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Darren Rovell: “UFC is starting to lose a little bit of its edge.”

The MMA Report Staff

The UFC has been in existence for almost 20 years and it is amazing to me how the argument for/against the UFC being fringe or mainstream never dies. Whether it is some old-school pundit from CBS Sports bashing the sport or ESPN/ABC’s own Darren Rovell taking jabs at the UFC’s edge it just never stops.

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports
Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

Now listen, the UFC isn’t the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL or even Nascar, but were they ever going to be?

The NFL is by far the most lucrative American sport and it has been around for decades. MLB is as American as apple pie. The NBA and NHL have of course had their ups-and-downs as of late, but find me someone who hasn’t hit a basket or slapped on a pair of hockey skates. Nascar, is not on the list of “big four”, but go to a Nascar event and tell me the sport is “fringe”.

See what I did there? I brought up the term “big four” and “fringe” in the same sentence with a sport that has the largest attendance of any of the “big four”. Don’t believe me? Call up the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ask them how the Brickyard 400 does every year. At roughly 300,000 in attendance annually the number even makes Jerry Jones wonder if he can drop another tier on his monstrosity of a football stadium in Dallas and break some records of his own.

The point I am making here is this; the UFC is a fringe sport, it is not on the list of “big four,” it’s not going to break any top-10 attendance records, but does that mean it is has lost its edge? Does that mean it cannot stack up against some of the “big four”? Seriously, the UFC has one arguably down year and the sport has all of a sudden taken a turn for the worst?

Better yet, let’s challenge some of Rovell’s tweets by breakdown them down and analyzing them a bit further:

Rovell makes the assumption here that because a friend of his paid $50 for a $553 face value ticket that the UFC has lost its edge? So I guess with that logic, the Red Sox have lost their edge, since last year people could buy tickets on StubHub for less that $5.00 for certain home-games. Yep, that is right, one of the most storied baseball franchises ever had a situation where tickets were cheaper than a bottle of Sam Adams at Fenway Park.

Obviously, I could cherry pick dozens of teams with similar problems and compare them, but that is not the point here. The point here, is it fair to take one single persons experience and automatically assume that the sport or sports franchise is on the mend? Of course not, but let’s take this another step further.

Does the chart below indicate any problems with the UFC’s PPV attendance or PPV buys? In an arguably down year in 2012, the charts clearly indicate the trending line is not going downward. Sure the UFC hit a roadblock that was UFC 150, but the UFC also cancelled a PPV last year, something they never did before. Again, you tell me, how is the UFC doing based off of these?

LiveGatePPVBuys

Wow, isn’t Rovell fancy with his poll on PopTip. Sadly, not only is his tweet inaccurate (actually landed at roughly 50/50 split by the writing of this article,) but it only has roughly 400 respondents. Since when is 400 a majority? Better yet, why don’t we ask CNN and Fox News how accurate polling is since we all know they did a wonderful job on the this past presidential elections exit-polls. Obviously, I am joking around here, but the fact that someone is going to take a poll with roughly 400 people and tell me that UFC does not have the potential to go mainstream is ridiculous.

I will make it easier for you, below are some ratings charts of the UFC on FX and the UFC on FUEL TV. See the linear line in the middle in black that is trending upwards? Yup, looks like a steady decline to me alright.

FX Prelims FX History FuelTV History

I was waiting for this, the FX and Spike debate. First of all, the UFC hasn’t been live on Spike TV in over two years. Never mind the fact that the UFC paid to be on Spike TV.  Anyway, when it comes to FX, I want you all to look at a chart furnished by The Wall Street Journal analyzing ratings and per-subscriber fees when it comes to cable television.

