This past Saturday night, STRIKEFORCE put on a show at the Playboy Mansion hoping the fans would be distracted by the sites and pay less attention to the action. The result turned out to be a less than stellar performance. That got 411Mania's Lotfi Sariahmed thinking.
What would it take for the "other" promotions to be successful in MMA? Lotfi examines that topic in the first of a three part series in this week's edition of Planet Tapout!
Welcome to the show that never loses control of its kids (Is it too soon to be making those jokes?). It's Planet Tapout and I've been dubbed Lotfi Sariahmed. No mailbag this week because of the bunnies… o so many bunnies. Once you all come back to us make sure you email your thoughts. The email address as always is PlanetTapout@gmail.com . Now lets commence the festivities.
That looks good right? Unfortunately that's possibly the only thing STRIKEFORCE did well this past Saturday at the Playboy Mansion. I won't delve too far into the event itself because Leland Roling already did that in his latest edition of MMA Analytics. But I will say this. On a card which featured names like Joe Riggs, Gilbert Melendez and Josh Thomson, STRIKEFORCE failed to deliver a bigger name match-up on the card outside of Riggs v. Eugene Jackson or Bobby Southworth v. Bill Mahood. Normally for a smaller promotion we wouldn't have an issue. But given the quality product STRIKEFORCE has given its fans in the past, this card fell short in every aspect of its production.
That idea got me thinking. Obviously the goal of not just any business but really anyone in life is to be as successful as one could possibly be. With the UFC's success you have so many organizations popping up looking to duplicate its success, at least in part. STRIKEFORCE is just one of many of those MMA promotions chasing after that success. However, it seems as if there are too many of those groups heading toward getting WFA'd as opposed to cashing in like the UFC. Thus we are presented with a question that's two-fold. Why are too many of these organizations heading down the WFA's path and/or what do they need to do be successful?
So, in the first of what I hope to be a three-part series (it could be more) I'm going to take a look into the inner workings of three different promotions and find out what success is for the companies? What can they do to improve? What have they done well? What have they done poorly? And I'll try to answer whatever other questions I could come up with along the way. We'll start the series this week with the aforementioned STRIKEFORCE and the man behind it all, Scott Coker.
STRIKEFORCE is really unlike any other promotion out there. Promotions like the UFC, the IFL, Pro Elite and even PRIDE when it was still around have focused on spreading its product around by going from location to location. PRIDE made a couple of trips to the States toward the end of its tenure. The UFC have stretched back out with shows in the United Kingdom and even more of Europe soon to come. The IFL is moving around the U.S with different shows and Pro Elite just finished a show over in Hawaii. But unlike those other promotions STRIKEFORCE has relied on being in the hot bed of MMA, Southern California, and relying on word of mouth. STRIKEFORCE has also run the majority of its events in San Jose, California and only two of their seven events have ventured beyond the land of the San Jose Sharks (which the Silicon Valley Sports and Entertainment group, also partners with Coker, operates). The word of mouth advertising paid huge dividends right off the bat as the first sanctioned MMA event in California was courtesy of the good people of StrikeForce: Shamrock vs Gracie ended up breaking the record of the largest North American audience at an MMA event with more than 17,000 spectators. The record has since been broken but it still maintains that record as the highest paid attendance at a sanctioned event.
STRIKEFORCE markets to a very specific audience in Southern California. It uses a bunch of hometown guys including Josh Thomson and San Shou standout Cung Le to bring in the local fans. It also uses area guys like Gilbert Melendez and the infamous Frank Shamrock to help bring in the more casual fan. For as polarizing a figure as Shamrock is, he's beloved in San Jose. So Coker and co. use these talented fighters to headline a lot of events. When you mix in a Thomson, Shamrock, Melendez, or Le with a Daniel Puder, a Bobby Southworth, Nam Phan and even bringing in guys like Paul Daley and Duane "Bang" Ludwig, thanks in part to their alliance with Pro Elite, STRIKEFORCE doesn't disappoint too often.
But does a good show once every few months signify the end all for STRIKEFORCE? Clearly that's not the case otherwise they would not have bothered aligning themselves with Pro Elite and the brain trust at Showtime. To be fair, it's a move they had to make. You can only get by for so long on word of mouth and sticking solely to So. Cal. On top of that, this promotion doesn't have enough talent to put out enough cards with B and C level fighters that fans will retain interest in. So what happens after Gilbert Melendez fights Josh Thomson? What happens after Cung Le fights Frank Shamrock? They don't have that many main event fights that will bring in a crowd. So this "merge" with Pro Elite could definitely help STRIKEFORCE from a talent perspective. It's just a matter of how the deal works when it comes to talent. Thus far it seems like this "merger" was for nothing more than to put both promotions names behind the Shamrock v. Baroni PPV back in June.
The biggest issue behind STRIKEFORCE depends on how the promotion is viewed. Do we have a nice second tier promotion that's satisfied with having a grasp in the Southern Cal hotbed? Or do we have a promotion looking to take a step up and start "playing with the big boys." Lets not mince words here. STRIKEFORCE is a nice promotion but its current business model is going to get stale and that's essentially what's been acknowledged with this move to partner with Pro Elite and EliteXC. Whether or not there's a sharing of talent between the two promotions is secondary when you consider what Pro Elite offers STRIKEFORCE. The opportunity to be broadcast on Showtime. A television deal is essential to the success of any promotion, just ask the IFL. Now this word of mouth promotion all of a sudden has this outlet to be seen by more than just people in San Jose for the events. It all depends on how this "alliance" works with Pro Elite.
This alliance also helps STRIKEFORCE out because the promotion doesn't have to spend any extra money. Pro Elite benefits from having the STRIKEFORCE audience brought in and STRIKEFORCE has a platform. The San Jose promotion clearly isn't working within the same budget the big names in MMA are working under. But more often than not, a big budget has proven to be more of a detriment to MMA promotions than anything else. Just because you have the money it doesn't mean you're spending it properly. If I were to draw an example from the "mainstream" sports look at the Baltimore Orioles payroll in comparison to their success as well as the Mets payroll during the mid to late 1990's.
But possibly my biggest concern with STRIKEFORCE and its potential success comes from this alliance it's formed with Pro Elite and the people at Showtime. For as many benefits as this alliance may have, it could have one potentially huge pitfall. STRIKEFORCE could simply get lost in the fray. STRIKEFORCE, Pro Elite, EliteXC, K-1, BodogFight, Cage Rage, and Spirit XC are all part of this giant attempt to try and compete with MMA's behemoth right now. If we've learned anything from the PRIDE and UFC "negotiations" of years past it's this. When it comes down to really getting the big fights together, people are going to butt heads. Somebody is going to want the glory and at least a few of these promotions will look to come out ahead in this cluster. STRIKEFORCE could very well be left behind or the power struggle will leave every promotion left standing with nothing. Here's to hoping the promotions can break the hold and turn into a strong MMA promotion to compete with Dana White & Co., but history has shown that hasn't always been easy.
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