conspiracy’ for their next ppv, I’d probably buy it just to see that.
affliction will be a contender..the ufc better watch there backs
affliction will be here for awhile you can count on that we need this as fan to make the ufc work harder to give us better fights and ppv’s not that they dont already but remember when pride was number1 in mma look at what the ufc did to compete with them, to get there name out the even did what dana wont do today work with pride in co-op shows like pride 19 and prides GP 2003 and so on till they got there name out and made there own show then ufc was number 1 from there out, after which they bought pride then kill it (which was a big mistake) but after that they are pretty much relaxed till now with fighters leaving the ufc like tim,Arlovski who the ufc still wanted more Arlovski then tim, but getting to the point affliction will be here they are hungry and if they can pull cards this this together then i and im sure the rest of the world will be to!
Rob…
There is more than goes into cost of an event. Fee to use the areana, insurance, taxes, advertisement, etc…plus revenue splits. It is a safe bet that Affiction lost $$ alot of $$. UFC lost money on it’s first show in the UK last year when it was not a PPV…even the last few UK show have been rough. Dana quoted this to Forbes and Yahoo on recent interviews. BTW…I think the Tito vs Chuck rematch took in 1.2M PPV buys…and I think on average UFC is around 720,000 buys per show. This is why a lot of fighters have b@tched about money
100k buys for Affliction. Over 4 million MMA-hungry viewers tunes in Spike for the UFC with no thoughts on Affliction. And who said this was a stupid and desperate call by the UFC?
If the affliction event was free they would have had atleast 4 million viewers as well..
flyguy, I agree with you 100%, but don’t let Dana pull the wool over your eyes. They bought the UFC 7 years ago for $2M and now it’s worth more than one BILLION dollars. If you have the money [trump] and the fighters [fedor, barnett, arlovski, sylvia, couture], you have a recipe for success. I wouldn’t even consider it much of a struggle given how wide open the mma market is.
Now that Affliction put on a successful event, expect the ppv buys to jump a couple hundred thousand. Especially the Couture-Fedor fight. That ppv will likely rival Liddell-Ortiz 3 humbers just because of how many mma fans want to see that fight.
But the biggest problem with these other MMA orgs is that most of the guys are past their prime or could not make it in the UFC. Fedor and Couture are really the only big “free agents” that are not part of the UFC. But honestly…how many more fights does Randy have?
After Fedor fights Arlovski (he has lost his thunder) and Couture….who will be left out there that is not in the UFC or will be in the UFC? Look at CBS fight for Saturday…how many guys are ex-ufc that could not make it?? Also take their UFC records and compare them to each other….a lot of losing records.
..and also…i know dana and the frett brothers are making money hand over fist…and these guys should get paid better. I agree that the Randy/Fedor fight will bring tito/chuck numbers for PPV buys
Yes, but with the money that Affliction is using to pry UFC free agents away, you would think that eventually, affliction will get better.
Although I’m not a wrestling fan, use TNA as an example. Started out small, but after some shows and a little momentum, and a lot of hate for Vince McMahon, TNA started getting a lot of known fighters and now is a legitimate wrestling organization.
War affliction! And to ya ufc nuthuggers: most good fighters are not TUF grads, so they can sign other fighters with more integrity that are not just reality show stars.
Point two: other MMA org’s do not require slavery contracts like the ufc so their fighters can fight on other org’s cards. This could mean mark hunt, crocop, overeem, diaz, gomi, etc fighting for affliction.
Money talks, and will make fighters walk-away from the ufc.
But when the money runs out and it will…another mma org down the drain with a bunch of old mma guys left to fight in backyard
I am not saying they dont have money cause obviously they do and donald trumph is a bit of a buisness man so i am sure they will plan and excute well but right now they are not really that huge of a competition
UFC averages around 300,000 – 450,0000 PPV buys for each event (USA events), maybe once/twice a year they draw bigger.
I have to disagree, an initial buy rate of 100,0000 – 200,000 for the first Affliction is a strong number considering Affliction lacked a TV show and had only 3 weeks worth of an advertising campaign. UFC tried their best to sink this promotion, now Affliction has at least 2 more PPVs and year to get more top talent from UFC to defect (I could see GSP coming to Affliction. He was the last to wear the banned t-shirt in UFC and according to Tito has dealt with the same payment issues (lack of payment) as Randy).
