On Sports Tourism: UFC Leads Trio Of Sold Out Arenas In Las Vegas Saturday, Enjoys Bullish 2022 With Giant Live Gate Numbers
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Cassandra Cousineau, LVSportsBiz.com UFC Writer
Just another day in Las Vegas. On Saturday, there were three sold out arenas with three diverse sports events drawing thousands of visitors in a two-mile stretch along Tropicana Avenue.
UFC’s final pay-per-view fight show of 2022 drew 18,459 MMA fans to T-Mobile Arena. The National Finals Rodeo had 17,788 packed in Thomas & Mack Center on its final night of its 10-day run. The Indiana vs Arizona college basketball game was a sellout of 13,357 at MGM Grand Garden Arena.
What makes these sports events so critical for Las Vegas is that they are primarily visitor-driven attractions that generate hotel room tax dollars that are helping pay off Southern Nevada’s debt on the Raiders stadium.
UFC has had a strong year. Let’s dive into the Las Vegas-based MMA promotion’s Top 5 events for this year.
Even with its biggest PPV star, Conor McGregor, sidelined since July 2021, UFC still managed to average upwards of 17,000 paying customers at its PPV events, with live gates consistently surpassing $5 million.
On Saturday, for example, with the vacant UFC light heavyweight championship up for grabs in the main event, Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev fought to a split draw.
But outside of the fight, UFC closed 2022 with another sold out show with attendance of 18,459 at T-Mobile Arena and a live gate of $4.4 million, UFC President Dana White reported late Saturday night.
When LVSportsBiz.com asked White what he attributed the organization’s bullish success to, especially without the presence of its superstar, White said, ”That’s what we always do. That’s what we’ve always done. If you really look at it in the last five or six years, Conor’s probably fought four or five times. So, obviously it’s great to have superstars. Why did we have 29 consecutive sellouts this year? We went through COVID.”
Starting with UFC 270 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California and right up to Saturday’s UFC 282 in Las Vegas, UFC staged 13 pay-per-view events. Here are UFC’s top five attendance and live gate generators for 2022.
UFC 281
EVENT: UFC 281: Israel Adesanya vs Alex Pereira on Nov. 12
LOCATION: Madison Square Garden, New York City
ATTENDANCE: 20,845
LIVE GATE: $11.56 million
It was UFC’s 27th consecutive sellout event.
The much-anticipated match-up between Adesanya and Pereira pulled in a record live gate at the famed Garden and UFC 281 was the third highest-grossing event in MSG history, with Eddie Alvarez vs Conor McGregor at UFC 205 grossing $17.7 million in ticket sales.
*
EVENT: UFC 279 Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson on Sept. 10
LOCATION:M T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas
ATTENDANCE: 19,125
LIVE GATE: $5,670,271.86.
The event was preceded by a chaotic fight week that delivered a Nate Diaz vs Tony Ferguson fight on Aug. 20 after Chimaev missed weight for his original fight with Diaz by a 7.5 pounds. Chimaev was rewarded for his transgression by being demoted to the co-main and completely steamrolling Kevin Holland in barely two minutes of work. The press conference for UFC 279 got so out of hand with Nate Diaz, Kevin Holland, and Chimaev’s camps feuding and throwing water bottles backstage, that White shut the whole thing down mid way.
“Not only was not one ticket refunded, the day all the craziness was going on, we sold 250 tickets that day.” White said about the UFC’s 10th PPV of 2022.
*
EVENT: UFC 276 Israel Adesanya vs Jared Cannonier on July 2
LOCATION: T-Mobile Arena
ATTENDANCE: 19,649
LIVE GATE: $10,409,553.70
The most successful gate of the year in Las Vegas was UFC 276. Headlined by now former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya in a title defense against Jared Cannonier, the co-main featured Alex Pereira, the man who would go on to defeat Adesanya in November.
*
EVENT: UFC 277 Julianna Pena vs Amanda Nunes 2 on July 30
LOCATION: American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas
ATTENDANCE: 19,442 and a live gate of
LIVE GATE: $4,455,691
In July 2022, Amanda Nunes, regarded as the greatest women’s fighter in MMA history, reclaimed the UFC women’s bantamweight title she lost to Peña at UFC 269 in December.
*
EVENT: UFC 278 Kamaru Usman vs Leon Edwards 2 on Aug. 20
LOCATION: Vivint Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah
ATTENDANCE: 18,321
LIVE GATE: $4,297,655
Perhaps the most shocking upset of the year came when Kamaru Usman was well ahead on the scorecards and was knocked out with a head kick by Leon Edwards with barely one minute remaining in the fight.
