Dana White critiqued Affliction's business model following Ultimate Fight Night 14, stating that Affliction was going to lose too much money to stay in the fight business with their most recent PPV. Well, now we know how much they are paying their fighters, and Dana might have a point. Affliction handed an $800,000 cheque to Tim Sylvia and a $750,000 cheque to Andrei Arlovski for their fights, $250,000 of Arlovski's money being a win bonus. Headliner Fedor Emelianenko made $300,000 for his quick demolition of Sylvia but is expected to earn millions for his participation in the event once the dust settles. Here are some of the other salaries, including win bonuses: Ben Rothwell ($250,000) Matt Lindland ($300,000) Josh Barnett ($300,000) Vitor Belfort ($140,000) Babalu Sobral ($90,000) Paul Buentello ($80,000) Pedro Rizzo ($70,000) Little Nog ($50,000) Mike Whitehead ($50,000) In total, Affliction has already paid-out $3.3-million for their talent for one show. The UFC rarely tops $1-million in direct salary for their PPV's, though stars such as Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell usually make $1-million or more after their PPV shares are added into the mix.
Just to put it in perspective, UFC 82: Champion vs. Champion, had some big names on the card: Dan Henderson, Anderson Silva, Jon Fitch, Heath Herring, Cheick Kongo, Yushin Okami, Evan Tanner, Andrei Arlovski, Diego Sanchez, Josh Koscheck, and Chris Leben, among others. The total payout for that event was $932,000. Arlovski earned $170,000 for beating Jake O'Brien. Silva earned $70,000 to fight and an additional $70,000 for winning. Herring doubled-up by winning and took home $140,000 as well. Henderson earned $100,000. etc. Affliction could've financed this entire card with what they paid Tim Sylvia and Vitor Belfort.
I wonder how much money Affliction made on the event. Most likely they won't be able to run many events that cost them 3.3 mill in salaries.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Lavalamp @ Jul 21 2008, 08:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I wonder how much money Affliction made on the event. Most likely they won't be able to run many events that cost them 3.3 mill in salaries.</div> Just in terms of gross, they will make less than $2-million from PPV buys (50k or less), less than $2-million gross on the live gate, and who knows how much on T-shirts and other merchandise. The arena probably pockets concessions or gives a nominal percentage. Also, they had to pay Megadeth to come play as well. There is no way Affliction comes out in the black on this show. Early estimates had them losing about $4-million in one night.
I can understand them paying that much to establish themselves in the fight game. But they really dont have the depth to have other lower cost events that will make them money. Also, the UFC can probably afford to put on shows the same night as any Affliction event until they go out of business and the UFC will probably only lose a bit of money in the short run.
Here's their gate receipts.. note the comparison to how the UFC has done at the Honda Centre. It appears that they did alright. I am curious to see if someone (Dave Meltzer) can get ahold of the PPV Buys. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>"Affliction: Banned" draws 14,832 for $2.1 million gate This past Saturday's "Affliction: Banned" event drew a total attendance of 14,832 -- a small increase from the night's announced attendance of 13,988 -- for a live gate of $2,085,510. The numbers, certified by the California State Athletic Commission, were today sent to media members, including MMAjunkie.com The debut event for Affliction Entertainment took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif. Part of the card aired on FSN before switching to pay per view. Of the 14,832 total tickets, 11,242 were sold, and 3,590 were complimentary and given away. Although initially announced as a sold-out event, the CSAC reports that 15,572 tickets were available, and 740 went unsold/unused. The majority of those "deadwood" tickets were from the $200 (352 tickets) and $100 (248)sections. Among the event's 3,590 complimentary tickets, most were for the cheapear seating areas, including the $150 (1,079), $100 (822) and $50 (652) sections. Ticket prices ranged from $45 to $1,000. So how do Affliction's total attendance (14,832), paid attendance (11,242) and live gate ($2,085,510) figures stack up to the competition? Here are how three recent UFC events at the Honda Center fared: * UFC 76: 13,770 tickets (11,817 paid) for a $1,985,000 gate * UFC 63: 12,604 tickets (9,343 paid) for a $1,582,370 gate * UFC 59: 13,814 tickets (13,060 paid) for a $2,191,450 gate</div>
Kevin Iole is reporting that $500k of the tickets sold were to Affliction. Chop that slice of profit out of the picture.
Also Tom whatshisname the VP of affliction is saying they most certainly did over 100K in PPV buys. at $40 a pop, that's 4 mill. Normally 1/2 that goes to the PPV provider so that's $2mil in sales if he's not overinflating the numbers. If so they are not going to lose their shirts (Pun intended) with this card. He also said they purposely overloaded the salaries on this card to draw attention. but good golly, 750K for AA and 800K for Timmy?? I'm sure they could have gotten away with 300-400K for each fighter and they would have left the UFC...
for solid PPV #'s wait for Dave Meltzer, he's usually got a good source. and yeah it's good and it's bad that they've done well. competition will cause the UFC to step up, but diluted talent leaves us wondering who's the bets in certian weight classes etc. like I wonder how Jake Shields would do in the UFC. Is he another Jeremey Horn who is a big fish in a small pond? Or is he really good but fighting in a smaller talent pool in a smaller org like Anderson Silva and his stint with Cage Rage?
More trickery from Affliction. They're starting to sound like a Japanese promotion. Supposedly the day of the show they made every available ticket $40 to fill out the crowd. Sorry to the people who paid $100+ for theirs I guess.
hey at least they paying fighters not like the UFC MMA fighters sacrfice a lot and the UFC is too cheap. ex 500,000 for Chuck Liddell 14, 000 for Keith Jardine thats a slap in the face to Jardine
Didn't Jardine only make 10,000 for his fight against Wanderlei because he chose to wear his own clothing brand?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BJJ Team @ Jul 28 2008, 09:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>hey at least they paying fighters not like the UFC MMA fighters sacrfice a lot and the UFC is too cheap. ex 500,000 for Chuck Liddell 14, 000 for Keith Jardine thats a slap in the face to Jardine</div> Affliction doesn`t pay the smaller guys that can`t demand more money just like the UFC does. Ray Lizama: $3,000 JJ Ambrose: $5,000 Justin Levens: $6000 Mark Hominick: $10,000 (includes $5,000 win bonus) def. Savant Young: $7,000 Edwin Dewees: $15,000
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (BJJ Team @ Jul 28 2008, 06:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>hey at least they paying fighters not like the UFC MMA fighters sacrfice a lot and the UFC is too cheap. ex 500,000 for Chuck Liddell 14, 000 for Keith Jardine thats a slap in the face to Jardine</div> Fighters make most of their money through marketing and right now the UFC is where its at if you want cash in on the fame. With the new UFC deal with THQ for video games and the toy deal with JAKKS or whatever the fighters are gonna be seeing a lot of money for not doing anything.
