Selling the Chicken, the Egg and Ketchup Too
Josh Gross Jul 19, 2006
LOS ANGELES, July 18 — Since its first press conference in May, the
revamped World Fighting Alliance has offered a familiar refrain:
fighters, not a brand name, will be key to mixed martial arts’ long
term success.
On Tuesday I asked Quinton Jackson (Pictures), who headlines Saturday’s WFA Pay-Per-View against Matt Lindland (Pictures), if in addition to facing an awkward and dangerous opponent he has concerned himself at all with ticket sales and Pay-Per-View subscriptions.
“I don’t even worry about that — ticket sales, Pay-Per-View —
because I’m not in charge of the promoting and marketing,” Jackson
said. “So I don’t think about that, I just train hard.
“I don’t see if they don’t sell-out or the Pay-Per-Views don’t get that much, I don’t see it as a personal failure to me.”
“It’s my job to sell tickets if they put me out there in the right spots,” Jackson said. “If they did their promotion right and people know that I’m fighting and stuff like that, then tickets are getting sold. But if they don’t put me in the right spots there’s nothing I can do.”
Judging by Tuesday’s media turnout at the soon-to-be opened Legends MMA Training Facility, the WFA has done a fairly remarkable job of courting a group of people who have just recently come to recognize the merits of covering MMA.
“We’re excited,” said WFA CEO Jeremy Lappen. “The more media coverage the better. I mean people need to know about this stuff. They need to have access to it.”
Local television — this is Los Angeles we’re talking about — and print media as well as the usual throng of niche MMA types spent a couple hours talking it up with many of the fighters scheduled to compete on Saturday’s card.
It was a far cry from just a couple of years ago when even the UFC struggled to receive mainstream recognition outside of ill-informed reporters (there are still plenty of those) and sarcastic columnists.
“It’s just one of those things that we have to understand, that as fighters and as fans of the sport we have to continue to make it grow and that’s what all the big money is going to come about,” said star UFC light heavyweight Tito Ortiz (Pictures), who made an unscheduled appearance at Tuesday’s media function.
“Keep growing and make it bigger and bigger for every media to come to every one of the fights,” he continued. “Doesn’t matter if it’s UFC, WFA, PRIDE … [or] any other competition that comes about. It’s about the fighters now.”
Ortiz would know a thing or two about enjoying the spoils of Pay-Per-View. It has been speculated that the recent explosion of UFC buy rates has translated nicely into mega paydays for Ortiz and others like him who enjoy a slice of the PPV pie.
Jackson has a clause in his contract that would pay him handsomely should the WFA promote a widely viewed event. Yet history suggests the chances of “Rampage” cashing in his PPV chips are slim.
There has never been an MMA promotion not named the Ultimate Fighting Championship that has done anything substantial on North American PPV. And just days away from Saturday Lappen indicated he’s unsure about the number of people — both at the Forum and at home — that will watch, even in today’s MMA-friendly climate.
“We’ll see how much Showtime, you know the half-hour countdown show, whether that helps it or not,” Lappen said. “We have recognizable guys but obviously we’re not building off a weekly television show. So whether it’s 20,000 buys, 5,000 buys or 150,000 buys I have no idea.”
Jackson — along with Lindland, Bas Rutten (Pictures) and Kimo Leopoldo (Pictures) — was a subject of the half-hour Showtime telecast for which I was asked to offer my thoughts. Though the UFC has produced specials of their own (which I was also featured on), Lappen suggested the WFA piece is the sort of marketing mixed martial arts has never fully exploited.
“At the end of the day this sport, or any sport, is about your connection to the athlete,” the former talent manager said. “You know, why you’re tuning in is because you want to watch that person. And the way you get that connection is you have to know about them.”
“I think this is more about building the fighters themselves, not about building the companies,” suggested Ortiz, who made a surprise appearance on the countdown special and has long held that fighters drive fans to spend their money, not promotions.