Affliction has older talent but far from washed up. Maybe some of these guys would not be champions in UFC but you are kidding yourself if you don’t think they would be top contenders. Plus these older fighters have name recognition which helps sell PPVs for a building company.
Even if the event loses $2-3 million you have to see it from the Affliction T-Shirt perspective. Thats quite a marketing coup considering the event was named after the company brand and received a tremendous amount of publicity.
can’t handle the truth ‘vera’
You are right about other organizations not having “slavery contracts.” Bring the best fighters from all over the world, to see who is deserving the vacant WAMMA titles. Let them represent their promotion. This will only help the sport.
FYI, The number of PPV buys may not include bars and restaurants. I paid $750 to have it played in my restaurant. How many sports bars around the country hosted it? A lot I’m sure. My customers came to see Affliction at my business, then TiVoed the UFC at home. So it was probably a lot more than $4 million from PPV.
100,000+ is a pretty good ppv number for their first foray into mma. Especially since the UFC put on their counter-show. The Affliction heavyweight division is loaded with like 5 of the top 6 heavyweights out there. I’m sure the ppv numbers will only get stronger…especially if they pull off Fedor/Couture.
It’s funny listening to the anti-affliction talk. It reminds me of the same talk that people had for the UFC a few years ago. These people will eventually become hypocrites too.
Gonzo,
Glad to hear you played it in your restaurant. Kudos!
It was a great freaking fight! I recorded and have watched it one time through since. Great fighters, great fight card. The production will improve over time. To the very first comment posted, “isn’t 100,000 buyrate a little weak”? Hmmm… 1st event …100,000 + purchases… $40 per purchase, isn’t that $4,000,000 dollars? …$2,000,000 in ticket sales …Affliction Clothing promoted throughout (sure that was a boost in sales) and mention of Donald Trump’s Apprentice serveral times (advertisement revenue) …sounds like it was a success. Guess that would make you an idiot. Go back to the UFC, we do not even want you to watch affliction. Dana White loves idiots such as yourself. Dana White has made a lot of money off of stuges such as yourself.
Affliction/WAMMA is nothing more than a round robin tournament with Fedor and about 4 or 5 past their prime fighters trying to hold on for a few more fights. Fedor will work his way through the shallow list of “contenders” while the rest of the card will just be the second team fighters switching off between each other. BORING!
Here’s something for you:
The Affliction heavyweights ARE NOT WASHED UP…if you look at the current top 10, they have half of the top guys in there…don’t forget Aleksander Emelianenko, he was supposed to fight but for some reason the doctors didn’t let him. He’s also a great fighter. IFL is no more, so I wouldn’t be surprised if some of their top talent goes to Affliction as well. CroCop might want to get back into the picture in America and Tito Ortiz is out of the UFC (and although not as good as he once was) is still good enough to draw a crowd…he sat next to Trump…Affliction will add more talent for sure.
The MMA heavyweight talent is shallow so it is no suprise they have half of the current top 10. In MMA, the really strong, deep talent weight classes and the real exciting fights arent typically with the heavyweights.
Tito Ortiz? He probably will still get a big draw, but he has lost his edge. He is young enough to get a second, I mean third, wind. But only if he can get focused again on fighting and not promoting his celebrity status “hey, I’m Tito Ortiz – with my has been porn star girl friend Jenna”.
Trump is no MMA disciple – he will bail on Affliction at the first rough spot – or worse yet, ruin their shot at making it by imposing his own brand of business on it.
I think 100,000 is a little weak. I thoguht he said on inside MMA that he needed 300,000 to make good on the show.
I find it funny cause i love any MMA event where there are fighters who put on a show….and about the 100,000 ppv buys how do you guys know if the interviewer asked if it exceeded 100,000 buys or not and his response as above would be….Atencio would only say the final number “definitely†would be beyond 100,000….and as for the UFC the Jackson vs. Griff. fight really made me angry as a MMA fan UNANIMOUSE decision…come on….wonder if vegas had anything to do with this as everyone put their money on Jackson…Donaghy form the NBA anyone?