UFC Needs Fresh, Talented Fighters And To Move Away From McGregor, Lesnar Stunts
By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
No sports organization has mixed mano-a-mano cage violence, soap opera and spectacle as successfully as Las Vegas-based UFC. It sold for $4.2 billion in 2016 and this year cut a decent media rights deal with ESPN. The market has spoken.
But with former UFC star Ronda Rousey off to the WWE and Conor McGregor morphing into the caricature of an anger-management-class hothead, UFC needs to find a star to appeal to mainstream sports fans or they can face the plight of an already-peaked NASCAR.
The acts of UFC and its stars are getting old — Jon Jones’ failed drug tests and car crashes; the bad-boy McGregor shenanigans of flinging a dolly onto a bus window at the Barclays Center loading dock in Brooklyn in April; the pro wrestling-style stunt of Brock Lesnar confronting UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier after Cormier’s win at UFC 226 about three weeks ago; and Thursday’s slap on the wrist “punishment” for the 30-year-old McGregor by a Brooklyn court.
A plea deal with a Brooklyn prosecutor for McGregor’s UFC 223 bus attack meant no jail time and no travel visa issues for McGregor, who will be off to community service and anger management class.
McGregor, UFC’s biggest mainstream star, hasn’t fought a UFC match since November 2016 and his August 2017 “boxing match” with undefeated Las Vegas resident and boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather was more farcical sportainment than a high-level skilled boxing event.
UFC has stars like Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson, who fights at UFC 227 at Staples Center in Las Aug. 4.
But there’s nobody at UFC with Rousey’s mainstream star power to reach demographics and sports fans otherwise untapped and the MMA promotion organization needs to focus on generating gifted personalities who have the charisma, skill and showmanship to keep driving sales to its bread and butter — pay-per-view buys. The crossover WWE and boxing moves may attract media attention, but do they cultivate new MMA fans?
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The Vegas Golden Knights are trying to grow their brand in the NHL team’s AT&T SportsNet TV market with another bus trip through the Rockies in August.
This year, players Brad Hunt, Jon Merrill, Nic Hague and Nate Schmidt are joining broadcasters Dave Goucher, Shane Hnidy and Gary Lawless for a bus ride that it is making pit stops in Reno, Boise, Jackson Hole, Wyoming and Salt Lake City for skating sessions, meet-and-greets and hockey clinics with fans in those cities. The team mascot, Chance, is also making the trip.
The road trip is Aug 5-10. Here’s the bus schedule:
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I understand people in Las Vegas are excited about the Oakland Raiders moving to Sin City in 2020, but they will have to be patient when it comes to buying official-licensed “Las Vegas Raiders” logo gear and merchandise.
The NFL doesn’t want the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders to sell the Las Vegas Raiders merch ahead of the team’s official transplant into Las Vegas.
The Vegas Golden Knights’ merchandise sales did just fine during the team’s inaugural season in Las Vegas even though the VGK jerseys weren’t out there until June 2017 — and a few months later with fans’ pre-orders.
Raiders fans in Las Vegas will survive. Buy the Oakland Raiders merch and just cross out Oakland and write Las Vegas on your shirts and caps with your Sharpies until the Las Vegas Raiders logo gear is available.
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The NBA Finals were in June, but professional basketball products are everywhere with USA Basketball holding workouts on the UNLV campus here in Las Vegas Thursday, BIG3’s three-on-three, half-court, first-to-50 points action on the FS1 network and even ESPN broadcasting The Basketball Tournament’s five-on-five, winner-take-all $2 million grand prize event.
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