The calculator is mightier than the sword.
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White is getting another ping from his good buddy Dave Meltzer over at MMA Fighting, only this time he's not deflecting FOX ratings for a recent televised fight card.
Meltzy has graduated to bigger and better things.
Specifically, the UFC 151: "Jones vs. Henderson" pay-per-view (PPV) event, which was supposed to go down last Saturday night (Sept. 1, 2012) at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, until "Hendo" blew out his knee in training camp and had to withdraw.
What you didn't know, perhaps, is the kind of price tag the decision to cancel UFC 151 carried. Not just for the promotion, but for everyone else who thrives on UFC live programming, as well.
A quick breakdown of the $40+ million lost, after the jump.
- $2 million in marketing costs
- $20 million in direct lost revenue for local economy because even though all the fights scheduled have been added to shows between Sept. 22 and early December, none of those events are in Las Vegas.
- $20 million in "irretrievable losses" incurred by the event not taking place
- $2 million and probably closer to $2.5 million live gate
- $7.5 million in losses that won't be made up for both cable and satellite companies throughout North America based on projections for what would have been the revenue from UFC 151 and UFC 152, which will now only be revenue from UFC 152.
See Meltzer's full report here.
The world's largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion now has the opportunity to recoup some of its losses up north with UFC 152: "Jones vs. Belfort," whhich takes place on Sept. 22, 2012 from the Air Canada Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Anyone think they can make sense of these numbers? Or is Meltzer off the deep end?