Todd Martin has his review of the inaugural World Fighting Alliance show posted here. After reading his review, I asked him whether it was worth purchasing, given that its not airing in Canada until July 30th, this coming Sunday. He replied that " If you're a big MMA fan, it's definitely worth checking out. If you're more casual, maybe not." However, I don't think that is the only factor that determines whether or not I purchase a PPV.
I like to catch the UFC PPVs, but I hardly ever actually buy them. Instead, I go to my local bar/restaurant and watch the show there. I end up spending about $20 - $25 on food and beverages and watch the show. Now, it could be argued that my roommate and I can spend the same amount and get the PPV at home, but thats not true. Once we've bought snackage to accompany the PPV, we've spent more than we would have by watching the show at Crabby Joe's or the Oar House.
And thats just for the UFC PPVs. Unfortunately, UFC is the only group to have inspired enough casual interest to get restaurant owners to shell out the cash to order a PPV. (I've heard it costs upwards of $1500 for a restaurant to show a PPV, and the total amount depends on the total capacity of the bar.) But the bars don't order Pride or WFA events. (The Oar House used to show WWF PPVs, but stopped during the WWE crackdown. I have an interesting anecdote that I'll relate at the end of this post.) So UFC is pretty much the only affordable PPV option.
I know I could order the Pride or WFA PPVs at home, but the costs are prohibitive. The same holds true for WWE PPVs. The WFA PPV is $34.99. I'm not sure of the price of a Pride PPV, but I'm sure its about the same. And WWE recently boosted their price to $39.99. The WWE's logic is that the diehard fans who continue to order the PPVs will more than make up the loss of those fans for whom $39.99 is too much to see The Undertaker vs The Great Khali in a "Punjabi Prison Match." (Especially when that match doesn't actually happen.) My logic is that I can read the recaps online, see the replays on television, and, on the off chance that the show is worth watching, I can buy the DVD for $19.99 a month or two later. (Actually more than that, because WWE's Candian distributor Koch, is about as competent as a braindead lemur with palsy. Or they might need to take longer so they can waste time and money making everything bilingual. Bilingualism = Canada's shame.)
Unfortunately for Pride and WFA, they have no means of establishing a WWE or UFC like rapport with the general public. At least, not in Canada. I guess Pride has a television show in the States, but they have no presence here in Canada. As a result, they only get purchases from those fans who are confident that they will be ordering a good show. And can afford it. And I am neither of those things.
First of all, I'm a pessi-realist. I always anticipate the worst possible realistic situation. So I don't expect any show to be great. Particularly when I'm not able to immerse myself in the backstory and the personalities that are involved. And second of all, I'm a student on a budget. As such, I have to be more choosy with how I spend my PPV dollars. I'm not living on ketchup soup and crackers, but my situation does require me to weigh the pros and cons of spending money on something like a PPV, which has no guarantees of being any good. Seeing Rampage and Matt Lindland go at it isn't worth $34.99, especially if the rest of the fights involve replacement fighters and guys who have let themselves go to pot.
I don't doubt that Pride and WFA have, can, and will put on good shows. But I need more than the possibility of seeing a good show before shelling out the money for a PPV. These companies need to find a way to connect with the general public if they want them to order their shows. The Fight Network is a good start, but I have refused to order the channel since they ended their free preview. Some of their programming was pretty good, but I have no desire to watch "So You Think You Can Fight" or bad karate movies. I believe they may have improved their programming since then, and I may order the channel, but thats just me. If Pride and WFA want to compete with UFC in more than just the US, they are going to need to raise their awareness.
They may want to consider offering the PPVs at a more reasonable rate, to encourage people to take a chance on one of their shows. I know this may offend the people who have been ordering Pride PPVs for years, but given the rising profile of MMA in North America, companies are going to need to find ways to reach out to new audiences. UFC has done this with The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed and the like. IFL has their show on Rogers Sportsnet (even though there is no mention of the show on the Sportsnet website and the episode they showed last night was the same I watched a month ago.) So its time for the other companies to reach out.
*************************************
Okay, WWE PPV story. For those who don't know, WWE Canada has a, for lack of a better word, godawful website. What they have now though, is a hundred times better than their old one. For years, the only thing on the WWF/E Canada website was a survey asking people where they watched WWF PPVs? They promised people would be entered in a draw for an unnamed prize. Of course, all of this was happening while WWE/F was cracking down on bars showing PPVs. Was this actual market research? Or was it just a sneaky underhanded way of getting naive people to rat out their favorite bar?