It’s difficult, however, for him to argue against a philosophy that has seen the UFC reach heights few longtime followers of this sport can properly put into perspective. Since returning to the UFC in early 2006, Ortiz has benefited greatly from the UFC’s promotion-fighter equation.
The final bout on his three-fight contract looms and Ortiz said he’s currently negotiating to be with the UFC for another year. Had things turned out differently, it could have just as easily been “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” and not Jackson preparing for a fight on July 22 against Lindland.
“I was literally one day from fighting for the WFA,” Ortiz smirked. “Everything happens for a reason.”
Signing an established American star like Ortiz would have provided a major boon to the refurbished WFA. But Lappen insists that his company has a vision for the future, one that includes cultivating stars.
“You have to look at a lot of the marketing we did as marketing for going forward,” he said. “In most respects we’re a new organization. I mean I know we’ve been around but for most people they’re hearing about it for the first time. A lot of people are hearing about our fighters for the first time, so we’re trying to reach a large audience and a lot of it is investing now for the future.”
Jackson would appear to be a sizeable piece in Lappen’s plan. But there’s no getting around the fact that the bottom line matters. After all the marketing and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, will the Forum be sold-out on Saturday?
“My expectation going in was that I was hopeful that we’d sell a ton of tickets,” Lappen said. “But it wasn’t about selling tickets. It’s really about building the brand, building the fighters, getting people to understand this is gonna be great fights with great fighters and really entertaining, well done, well produced format.”
(Incidentally, there appears to be plenty of tickets available for a potentially large walk-up crowd, said Lappen.)
For “Rampage” Jackson, who spent weeks in the altitude of Big Bear, Calif. training for the fight, none of this matters if he loses. Being a Pay-Per-View lynchpin and collecting thousands, maybe millions, of dollars cannot happen if he’s upset on the 22nd.
And maybe he’s smart not to worry about marketing angles and buy rates. Should Jackson do what he’s capable of, those things would seem to take care of themselves.
“I’m at that point where I want to fight, win and get it over with and go home and call it a day … and eat ketchup on my pizza,” he deadpanned.
On Tuesday I asked Quinton Jackson (Pictures), who headlines Saturday’s WFA Pay-Per-View against Matt Lindland (Pictures), if in addition to facing an awkward and dangerous opponent he has concerned himself at all with ticket sales and Pay-Per-View subscriptions.
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“I don’t see if they don’t sell-out or the Pay-Per-Views don’t get that much, I don’t see it as a personal failure to me.”
Which is more important to a successful promotional venture: the
competency of the marketing or the popularity of the fighter being
marketed? (And just how much attention should headliners pay to
this part of the game anyway?)
“It’s my job to sell tickets if they put me out there in the right spots,” Jackson said. “If they did their promotion right and people know that I’m fighting and stuff like that, then tickets are getting sold. But if they don’t put me in the right spots there’s nothing I can do.”
Judging by Tuesday’s media turnout at the soon-to-be opened Legends MMA Training Facility, the WFA has done a fairly remarkable job of courting a group of people who have just recently come to recognize the merits of covering MMA.
“We’re excited,” said WFA CEO Jeremy Lappen. “The more media coverage the better. I mean people need to know about this stuff. They need to have access to it.”
Local television — this is Los Angeles we’re talking about — and print media as well as the usual throng of niche MMA types spent a couple hours talking it up with many of the fighters scheduled to compete on Saturday’s card.
It was a far cry from just a couple of years ago when even the UFC struggled to receive mainstream recognition outside of ill-informed reporters (there are still plenty of those) and sarcastic columnists.
“It’s just one of those things that we have to understand, that as fighters and as fans of the sport we have to continue to make it grow and that’s what all the big money is going to come about,” said star UFC light heavyweight Tito Ortiz (Pictures), who made an unscheduled appearance at Tuesday’s media function.
