Nobody said it would be easy, particularly when the IFL is trying to brand and market its event in a unique way. And if the first event is any indication of future success, then the fledgling mixed martial arts company could very well be on life support sooner rather than later, unless the ownership is dedicated to a long-term growth plan.
On Saturday night, the IFL held its inaugural event, featuring a slew of talented, though relatively unknown fighters, separated onto artificial teams for a night of MMA action. Unlike a UFC event, where a fighter only need worry about his match and let his management figure out who is next on his hit list, the IFL’s team concept matched individuals competing in one-on-one affairs that credited points toward their team. The team score was important because it determined the team matchups for the June 3 event. In other words, the two winning teams would have their respective weight class representatives square off in the next event, as would the two less fortunate squads.
It was a unique approach to a MMA event, one that seemed like a hard nut to swallow. After the first event, we can say that, at least initially, the concept did not draw public interest.
While IFL brass claims that it 3,000 people filled the stands, there was nowhere near that number in the Trump Taj Mahal on Saturday evening. Moreover, sources inside the New Jersey Athletic Commission, which gets paid based on attendance, said that those actually paying for their tickets were in the neighborhood of 500.
Let’s face it: The IFL is going to suffer the same problem the UFC did when it was trying to market the sport rather than individual fights. Think back to UFC 41 & 42 and the dismal PPV numbers off the back of Ortiz-Shamrock. Why? No major headliners.
The team concept thing is a tough sell in individual sports. And marketing the coaches as the draws is an even tougher sell. If Kobe left the Lakers, but Phil Jackson remained the coach, attendance would drop through the floor. Why? Jackson doesn't play. Fans don't come to see him. They come to see the superstars. The coaches are mere subplots once the action starts.
And the corny team names certainly don’t help. “Team Renzo Gracie” or the “Bas Rutten Fight Team” is more marketable than “The Anacondas” or “The Silverbacks.” At least, the coach-based name actually relates to the sport. The animal-kingdom names just don’t work.
Also, the lack of big-name stars hurts. While the hardcore fans appreciate guys like Mike Pyle, Matt Horwich, Jens Pulver, the fact remains that those individuals have lower name recognition than a guy like Kenny Florian, a lower-ranked fighter compared to the aformentioned IFL fighters, but certainly a more recognizable name among the masses. In fact, Alex Schoenauer was easily the most recognized name on the card simply based on his long run on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter," and he isn't a guy who can carry an event at this point in his career.
Does any of that mean that the IFL is destined for failure? Of course not.
Millionaire founders Gareb Shamus, known for his impressive success in the world of comic books, and Kurt Otto must be dedicated to a long-term plan if this thing is going to work as presently packaged. It will take time, television exposure and a very real marketing plan to build guys like Pyle, Eric Owens, Ben Rothwell, and others into stars.
Just showing fighters compete on television isn’t enough to build stars in the short term. If the IFL believes that a series of broadcasts on Fox Sports Network showing a fight event broken up over the course of two-to-four television dates, the promotion is sadly mistaken.
What? That’s blasphemy! Dana White and the team of Zuffa rottweilers certainly put me up to that, right? No.
We know that mere television exposure of an athlete every few months does not build star power like a stint on Spike TV’s TUF. For example, Olympic gold medalist Andre Ward is now nine fights into his professional boxing career. The kid is undefeated and one of only three Americans to win Olympic boxing gold since 1992. Yet, he couldn’t sell an Eskimo a ticket to the beach, unless said Eskimo lived in Ward’s hometown of Oakland, California. Why? Nobody knows him. He doesn’t have any national brand/name recognition. And the occasional fight on ESPN2 or HBO just doesn’t suffice, even if he is winning impressively.
Want more examples? No problem.
What about Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell prior to their stint on TUF1? While both certainly have tremendous drawing power now, neither was able to support a pay-per-view event or sell out an arena prior to their repeated, 12-week fan bombardment on Spike TV. Remember UFC 43 featuring Liddell versus Couture? How does less than 50,000 buys sound? Place them on Spike TV for a season and the number increases five-to-six fold.
Okay, the IFL doesn't have a reality show, but repeated exposure of already-completed on Fox Sports Network should suffice, right? No, not by itself.
One can look to boxing for guidance on that subject. ESPN2 has weekly fights. HBO and Showtime have multiple fights per month. Still, elite world champion boxers like Rafael Marquez or even Ronald “Winky” Wright, who’ve fought numerous times on cable television in front of larger audiences than will watch the IFL, still can’t sell out arenas based on just their name alone. The same can be said for ESPN2 regular Emmanuel Burton and untold other fighters who weren’t built up by savvy promoters.
That is why why Roy Jones Jr., arguably the greatest fighter of the past 30 years, struggled to sell out major venues and was only a modest PPV draw until he faced John Ruiz for the heavyweight title – a unique situation featuring a former middleweight champion winning for a piece of the heavyweight title for the first time in more than 100 years. Why? He didn't have a legitimate promoter, so he was never built into a true star.
We can go on and on with more examples in both sports. But the fact remains that there is much, much more required to build a star than simply putting a guy on television and letting him fight. Instead, it takes a marketing plan geared toward making a personal connection between fan and fighter, which is why the UFC reality show was so immensely effective.
A positive example of the "fan connection" theory is the recent Strikeforce event. In the first sanctioned MMA event in California history, Strikeforce’s inaugural event broke attendance records. Why? Well, the newness of the sport certainly helped. The Bay Area being a hotbed for MMA, far, far beyond anywhere on the East Coast, helped, as well. But the icing on the cake was the fight card, which featured huge local names like Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, Josh Thomson, and others. Even lesser known guys like the skilled Gilbert Melendez and former WWE guy Daniel Puder drove ticket sales because their friends and friends of friends who lived in the area attended the event.
In other words, the Bay Area fight community had very real connections to the fight card, and it prospered wildly as a result.
When the IFL announced an Atlantic City event with no A-list stars and no big-time local fighters, it was certain that it would struggle to fill the arena. And that is precisely what happened.
Again, struggling out of the gate is in no way a valid indicator of how the IFL will perform down the road. Shamus and Otto didn't find success in the business world by being mindless idiots uncommitted to making a business work.
Like any new business venture, it takes time to build a brand and generate significant revenue. Sure, there are short cuts to everything. But the IFL is trying something unique and new, so this thing is a true marathon, not a sprint, just like any entrepreneurial venture. And if the IFL brass is in this for the long haul rather than just in the game to flip a quick buck, then their chances for long-term, sustained success increases dramatically, because they will have time to build brand awareness and create stars, though just how they plan to do that remains to be seen.
Who knows, maybe if the IFL brings in a true fight guy, someone who knows how to build stars out of everyday fighters, then maybe the team concept will catch on, and maybe it will become a viable alternative to the UFC. It’s a long shot, but certainly possible down the road.
In the interim, however, it will operate like the Pawtucket Red Sox in the shadows of the Boston Red Sox. Yes, that is a baseball analogy. Pawtucket is the AAA (minor league) affiliate of the BoSox. In other words, it will play a clear second fiddle to the UFC, the domestic “big league” of MMA.
Source: Inside Fighting
)
