By Cassandra Cousineau of LVSportsBiz.com
UFC filled T-Mobile Arena with more 20,000 fans two weeks ago for UFC 264 and tonight for the first time the Las Vegas-based MMA promotion sold $2,000 luxury admission deals to allow fans to attend a fight show at UFC’s Apex building next to its headquarters.
There were cheers and even a few boos heard during the UFC Fight Night Saturday. Paying guests cleared security and sat down for a day of MMA action at UFC Vegas 32, which featured a much-anticipated bantamweight matchup between Cory Sandgagen and T.J. Dillashaw. Back in action after a two-year doping suspension, Dillashaw won in a gutsy showing.
There were a limited number of these VIP packages available, with UFC selling out the 51 admission packages.
The VIP admission deal included hospitality, premium seating and additional exclusive benefits, including an in-arena VIP party.
UFC President Dana White cashed in bigtime July 10 at T-Mobile Arena, where attendance hit 20,062 and collected a live gate of $15,759,800 at an event headlined by Conor McGregor.
But he was happy tonight to also generate fan revenue at the 120,000-square-foot Apex facility, which hosted the first live sports event in Las Vegas during the pandemic more than a year ago.
The fans who bought the ticket package had “the best seats in the house. The closest any fan has ever been to the octagon inside of the Apex,” White said.
We last saw Dillashaw in Jan. 2019, when he was still the bantamweight champion. But he received a two-year USADA suspension after testing positive for the banned substance EPO. The 35-year-old relinquished his title.
After a fast-paced first round, Dillashaw fought through most of the second and the remainder of the five-round scrap with a gruesome cut that, let’s face it, probably should’ve been cause for a doctor’s stoppage since a bone was visible. At the end of the fourth round, the VIP guests broke out into claps and “TJ, TJ, TJ” cheers as the former bantamweight champ dialed in to steal the later rounds of the fight.
Since March, celebrities like Courtney Kardashian and Megan Fox have been spotted in the plush leather seats at the Apex. Celebs are different though. Emotionally-invested fight fans can carry the energy of a match and that’s what happened Saturday. Dillashaw said during his post-fight press conference, “It felt good. I wanted to fight with the crowd even if I’m a bad guy. I love to feel the love, the hate, all of it.”
When White opened Apex, it was billed as the type of venue to host a variety of entertainment outside of UFC’s bread-and-butter fight show events.
There have been 32 Fight Nights at the Apex. When the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the sport world, UFC was partially able to pivot and stage fight events thanks to this facility.
The Apex is eventually meant to be a bookend to a hotel on the parcel near Jones Boulevard and the 215 beltway in the southwest valley.
As the event wrapped, fans piled out of the venue still pumping with music and lights. Many carried party bags filled with custom bottles of alcohol like UFC sponsor Howler Head and UFC trinkets into waiting limos, rideshares, and personal vehicles.
The next UFC fight show at the Apex is Aug. 21 when Jared Cannonier vs Kelvin Gastelum headline. The $2,000 admission deal will be available then, too.