Has Dana White Crossed the Line...Again?

True MMA fans know Dana White the President of the UFC. He is the only man alive that can get good fighters, keep producing excellent shows and tell the world what he thinks with four letter words.

He should actually be in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most consecutive f-words ever. Good or Bad as that may be, Dana White has again crossed the line.

No, he did not lash out at another journalist with his award winning comebacks and cut downs. He did something that he has been doing for years and just raised the stakes even higher.

Let us pause for a moment and think about this. He is a scary individual to engage with if you think about it for a minute. 

I am always scared to write about him because I do not want him calling me out and saying, “That no name, ear sticking out, no tan white boy doesn’t know squat.” On the other hand he may say, “That Bemis guy couldn’t write a descent article about being a monkey and he is one.” 

It actually keeps me up at night just thinking about all the good material he could use on me. I have a life of mistakes that he could hit a grand slam about, but really, who could not. Heck, whom am I trying to kid, my daughter could call me out and make me look bad on actions alone.

Just to get a little prepared I have started taking 10 minutes a day to perfect my trash talking skills. The problem is its not working very well because all my material comes from my eight-year-old daughter. 

I do not think telling Dana White something my eight year old said would faze him to much. Bottom line is he would kick my arse in the battle of cut downs. Therefore, Dana if you read this, be gentle.

So, back to how Dana White has crossed the line. Most people will think this is nothing, but actually, this is huge in my book. The line I am speaking of is an imaginary goal line.  He has kicked another field goal, made another touch down and crossed the finish line once again. 

This guy amazes me as to how he accomplishes so much for the sport of MMA. I am beginning to wonder if he has cloned himself and all these clones (not clowns) are working in every state on his behalf. I think that is why he shaved his head years ago.

He had clones and it was easier and cheaper to clone a bald guy. All I can say is he has an awesome support staff that knows how to take direction and move with it.

Enough with the long intro to get to the point I am trying to make. Dana White announced that Kimbo Slice would be in the The Ultimate Fighter. I know it is old news, a couple of days have passed and the excitement has worn off. But wait a minute and let me explain why this is important. 

MMA as a sport has grown in popularity every year for many years. Some indicators show it doubles, triples and quadruples every year. The normal ways it is measured is by the amount of people that tune into pay-per-view events, watch Spike TV, subscribe to HDNet, Nielson Ratings and the volume of fight relative apparel that has sold. 

Bringing Kimbo Slice to the table is a HUGE draw to the MMA world. That being said, I am predicting that when Kimbo is aired on Spike TV, that the viewing numbers will double that night.  If he wins his bout, Spike TV’s numbers will probably go up 20 to 50 percent every week. 

If he continues to win, the numbers could really get big. Like it or not Kimbo brings numbers with him.  He brings a completely new audience as well. I do not want to debate here if Kimbo is an MMA fighter or not. Well, maybe a little.

He got a license, so he is an MMA fighter bottom line. Whether he is a top level or will be a top-level fighter is another story. I believe he can do well in the sport if he trains. Can he become relevant and become a legend is really up to him.

Why is this single event so important? It’s simple.  The bigger the sport gets, the more programming we get.  Do we get fights on every single network once a week? Of course, we do not. The best thing about mixed marital arts as a sport is that it’s year around. There is no break during the seasons.

It is a sport that can be made available anywhere, any arena and any time of the year. This is a fans dream. Moreover, even if your favorite fighter loses a fight there is another fighter on the next card that you do not mind watching.

Bottom line is the more we support all of our MMA promoters and sponsors the more fights we will get to see FOR FREE.

Think of it this way.  Have you noticed that we are getting more free fight nights than we did say five years ago.  Why is that?  Well, MMA has become more main stream and advertisers are basically paying for us to watch them.  I could actually see in the future the UFC not needing to do pay-per-views anymore.

Are you reading this?  I believe there is a business model, if developed properly, where we could see the day when no one would need to do pay per views any more. The secret is to build the fan base and get the right sponsors.  

Already this takes place in football, baseball, basketball, NASCAR and other sports so why not for the MMA community. Do you see them doing PPV’s for any of these sports? Heck no! They have major companies sponsoring them and they have revenue from products, seating and other sources. They even got their own channels now.

This brings me to this. I can actually see the UFC working out a deal where they have there own TV program 24 hours a day. Do you see where I am going with this? It would be an upgraded service that you order just like Showtime or HBO.

Let’s guess at numbers here and see if it works well on paper.  Oh, and I am just typing here and have not written this down and figured this out on paper so hopefully this works out and looks good.  If not you will never see this paragraph.

Let’s assume an average PPV is one million buys. One million PPV buys equals say $45 million dollars.  If they are able to do 12 fight events per year that would be an estimated $540 million gross. I have heard that half of the PPV fee goes to the company producing the show so that drops those buys to $270 million. 

Again this is gross with no expenses.

Now say you have 5 million paying MONTHLY customers at $4.95 per month. I personally think this is low but again I am doing this off the top of my head.  That’s 300 million a year. 

But that’s not all.  I have read that there were more than 8.7 million subscribers paying around $8.95 per month to see HDNet just on Time Warner Cable alone. If you are not aware Time Warner axed HDNet this week.  See my other post on this.

So taking those numbers of 8.7 million subscribers paying $8.95 per month and what do you get? Well you get a cash cow. That is $934 million a year and this does not include sponsors.

Even if the numbers are cut to half it’s still more than the current revenue. Take it a step further and cut it to a third and you still make more. See where I am going with this

So imagine in the near future being able to see fights 24 hours a day seven days a week. Keep in mind they are not going to be live events of course, but Spike shows reruns just like Jerry Seinfeld and they are getting ratings.

Remember, the UFC owns the rights to past MMA companies. Most notably, when they acquired Pride, they were able to get rights to all their archived tapes. They have all their tape archives as well as the ability to show non-stop programming for a full year without having to duplicate an episode probably.

Therefore, here is where we stand today people. We are in the middle of possibly one of the greatest changes in MMA history.  Dana White alludes to some news coming possibly this week. If it’s not this what will it be and if it’s not this when will this happen?

Support your providers.  Watch Spike TV.  Buy the sponsors products.  Email the sponsors and tell them you appreciate your support of the MMA world.  Support HDNet.

Let’s get the word out and we all benefit in the end.  If we just sit around thinking everyone else will do it then we will always have to pay $50 PPV fees and try to find videos on-line showing fights that took place.

Dana White has crossed the line and I can’t wait to see what he does next.  Maybe he will create a new Children’s book in his future or write a book on the four-letter words he uses so much. Either way, it appears that what every Dana White does, he does it well and seems to win.