Official Conor McGregor Thread (READ MOD WARNING IN OP)

bur

Never any chance this would go ahead in Ireland. The UFC just aren't willing to take a hit on the PPV buys. When was the last time belts were fought for in europe? Only Rampage/Hendo comes to mind and that was a long time ago.
It's a shame and a missed opportunity for the UFC, I think big events like this help grow the brand/sport massively.

ASOT

bur wrote: »

Never any chance this would go ahead in Ireland. The UFC just aren't willing to take a hit on the PPV buys. When was the last time belts were fought for in europe? Only Rampage/Hendo comes to mind and that was a long time ago.
It's a shame and a missed opportunity for the UFC, I think big events like this help grow the brand/sport massively.

I'd be fairly confident they would take the hit on the ppv buys if they felt they could sell out Croker or The Aviva which are both possible especially The Aviva. The gate alone would cover it. I don't think they would lose that many buys either if they stacked the card maybe another title fight. It's not beyond the realms of possibly like you make it sound, but since Dana said Croker or Vegas my money would be on Vegas if I had to bet on it!

Oregano_State

If they managed to get a midnight main event on a Saturday night in Ireland. That's 4pm Pacific time, meaning a 2pm-4pm main card roughly. Surely that's not too bad if the line up is attractive enough?

I've just had a look at the PPV figures for UFC over the past 6 events and the average buy is just under 310k. This goes back as far as UFC 177 Dillashaw-Soto, which was an unusually low take, and includes an estimate of 780k buys for UFC 182, which is pretty high compared to recent events.

The PPV price is 50 dollars for standard definition, and 60 for HD, so I'll take 55 dollars as the price per buy. This gives an average PPV take of 17 million dollars.

Selling out Croke Park with 80k fans with a 150 euro (175 USD atm) average ticket price gives a 14 million USD gate, so this I'm sure would compensate for a possible lack of PPV buys over yonder in the states. BTW the avg ticket price is the biggest estimate I've made, I don't know what the average price is, looking at UFC 183, the prices range from 140 dollars to over a grand, so maybe I'm underestimating here.

Anyway, the numbers seem to add up for me. A sell out Croker is roughly equal to 250k PPV buys, which would appear to me to be a worthwhile risk that the retained PPV buys and potential for increasing worldwide appeal outweighs possible losses due to time zone.

Others thoughts are welcome. Do point out any glaring errors in my sums, I hope there aren't any.

Edit: On the Aviva's potential, 60k*175 USD = 10.5 million gate, so still a significant percentage of the average PPV take.

Ash.J.Williams

i doubt anywhere of worth could put on a show after 11pm in Dublin. That aside, Dana uses the UFC success in Ireland as a promotional tool for the US. If it does go ahead the spectacle of succeeding may outweigh the risk of losing ppv....The hype will be huge.

Yurt

Would more Europeans be tempted to buy a PPV at this time in comparison to events that would start at 4 AM in the US?
Lets say the card was stacked with top European fighters and possibly another title fight?

Lets say selling out Croke Park is equal to 250k PPV buys and there was another 300 from the US and another 300 from Europe?
Do you think this would be possible?

T-K-O

PPV's in Europe.... for Europeans???

Down with that sort of thing

xtal191

Oregano_State wrote: »

If they managed to get a midnight main event on a Saturday night in Ireland. That's 4pm Pacific time, meaning a 2pm-4pm main card roughly. Surely that's not too bad if the line up is attractive enough?

I've just had a look at the PPV figures for UFC over the past 6 events and the average buy is just under 310k. This goes back as far as UFC 177 Dillashaw-Soto, which was an unusually low take, and includes an estimate of 780k buys for UFC 182, which is pretty high compared to recent events.

The PPV price is 50 dollars for standard definition, and 60 for HD, so I'll take 55 dollars as the price per buy. This gives an average PPV take of 17 million dollars.

Selling out Croke Park with 80k fans with a 150 euro (175 USD atm) average ticket price gives a 14 million USD gate, so this I'm sure would compensate for a possible lack of PPV buys over yonder in the states. BTW the avg ticket price is the biggest estimate I've made, I don't know what the average price is, looking at UFC 183, the prices range from 140 dollars to over a grand, so maybe I'm underestimating here.

Anyway, the numbers seem to add up for me. A sell out Croker is roughly equal to 250k PPV buys, which would appear to me to be a worthwhile risk that the retained PPV buys and potential for increasing worldwide appeal outweighs possible losses due to time zone.