“Keep growing and make it bigger and bigger for every media to come to every one of the fights,” he continued. “Doesn’t matter if it’s UFC, WFA, PRIDE … [or] any other competition that comes about. It’s about the fighters now.”
Ortiz would know a thing or two about enjoying the spoils of Pay-Per-View. It has been speculated that the recent explosion of UFC buy rates has translated nicely into mega paydays for Ortiz and others like him who enjoy a slice of the PPV pie.
Jackson has a clause in his contract that would pay him handsomely should the WFA promote a widely viewed event. Yet history suggests the chances of “Rampage” cashing in his PPV chips are slim.
There has never been an MMA promotion not named the Ultimate Fighting Championship that has done anything substantial on North American PPV. And just days away from Saturday Lappen indicated he’s unsure about the number of people — both at the Forum and at home — that will watch, even in today’s MMA-friendly climate.
“We’ll see how much Showtime, you know the half-hour countdown show, whether that helps it or not,” Lappen said. “We have recognizable guys but obviously we’re not building off a weekly television show. So whether it’s 20,000 buys, 5,000 buys or 150,000 buys I have no idea.”
Jackson — along with Lindland, Bas Rutten (Pictures) and Kimo Leopoldo (Pictures) — was a subject of the half-hour Showtime telecast for which I was asked to offer my thoughts. Though the UFC has produced specials of their own (which I was also featured on), Lappen suggested the WFA piece is the sort of marketing mixed martial arts has never fully exploited.
“At the end of the day this sport, or any sport, is about your connection to the athlete,” the former talent manager said. “You know, why you’re tuning in is because you want to watch that person. And the way you get that connection is you have to know about them.”
“I think this is more about building the fighters themselves, not about building the companies,” suggested Ortiz, who made a surprise appearance on the countdown special and has long held that fighters drive fans to spend their money, not promotions.
It’s difficult, however, for him to argue against a philosophy that has seen the UFC reach heights few longtime followers of this sport can properly put into perspective. Since returning to the UFC in early 2006, Ortiz has benefited greatly from the UFC’s promotion-fighter equation.
The final bout on his three-fight contract looms and Ortiz said he’s currently negotiating to be with the UFC for another year. Had things turned out differently, it could have just as easily been “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” and not Jackson preparing for a fight on July 22 against Lindland.
“I was literally one day from fighting for the WFA,” Ortiz smirked. “Everything happens for a reason.”
Signing an established American star like Ortiz would have provided a major boon to the refurbished WFA. But Lappen insists that his company has a vision for the future, one that includes cultivating stars.
“You have to look at a lot of the marketing we did as marketing for going forward,” he said. “In most respects we’re a new organization. I mean I know we’ve been around but for most people they’re hearing about it for the first time. A lot of people are hearing about our fighters for the first time, so we’re trying to reach a large audience and a lot of it is investing now for the future.”
Jackson would appear to be a sizeable piece in Lappen’s plan. But there’s no getting around the fact that the bottom line matters. After all the marketing and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent, will the Forum be sold-out on Saturday?
“My expectation going in was that I was hopeful that we’d sell a ton of tickets,” Lappen said. “But it wasn’t about selling tickets. It’s really about building the brand, building the fighters, getting people to understand this is gonna be great fights with great fighters and really entertaining, well done, well produced format.”
(Incidentally, there appears to be plenty of tickets available for a potentially large walk-up crowd, said Lappen.)
For “Rampage” Jackson, who spent weeks in the altitude of Big Bear, Calif. training for the fight, none of this matters if he loses. Being a Pay-Per-View lynchpin and collecting thousands, maybe millions, of dollars cannot happen if he’s upset on the 22nd.
And maybe he’s smart not to worry about marketing angles and buy rates. Should Jackson do what he’s capable of, those things would seem to take care of themselves.
“I’m at that point where I want to fight, win and get it over with and go home and call it a day … and eat ketchup on my pizza,” he deadpanned.
