Roundtables
ROUNDTABLE: Will UFC 141's Friday night timeslot have a major negative impact on its buyrate?
Dec 30, 2011 - 4:30:02 PM ROUNDTABLE: Will UFC 141's Friday night timeslot have a major negative impact on its buyrate?

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Do you think the Friday night timeslot for UFC 141 will have a major negative impact on the event's pay-per-view buyrate?

JASON AMADI, MMATORCH COLUMNIST
 
There is no way of knowing how this sort of change will play out, but I feel like moving the card up a night won't have too much of an impact. The UFC was able to shift their pay-per-view start time without any negative impact on UFC 129's pay-per-view numbers, but an entire day is much more complicated.
 
The UFC likes to do events at this time of year because people are off work, with their families and looking for something to do. Keeping with that line of thinking, the night before New Year's Eve could be the best possible night to do an event.
 
At the end of the day, this is a Brock Lesnar fight and probably his most exciting matchup since being in the UFC. The fact that the UFC gave this event away to 25,000 people for free on Xbox Live (myself included) will probably have more of an effect on the pay-per-view numbers than the temporary move to Friday night.


FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR



I don't think it'll have a major impact, largely because it's still Brock Lesnar and there's no huge competitor that night for attention. The event taking place on a Friday night will surely have an effect, but I still think they can do a large number of buys. This is Brock's return to the cage and that will surely generate interest.


ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST

I don't think it will matter at all concerning the buyrate.  I think if anything, it may improve it as it serves two purposes.  It pushes Lesnar as a draw on a Friday night, and also, it avoids being slotted on New Year's Eve where the buyrate more than likely would be atrocious regardless of who fights on this card.  I think it'll stay the same, but if it does change, it'll be a higher buyrate than most.


ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Not at all. If the fight card did not have such a strong main event, it would. The buyrate will be reasonably strong because Brock Lesnar is on the card. 



JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

The issue will come with the very problem Dana White himself has had this week. Fans are conditioned for Saturday nights being UFC fight nights, and for the casual observers who know that Brock Lesnar is returning this weekend, it's highly likely many of them find out tomorrow morning that the fight has already taken place. There is going to be a definite dip in what the event could have brought in on a Saturday night, but it's still likely going to be the biggest buyrate the UFC has had in the last eight months, and because it's Lesnar could potentially be larger than April's UFC 129.

[Brock Lesnar art by Grant Gould (c) MMATorch.com]