Others thoughts are welcome. Do point out any glaring errors in my sums, I hope there aren't any.

Edit: On the Aviva's potential, 60k*175 USD = 10.5 million gate, so still a significant percentage of the average PPV take.

This fight card could easily match Jones vs Cormier numbers if not exceed it IMO. And you never added how much they'd make from selling out the MGM.

Half a million PPV buys at $60 a pop comes in at $30m and thats not even including what they get from selling out the MGM and I'm guessing costs would be much lower to have it in Vegas.

Fromvert

xtal191 wrote: »

This fight card could easily match Jones vs Cormier numbers if not exceed it IMO. And you never added how much they'd make from selling out the MGM.

Half a million PPV buys at $60 a pop comes in at $30m and thats not even including what they get from selling out the MGM and I'm guessing costs would be much lower to have it in Vegas.

No chance of that. Lighter guys don't sell that well.

It'll be held in Vegas and if Aldo/McGregor did 500k PPV buys it would be seen as a huge success.

Yurt

Even today McGregor was on the radio saying he's still saying he thinks it will be in Croker.
He's been good with his predictions so far so fingers crossed

Fromvert

I was always skeptical of them going ahead with Croker or the Aviva and will be shocked if they do. The UFC like to talk about having huge outdoor shows, they've talked about Cowboys stadium a few years ago and even Hawaii when BJ was in his pomp buy they never go through with it once it comes to the crunch.
The fact Dana threw out 'or Vegas' recently screams it's going to be in Vegas.

xtal191

Fromvert wrote: »

No chance of that. Lighter guys don't sell that well.

It'll be held in Vegas and if Aldo/McGregor did 500k PPV buys it would be seen as a huge success.

Depending on what other fights are on the card of course it could. The Johnson card that McGregor/Poirier was on did over 200,00 ppvs.

Fromvert

xtal191 wrote: »

Depending on what other fights are on the card of course it could. The Johnson card that McGregor/Poirier was on did over 200,00 ppvs.

That was a really good card. What makes you think Aldo/McGregor could do 4 times that?

chopperbyrne

They could put it on Fox again, then you don't need to worry about PPVs and Fox could show it live and on delay if they wanted.

xtal191

Fromvert wrote: »

That was a really good card. What makes you think Aldo/McGregor could do 4 times that?

Aldo vs McGregor is a huge fight, look at how much they're hyping him up over in America, its crazy and the build up for the fight would be nuts. People will tune in to see him win or to see him lose.

If that fight headlines a stacked card I reckon it could do big numbers. Throw CM Punks debut fight on it to help get the numbers up.

xtal191

chopperbyrne wrote: »

They could put it on Fox again, then you don't need to worry about PPVs and Fox could show it live and on delay if they wanted.

And what lose out on millions?

Fromvert

xtal191 wrote: »

Aldo vs McGregor is a huge fight, look at how much they're hyping him up over in America, its crazy and the build up for the fight would be nuts. People will tune in to see him win or to see him lose.

If that fight headlines a stacked card I reckon it could do big numbers. Throw CM Punks debut fight on it to help get the numbers up.

Aldo isn't a big draw, never has been and never will be and we're yet to see how big of a draw Conor is. There's nothing to suggest smaller guys will pull in big number especially the likes of Jones/Cormier, the biggest UFC PPV they have had in over a year. Silva/Weidman 2 and Ronda/Tate 2, two huge fights, where on that card btw.
The PPV business has been slowing down for the UFC.

There's only so much stacking of cards they can do with the 50 or so cards they put on.

Throwing in CM Punk is a total different animal tbh.

If it's just your normal card with a couple of good fights/names and Aldo/McGregor headlining I'd say 500k is around the max you're looking at.

chopperbyrne

xtal191 wrote: »

And what lose out on millions?

The gate will be far more than they normally get and if Conor were to win the title, then his next fight would be in Vegas on PPV and he'd be a bigger draw than he is now.

xtal191

chopperbyrne wrote: »

The gate will be far more than they normally get and if Conor were to win the title, then his next fight would be in Vegas on PPV and he'd be a bigger draw than he is now.

And what if he loses? And its not going to be far more when you combine money from ppvs and selling out the mgm.

Mellor

Oregano_State wrote: »

If they managed to get a midnight main event on a Saturday night in Ireland. That's 4pm Pacific time, meaning a 2pm-4pm main card roughly. Surely that's not too bad if the line up is attractive enough?

