...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
This is the Writers' Roundtable here at MMATorch.com. In this feature our own Matt Pelkey will be providing our questions each week, and then we'll provide the answers from members of our staff here at MMATorch.com. This weekend, we've got Torch Contributor Frank Hyden, along with Torch Columnists Matt Pelkey and Jason Bent, and Torch Editor Jamie Penick. We've got three questions for the weekend, and today we present question one:
How many pay-per-view buys will the Affliction show tonight do?
Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor
I think they can draw 125,000. Affliction VP Tom Atencio said they did over 100,000 with Affliction: Banned. If you believe him, I think they can do better with this card. Andrei Arlovski is a much more exciting opponent for Fedor than Tim Sylvia. I think this show will do good numbers.
Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist
Despite whatever ridiculous claims Tom Atencio tries to make, I think 100,000 would be a great success. I think it'll be more in the 75,000 range. What stubborn hardcore fans can't seem to comprehend is that people spend money on the brand name, not on the match-ups. Fedor-Arlovski is a dream match-up, much better than anything they offered for their first show, but casual fans won't go out of their way to see it. With their bloated payroll, lousy ticket sales, and less-than-acceptable pay-per-view numbers, don't be surprised if this ends up being their last show. I hope that's not the case, because competition breeds quality, but the war is over.
Jason Bent, MMATorch Columnist
I personally think that Carmen Electra's Nude Wrestling will be looked back on as more of a success than this Affliction offering. I think there are many who are interested in the main event, but very few willing to pony up the price to see the whole card, and many will simply check websites after the fact to see just how quickly Fedor dispatched of Arlovski.
Things may change, and perhaps Tom Atencio will offer up a free flaming skull t-shirt and a pair of jeans with an iron cross stitched on the ass for everyone who sends in five dollars and a copy of their cable bill, but barring something drastic I see this one laying an egg tonight.
Affliction thinks they are going to get people to buy tickets to this show and order the pay-per-view in the same way that a gaggle of men think that slapping on one of their t-shirts is going to show every woman at the bar how much of a stud they are but both will be let down on Saturday night.
Of course if you do wear an Affliction t-shirt and head to the bar on Saturday you will not be able to see the fight, as no bars are ordering this one. Neither will anyone else and I expect the 11pm showing of 'Nasty Housewives' to do better pay-per-view numbers.
Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
There's no denying that Andrei Arlvoski vs. Fedor Emelianenko is a massive heavyweight fight. It's huge. But quite frankly that is not enough to justify the $44.95 pay-per-view price for the majority of fans. With a much, much bigger fight between B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre next weekend, there are many who will will be plopping their money down for that, and that will be the only pay-per-view they can afford this month. Others may be UFC loyalists who checked out UFC 93 and will order the show next weekend but couldn't pay for three shows in that span. Then there will be others who are fans but can't buy any pay-per-views, let alone the Affliction show. There's also the fact that up until the last few days the hype and the promoting presence of this show outside of MMA circles has been non-existant. Fedor got a little more press this week but he's still largely unknown to the casual pay-per-view buying MMA fan. If Banned truly got 100,000 buyers then Affliction might be able to bring back 3/4ths of those who purchased the first show. They had nothing surrounding them for pay-per-view that night and still struggled to get to that six digit plateau, if indeed they actually got there at all, so what evidence is there to suggest that they can push that further with less hype and being surrounded by two pay-per-views? I just can't see this show getting anywhere near a six figure buy amount, and in fact it'll probably be closer to 50,000. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but I would be shocked if they broke 90,000 buys, let alone any higher.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
