"'Not so fast my friends' on the Affliction live gate dollars
By Steve Cofield
Some people were shocked when they saw the Affliction "Banned" live gate crushed all three previous UFC shows at the Honda Center in Anaheim. To steal a phrase from Mr. Merkin himself, Lee Corso (pictured)...Not so fast my friends.
MMAJunkie reported the Affliction numbers via the California State Athletic Commission:
This past Saturday’s “Affliction: Banned” event drew a total attendance of 14,832—a small increase from the night’s announced attendance of 13,988 — for a live gate of $2,085,510. Of the 14,832 total tickets, 11,242 were sold, and 3,590 were complimentary and given away.
Yahoo! Sports Kevin Iole explained that the Affliction numbers may be a bit inflated:
"I had a source tell me that Affliction bought $500,000 of those tickets and that goes into the gate. (Affliction VP Tom Atencio) admitted that they bought a large number of tickets."
Iole went onto explain that Affliction came up with an extremely fan-friendly plan on the day of the fights but that it also boosted the live gate numbers:
"Anybody who went to the arena on Saturday to purchase a ticket, was able to buy a ticket for $39.95 no matter what price range it was in. They discounted all the tickets to $39.95. As a result, the tax on (the ticket) is paid by the promoter so they can say it sold as a $500 or $1000 ticket. It happens in boxing all the time."
That was a brilliant move by Affliction but you wonder what someone who actually purchased a ticket for the full price would think when they hear this?
CLICK BELOW TO HEAR IOLE FULLY EXPLAIN FIGHT TICKET COUNTS (w/Cofield & Cokin):
MMAJunkie also compared the CSAC's numbers with those past UFC events.
Affliction’s total attendance (14,832), paid attendance (11,242) and live gate ($2,085,510) figures stack up to the competition?
Here are how three recent UFC events at the Honda Center fared:
UFC 76: 13,770 tickets (11,817 paid) for a $1,985,000 gate
UFC 63: 12,604 tickets (9,343 paid) for a $1,582,370 gate
UFC 59: 13,814 tickets (13,060 paid) for a $2,191,450 gate
This is not to say that UFC hasn't worked the same math to its advantage on past events but I've never heard of cheaper ticket prices for the walk-up crowd for UFC. I was a little suspicious about the close to $2.1 million gate. Back on Thursday, I did a search for Affliction tickets and it appeared there were plenty still available.
Great job by Affliction in nearly filling the arena and building for a fanbase with inexpensive tickets. It was an unbelievable deal for those fans on Saturday."
From:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/mma...?urn=mma,95590
If you go to the middle of the article there is an audio embed that explains this further.
I am curious to see if anyone here who went did you pre-purchase a ticket or did you get the day of event walk-up special?
'Not so fast my friends' on the Affliction live gate dollars
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