ChannelFlipping

As you can see on the left FX comes in at #9 on the list of top cable TV ratings. What makes this even funnier is the fact that on the right hand side is the average subscriber fee cost. Isn’t that funny, according to Rovell, FX can’t carry a mainstream sport but neglects to note that FX is destroying ESPN2, the NFL Network, MLB Network, NBA TV, The NHL Network, NBC Sports Network, and almost beating out TNT, all of which show showcase mainstream sports. NOt to mention, following Rovell’s logic, the NBA must not be a mainstream sport as it is on TNT weekly with showcase matchups.

I was waiting for Rovell to get on top of this one. Perfect timing too since the UFC is currently in negotiation with Reebok for a major sponsorship deal. Little does Rovell know the Nike doesn’t really have any direct relationship with the UFC. Nike’s deals with the likes of Jon Jones, Anderson Silva and Junior dos Santos are more fighter sponsorships and less organizational sponsorships.

For example, see the Bud Light, MetroPCS, MusclePharm and Harley Davidson logos in the cage the last PPV? Yup, those are organizational sponsorships. Those companies pay marketing dollars to the UFC directly for placement. Now, see the Nike swoosh logo on UFC Champion Jon Jones shorts and sneakers? Yup, those are fighter sponsorships. Big difference when it comes to talking about marketing dollars spent by Nike.

Now, sure, is Rovell correct when he is talking about overall Nike budget in MMA, probably. But that is Nike’s prerogative  If you ask me, Nike being behind Jon Jones and not the UFC looks more like a play against Under Armour who has its hands all over another UFC champion in Georges St-Pierre. Nevertheless, his tweet still leaves a bunch of empty holes, questions and easily argued assertions.

I saved my favorite tweet for last, the NHL vs UFC mainstream comparison. Obviously, the UFC is not the NHL. The NHL has been around the game forever, it is huge in North America and across the globe, they typically have larger attendance gates per year (more games) and typically have larger average ratings (more games) but in reality does that make the NHL mainstream and the UFC not?

I actually challenge Rovell and anyone out there for that matter to prove to me that the NHL is even a mainstream sport anymore. Don’t forget this is the same sport that got black-balled by ESPN, has had two work stoppages in under a decade and has been hemorrhaging money all across the league. Let’s not forget the NHL just a few years ago was also bouncing between the Outdoor Life Network, Versus and eventually the NBC Sports Network. All networks that wish they could have FX’s ratings.

With that said, I will leave you all a few final tidbits and you can tell me which one is mainstream or not.

Back in 2012, which was considered a down year for the UFC according to many in the industry and UFC pundits, the UFC offered up several events on the national network of Fox. That same year the NHL was coming off a huge year previously with the Boston Bruins winning the Stanley Cup and also offered several key playoff match ups including the Stanley Cup Finals between the New Jersey Devils and the Los Angeles Kings.

Now, when looking back on the Nielsen ratings, game 6 of the Stanley Cup finals (which was the highest NHL rating of 2012) on NBC pulled a 2.1 rating with a 4.9 million overall viewers. Conversely, the UFC on Fox 2, which had no title fight, and no real-lead in help from the NFL or any other major sport (as it has had in the past) garnered a 2.6 rating with 4.7 million overall viewers.

Just to make sure I am clear, the NHL’s biggest rating of the year, which was during its Stanley Cup finals on NBC narrowly edged a very lackluster UFC on Fox appearance by only a 4% difference when it came to overall viewers.

Better yet, let’s go a bit more recently for those of you who like to argue timing. Last months UFC on Fox 7 rating out-rated the combined averages of ABC, CBS and NBC in the key advertising demographics of Men 18-34, Men 18-49 and Men 25-54. When was the last time you heard the NHL or even the NBA touting those types of demographic numbers for a playoff game, never mind a regular season hockey game?

Obviously, a rating is simply a number and a great deal can go into it, but when you have a mainstream sport, barely beating out a fringe sport on its biggest night of year by only 4% it is hard to call one mainstream and the other fringe.

I think the bigger takeaway here should be how much longer is going to take before the UFC takes over some of these lower tier “big four” sports like the NHL. If you ask me, I think they already have.