I've just had a look at the PPV figures for UFC over the past 6 events and the average buy is just under 310k. This goes back as far as UFC 177 Dillashaw-Soto, which was an unusually low take, and includes an estimate of 780k buys for UFC 182, which is pretty high compared to recent events.

The PPV price is 50 dollars for standard definition, and 60 for HD, so I'll take 55 dollars as the price per buy. This gives an average PPV take of 17 million dollars.

Selling out Croke Park with 80k fans with a 150 euro (175 USD atm) average ticket price gives a 14 million USD gate, so this I'm sure would compensate for a possible lack of PPV buys over yonder in the states. BTW the avg ticket price is the biggest estimate I've made, I don't know what the average price is, looking at UFC 183, the prices range from 140 dollars to over a grand, so maybe I'm underestimating here.

Anyway, the numbers seem to add up for me. A sell out Croker is roughly equal to 250k PPV buys, which would appear to me to be a worthwhile risk that the retained PPV buys and potential for increasing worldwide appeal outweighs possible losses due to time zone.

Others thoughts are welcome. Do point out any glaring errors in my sums, I hope there aren't any.

Edit: On the Aviva's potential, 60k*175 USD = 10.5 million gate, so still a significant percentage of the average PPV take.

I think your estimates for average ticket price is off. You can't compare to the average for a 10k event in vegas, the prices are skewed. I think the average for Dublin last year was $145. With a massive stadium, there's relatively more $50 upper tier spots, this reduces the average. So for this it would be $125 or so. I don't think they could bank on selling it out with higher prices.

So that's a 7.5 million gate for Aviva. 10 million for Croker.
Also you didn't allow for the gate value if it was in America. A 10k Vegas event does a $3 million gate.

Which means an Irish stadium gate is "worth" an extra $4.5-7m, which is only 82k-128k PPV buys. Thats nothing really. I don't think it's enough to cover the loss if the was a daytime PPV in the states.

Ash.J.Williams

siver could well be conors most psychologically prepared opponent in ufc. He is in a great position.

EuskalHerria

Ricardo Lamas made a 7 minute video imitating Conor.
If you watch a beheading video involving a family member, this will still be the worst thing you've ever seen.

http://severemma.com/2015/01/video-ricardo-lamas-imitating-mcgregor-the-delirious-conrad-mcgillicutty/

Ian Whelan

EuskalHerria wrote: »

Ricardo Lamas made a 7 minute video imitating Conor.
I'm not being flippant, but if you watch a beheading video involving a family member, this will still be the worst thing you've ever seen.

http://severemma.com/2015/01/video-ricardo-lamas-imitating-mcgregor-the-delirious-conrad-mcgillicutty/

I actually thought it was hilarious.

pablohoney87

EuskalHerria wrote: »

Ricardo Lamas made a 7 minute video imitating Conor.
If you watch a beheading video involving a family member, this will still be the worst thing you've ever seen.

http://severemma.com/2015/01/video-ricardo-lamas-imitating-mcgregor-the-delirious-conrad-mcgillicutty/

Another american doing an absolutely terrible Irish impression.

BeepBeep!

EuskalHerria wrote: »

Ricardo Lamas made a 7 minute video imitating Conor.
If you watch a beheading video involving a family member, this will still be the worst thing you've ever seen.

http://severemma.com/2015/01/video-ricardo-lamas-imitating-mcgregor-the-delirious-conrad-mcgillicutty/

Jaysus, thats embarassing!

MartyMcFly84

Another american doing an absolutely terrible Irish impression.

In fairness most Irish people are terrible at doing American impressions even though we have much more exposure to the various US accents.

Better to laugh at it that let it annoy you.

canonball5

Not to be over the top about this, but would it be acceptable to make a video mocking Mexicans, or African Americans?

I understand that he's trying to be funny but this comes across a bit ignorant and a tad racist.

Zyzz

This is the only acceptable parody..

markcahill1985

Watched the first few embedded last night; jeez his missus has a great life; following him around to all events! How bad... Siver always looks dangerous; hope Conors movement will be too much for him! Looking forward to SUnday now

EuskalHerria

canonball5 wrote: »

racist.

Irish is a nationality, not a race. Anyway I have a thousand problems with it before that.

nocoverart

Zyzz wrote: »

This is the only acceptable parody..

Thought that was sh1t TBH, sounds more like an NYC or Boston accent rather than Dublin.