September 25, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: UFC reenters the PPV market, more

For the re-launch of UFC on PPV, it went from perhaps the perfect time to reintroduce the sport to the mainstream audience, to the worst period possible.

By selling out the 9,700-seat sports arena at the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas weeks in advance, UFC became the first new sports entertainment model in the U.S. to show a real sign of potential success. According to Dana White, President of Zuffa, the parent company of UFC, the PPV universe in the United States increases with this show from seven million to 42 million for the 9/28 event. He estimated 100,000 buys as break-even and that figure was the goal for the current show last week. Expectations have now been lowered based on the news and added weekend boxing competition on PPV. To get that number, the show would have to do an 0.24 buy rate. The last show did an estimated 0.21 buy rate on DirecTV, showing that certainly the idea of eventually reaching that goal with so much added promotion nationally for this event wasn’t out of the question.

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