Thoughts on Fedor vs Sylvia

The Payroll
With the proposed names they are looking at for this card.... they are gonna take a financial bath on this thing. We're talking WFA proportions here. I'm assuming Fedor is getting north of a million bucks, but maybe not the 2 mil he is asking around for. Sylvia is probably making 150k to 250k.....talk of arlovski, rothwell, lindland, barnett.....all those guys would want six figures.....


Event Production
Mark Cuban will be hosting the event in Dallas at American Airlines Arena, which he owns. I imagine this would cut out one cost, location rental. Having Cuban running the show will also make it easier to market the fight. Cuban has a pre-exisitng customer base for the Mavericks that he can market the fight to. He also has relationships with Local Dallas- Ft Worth metro area and Greater Texas media that will make it much easier and cheaper to market the fight and ensure a decent gate for the card.

Since Cuban is hosting the fight he might also be the one handling the event production, which could get interesting. In the past Cuban has been in discussion with the folks at WWE, with WWE insider Jim Ross that there had been some talk of a sharing of resources between a Cuban HDNEt's production and WWE. Cuban seems to be enamored of the big event style of WWE events and also of the Yarennoka and Pride shows, with the big video boards, introduction pieces, in arena fireworks, etc. I could see the WWE being hired on to do the in house event management.

PPV

If they decide to go with PPV then there are three options as i see it. do the product in house with his hdnet staff, hire out some one like the WWE to handle the television end of live event, or go with with an HBO that will the full service deal but also take a portion of profits.

HBO: HBO would be a viable option if they are willing to fully embrace the MMA concept and make a commitment to the sport. This would entail building a 24/7 concept around the event that would resemble the super successful Mayweather-De La Hoya build up. The odds of this happening seem to bee small since Golden Boy Productions bowed out of a possible promotional alliance with the Affliction crew.

WWE: It wouldn't be too far-fetched to have them handle the PPV production if they decide to put this card PPV. WWE have been doing live event production for PPV since the dawn of the industry and would ensure a smoothly run show. Cut the WWE in on the profits and you could have them market the PPV to their database of past PPV purchasers and have them hype it on their weekly programs.


HDNets: Cuban could decide to use his in-house production facitlties to put on the PPV. His crew have put on excellent show in the past with their HDNets fights and IFL shows and would be able to do a serviceable job of producing the show. Unlike the two other options mentioned, this option would tend to limit a bit of the marketing angles you could use for the PPV.