You can't make it on your own

As news trickles out about the Affliction and HDNet collaboration being on the outs, it continues to boggle the mind that each of these players in the Non-UFC MMA world still think they can do it own their own. EliteXC, The Affliction Group, and HDNet Fights seem to lack the awareness of the huge mountain they have to climb in order to be a viable competitor to the UFC.

Each group has their own unique strengths but is lacking in the ability to monetize those strengths. Take EliteXC for example. They have corporate backing and a slot on prime time tv but little in the means of monetizing that prime real estate. They are puttin on a show in prime time, that will generate main stream viewership that leads to no $$$ in the end.

Affliction has a nice stable of guys and is seemingly going to put their show on PPV but they lack the ability get mainstream exposure to hype the show, which will end up dooming the show to failure and be lucky to get 50k PPV buys. That kind of buy rate will mean Affliction will get WFA'd, dead in the water after one card...buried by a monster pay roll.

HDNet's has the facilities and the Hype man to sell the Fight(Cuban) but their TV channel lacks the coverage to be an effective promotional tool.

These guys need to pool their resources to try and mount a run at the UFC that would resemble anything successful. Instead of having two unrelated cards a week apart, one on free network tv and the other on PPV, work together for your mutual benefit.

Here is what their gameplan should look like.....

Have the card hosted in Dallas by Cuban in the American Airlines Centre. This is an area where you can cut cost, not having to pay to rent the arena. In exchange for the gratis arena, HDNet get to air the show a week after the PPV.

Do a Countdown to Fedor vs Sylvia barker show that could air each week in the month leading up the PPV. This show could air on both Showtime and HDNet to drive folks to the PPV.

Have the CBS show air a week before the PPV card in Dallas. Have the PPV show hyped on the CBS card. In exchange for the major promotion the PPV would get have the PPV televised through Showtime's PPV arm. Have Affliction and HDNet named as major sponsors for the CBS show with appropriate signage, giving both brands major network exposure.

Take someone like Josh Barnett off of the PPV show and give him a soft touch on the CBS show....this allows him to call out the winner of the upcoming Sylvia-Fedor match and automatically set's up your next CBS-PPV cycle.

Use the week in between the two shows to leverage the CBS ties in order to hype up the show.... put the two on Craig Ferguson and Letterman to generate interest.... Hell, try to work in Jimmy Kimmel at ABC, as Elite XC has used him in the past with kimbo tank and shamrock. Have cuban use his relationships with the Folks at ESPN to promote the show.. Have him go on JIm Rome, PTI etc to hype up the fight.

Have HDNet show the Prelims leading up the the PPV card. Have Barnett fresh off his win a week earlier at the show ready to challenge the winner during the PPV telecast, generating interest for your next PPV show.

Have Showtime and HDnet air the show a week after the PPV card.

wash rinse and repeat..... next time around you dod the same thing. Have arlovski on the cbs show challenging the winner of a Fedor vs Barnett match-up.

In the end everybody got something out of the equation. HDNet and Affliction got their brands over, Elite gets to monetize their CBS show into PPV $$$. Showtime and HDnet get some after market programming. The fighter got paid and got exposure on network TV.


Will this kind of set-up ensure success? No, but it having it Properly Promoted will maximize the possibility of it being successful. If it fails, the by pooling your resources you have limited your exposure and one company isn't being engulfed by the losses.