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By: Ryan Kane, MMATorch Contributor There is no doubt that Affliction set themselves up well. Six months ago they put on their first pay-per-view at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. By all accounts, their first PPV was a success. The Honda Center played host to 14,832 (11,242 paid) fans and things were quickly looking up for Tom Atencio, Vice-President of Affliction, and company. Affliction had a gate of over 2 million dollars with reported pay-per-view buys around, plus or minus, 100,000. They had brought in, arguably, the number one mixed martial artist in the world, Fedor Emelianenko, and put together a stacked card. So why only six months later is there concern heading into Affliction’s second pay-per-view offering? Quite frankly, because they just don’t know what they’re doing.
Affliction’s second pay-per-view, Day of Reckoning, will be taking place Saturday, January 24, from the Honda Center in Anaheim, California...again. If you’re an MMA follower, for the most part, you know that their pay-per-view is coming up on January 24th. But if you’re a casual MMA fan, you probably don’t even know that Affliction has a pay-per-view coming up this weekend. Why is that? Because, they are doing a horrendous job at promoting their product; and at this point, things are backfiring for Affliction across the board.
While they had a successful first pay-per-view, in terms of their gate and pay-per-view buys, they ultimately ended up paying out 3.3 million to their fighters for their base pay and bonuses. This was 1.3 million above what the Honda Center gated for the event. Tim Sylvia stepped into the ring and was promptly dispatched in just 36 seconds by the great Fedor Emelianeko and was paid $800,000 for his "effort." If you’re wondering, Fedor brought in $300,000 for his part in the dismantling. While Affliction does have a partnership with Donald Trump, that doesn’t mean "The Donald" is footing the salary for every fighter. So, right there, Affliction is in the red to the tune of 1.3 million when compared to what they had for their gate. Not to mention the costs of putting on a show, staffing it, and all the other expenses that go along with running a MMA event. Paying those kinds of exorbitant salaries will put any MMA organization under, fast. EliteXC seemed to have a bargain, in retrospect, paying Kimbo Slice a cool half-a-million for his 15 second loss to former UFC heavyweight, Seth Petruzelli, relative to what Affliction paid Sylvia to get dismantled in 36 seconds.
Looking ahead to the Day of Reckoning card, one has to ask themselves -- where is the promotion for this pay-per-view? It’s less than a week away and nobody, outside of the hardcore MMA faithful, knows the event is even coming. There are questions surrounding the event. In fact, the future of Affliction Entertainment could hinge on the pay-per-view's success, or lack thereof.
Affliction reached out to Golden Boy Promotions months ago in what they (Affliction) considered a ground-breaking announcement. For the first time a boxing promoter was going to work with an MMA organization to co-promote events, and they would ultimately expose MMA to boxing fans and in turn MMA fans to boxing. Sounded good in theory, right? Yeah it did. It sounded great until Golden Boy Promotions decided to run an event head-to-head against Affliction, on the night of Affliction’s second card ever, Day of Reckoning. "Sugar" Shane Mosley is scheduled to fight WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. I will save you a trip to your map and tell you that Los Angeles is located about 25 miles from Anaheim, California.
Boxing isn’t what it used to be, that might be true, but many of those pay-per-view fights still draw big numbers in terms of pay-per-view buys. Not only do they still draw decent numbers in pay-per-view buys, but they also draw a considerable amount of people. As of this moment, Ticketmaster is showing that two seats are available in the Upper Deck of the Staples Center for $25 apiece and that those are the "best seats available" for two people. Conversely, Ticketmaster is showing that I could instead take a buddy to Affliction’s event at the Honda Center, for just $1,000 apiece (floor-level seating). This supports the rumor, leading into the Day of Reckoning event, that Affliction has sold anywhere from 1,200 to 2,000 seats for their event; to this point. So just 25 miles away from Anaheim, where Affliction is struggling to sell more expensive seats and presumable pay-per-views on Saturday, Golden Boy Promotions (Affliction’s business partner) is selling cheaper seats and is selling them fast.
Many people don’t have the money to spend for pay-per-views or to go to boxing/mixed martial arts events. If they do, the numbers are supporting that Mosley-Margarito is outdoing Affliction’s event in terms of attendance. On Saturday many of us will be making a decision to order the Mosley-Margarito fight or go with Emelianenko-Arlovski (Affliction). Past history suggests that boxing will have no problem selling their pay-per-view, but Affliction doesn’t have a history to suggest they’ll steal some of those buys away from Mosley-Margarito. Not to mention, some people may be saving their January pay-per-view expense for the super-fight at UFC 94: St.Pierre-Penn II.
So on Saturday, January 24th, Affliction and Golden Boy will go head-to-head in drawing fans, selling seats and selling pay-per-views. So far the edge has to go to Golden Boy. Affliction can’t afford to hand out a ton of complimentary tickets, pay a lot of money to their fighters and see minimal returns, financially, in terms of paid attendance and pay-per-view buys. Day of Reckoning’s card looks pretty good, but my question is, is anybody going to be there to see it? Will there be a ton of people watching it on pay-per-view? Will Affliction survive after a poor showing of people for their event and low pay-per-view buys? The answer to all those questions could definitely be a resounding no, and that spells trouble for the future of Affliction’s MMA promotion.
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