[Brad.Taschuk]

I was on another site today, and this topic came up in a roundabout way.

I figured it could spark some interesting discussion over here, since it's a pretty interesting idea once you get into it.

So basically, who is it that influences PPV buys or interest in an MMA card the most? Obviously, the name value of fighters/organizaton is a huge aspect of it, but that's more the what than the who.

I'm interested to see what people have to say on this issue.

[Negative2]

The fighters usually get my into it the most. Or some serious title/ranking implications.

[Brad.Taschuk]

I probably misworded my original post, but I meant more as in once a card gets announced, and gets out into the public, who determines whether it does well or not?

[Negative2]

The name of the fighter I'm assuming. Liddell has some of the top PPV buys. Granted, we've never seen his name attached to anything other than UFC but it is safe to say his name sold those PPV's.

UFC 108 having nothing awesome to offer was a prime example of how the company can't do it alone.

Does that suit the criteria better? It's late and if it;s wrong, I'll try again in the monring lol.

[JT42]

I am not exactly sure what you are asking. Do you mean who compiles the numbers to say whether it does well or not? Why dont you give an example to get things going?

As far as selling a card, for me it would be ranking implications and whether I like the fighters on the card or not. For the general public I would say the UFC marketing department has a lot to do with it. Somehow though I dont think that is what you are asking.

[Brad.Taschuk]

I'm asking from a fan/media perspective.

The card gets made, that's all well and good.

Now, after the card is made, what drives the popularity of the card? Is it hardcore fans? Casuals? The MMA media? The mainstream sports media and the extent to which they cover the event?

Personally, I think that the hardcore fans have a lot more of an impact on buys and success of cards than is usually thought. For instance, how many casual fans would each of you say asks you about the upcoming UFC card, who's fighting on it, and if it's any good? For me it's usually between 10 and 20, and normally what I say has a pretty big impact on whether those people view the card in one way or another, or at least whether they get excited about it and pass that enthusiasm on to other casual fans.

At the same time, I'm sure most casuals don't get their MMA info from a specific person, but they have to find out about the card and be drawn into it somehow. Do you think that most of it plays out like with my casual friends, or they stumble across an article on ESPN, or they see a SpikeTV ad (re: the UFC heavily promotes an event), etc?

I'm interested to see what external factors (I would consider the card itself to be an internal factors), you guys feel have an effect on how watched a card is.

[RileyTP17]

I would say the media probably has the most effect on buys from that criteria then. Really, I doubt there are many casual fans that scour the interent for news like we do. For the most part they probably see an ad on Spike like you said or see something on an mma show on espn, hd net, sportsnet etc.

Personally, it is the fighters on the card and their matchups that do it for me. Doesn't have to be a title fight or implications, just fun matchmaking with fighters I enjoy watching.

[Thaispider]

i would say the mma media and the promotions marketing team , because if they push and get the word about enough through advertising people are bound to help the event do big numbers look at every ufc event that has done big PPV buys and its had a very strong marketing campaign and high media attention through most MMA sites.

[MJB23]

The media, both mainstream and MMA media, influence the card the most. Someone seeing an ad on Spike has the most impact on the card because that's where they are most likely to hear about it.

[mls]

The absolute most?

National media by far and not tv ads and such but coverage on major networks like ESPN. But in turn for ESPN to cover an event the fighters have to be very well known so it's kind of shared.