I like to catch the UFC PPVs, but I hardly ever actually buy them. Instead, I go to my local bar/restaurant and watch the show there. I end up spending about $20 - $25 on food and beverages and watch the show. Now, it could be argued that my roommate and I can spend the same amount and get the PPV at home, but thats not true. Once we've bought snackage to accompany the PPV, we've spent more than we would have by watching the show at Crabby Joe's or the Oar House.
And thats just for the UFC PPVs. Unfortunately, UFC is the only group to have inspired enough casual interest to get restaurant owners to shell out the cash to order a PPV. (I've heard it costs upwards of $1500 for a restaurant to show a PPV, and the total amount depends on the total capacity of the bar.) But the bars don't order Pride or WFA events. (The Oar House used to show WWF PPVs, but stopped during the WWE crackdown. I have an interesting anecdote that I'll relate at the end of this post.) So UFC is pretty much the only affordable PPV option.
I know I could order the Pride or WFA PPVs at home, but the costs are prohibitive. The same holds true for WWE PPVs. The WFA PPV is $34.99. I'm not sure of the price of a Pride PPV, but I'm sure its about the same. And WWE recently boosted their price to $39.99. The WWE's logic is that the diehard fans who continue to order the PPVs will more than make up the loss of those fans for whom $39.99 is too much to see The Undertaker vs The Great Khali in a "Punjabi Prison Match." (Especially when that match doesn't actually happen.) My logic is that I can read the recaps online, see the replays on television, and, on the off chance that the show is worth watching, I can buy the DVD for $19.99 a month or two later. (Actually more than that, because WWE's Candian distributor Koch, is about as competent as a braindead lemur with palsy. Or they might need to take longer so they can waste time and money making everything bilingual. Bilingualism = Canada's shame.)
Unfortunately for Pride and WFA, they have no means of establishing a WWE or UFC like rapport with the general public. At least, not in Canada. I guess Pride has a television show in the States, but they have no presence here in Canada. As a result, they only get purchases from those fans who are confident that they will be ordering a good show. And can afford it. And I am neither of those things.
First of all, I'm a pessi-realist. I always anticipate the worst possible realistic situation. So I don't expect any show to be great. Particularly when I'm not able to immerse myself in the backstory and the personalities that are involved. And second of all, I'm a student on a budget. As such, I have to be more choosy with how I spend my PPV dollars. I'm not living on ketchup soup and crackers, but my situation does require me to weigh the pros and cons of spending money on something like a PPV, which has no guarantees of being any good. Seeing Rampage and Matt Lindland go at it isn't worth $34.99, especially if the rest of the fights involve replacement fighters and guys who have let themselves go to pot.
I don't doubt that Pride and WFA have, can, and will put on good shows. But I need more than the possibility of seeing a good show before shelling out the money for a PPV. These companies need to find a way to connect with the general public if they want them to order their shows. The Fight Network is a good start, but I have refused to order the channel since they ended their free preview. Some of their programming was pretty good, but I have no desire to watch "So You Think You Can Fight" or bad karate movies. I believe they may have improved their programming since then, and I may order the channel, but thats just me. If Pride and WFA want to compete with UFC in more than just the US, they are going to need to raise their awareness.
They may want to consider offering the PPVs at a more reasonable rate, to encourage people to take a chance on one of their shows. I know this may offend the people who have been ordering Pride PPVs for years, but given the rising profile of MMA in North America, companies are going to need to find ways to reach out to new audiences. UFC has done this with The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed and the like. IFL has their show on Rogers Sportsnet (even though there is no mention of the show on the Sportsnet website and the episode they showed last night was the same I watched a month ago.) So its time for the other companies to reach out.
*************************************
Okay, WWE PPV story. For those who don't know, WWE Canada has a, for lack of a better word, godawful website. What they have now though, is a hundred times better than their old one. For years, the only thing on the WWF/E Canada website was a survey asking people where they watched WWF PPVs? They promised people would be entered in a draw for an unnamed prize. Of course, all of this was happening while WWE/F was cracking down on bars showing PPVs. Was this actual market research? Or was it just a sneaky underhanded way of getting naive people to rat out their favorite bar?
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