More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

[snakerattle79]

http://mmapayout.com/2009/07/more-on-the-ufcs-ea-mma-ban-sponsor-tax/

The UFC is now charging prospective sponsors a $100,000 fee for the right to sponsor fighters that appear on UFC broadcasts for a six month period. This eliminates all the small-time sponsors because they may be able to pay $1,000 to a fighter but they aren’t paying $100,000 to UFC for the right to pay $1,000 to a fighter. The ones hurt the worst are the low-end guys who are struggling to make it on prelim money contracts. It also lessens the amount of money going to the fighters, because the $200,000 per year going to UFC as a licensing fee means perhaps $200,000, but certainly significantly less, going directly to the fighters.

UFC fighters in some cases earn more money through outside sponsorship than their UFC pay, although one manager estimated that for all but the top fighters, it would probably average about 40% of their income from a fight is coming from sponsors. But this is going to cut it back heavily, and with the exception of the top fighters, most in UFC are struggling, and even those who aren’t for the most part are going to have short-lived careers and many are going to have significant medical bills after their careers are over.

[SHO]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

I don't like the sound of this at all. Honestly this does sound like a money grab and takes money out of fighters hands, but maybe....just maybe the money will be used to increase fighter salaries, but I really doubt it.

[jtbleek]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

I wonder if they'll up the total purses for each event. I doubt it though and sounds like corporate greed. I don't think any other league does anything like this. Individual athletes can sign with whatever company they like they just can't sport competing companies of the "official" product of the league in league events...like LeBron wearing a Nike jersey when Adidas is the "official" jersey of the NBA. Also Gatorade is the "official" sports drink of the NBA so LeBron drinks Powerade and out of the Gatorade cups during games.


I don't like the move.

[goh]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

I guess that's what the Hayabusa problem was about.

[Wet Bandit]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

I don't like the sound of this at all. Honestly this does sound like a money grab and takes money out of fighters hands, but maybe....just maybe the money will be used to increase fighter salaries, but I really doubt it.

Fighter salaries have been increasing for the lower-end guys. A couple years ago, it was common for guys in filler fights to get $2,000 to show and $2,000 to win (2+2). Nowadays you'll see the occasional 3+3, but for the most part the low-end guys are getting around 5+5, 7+7, or 8+8.

The bonuses have gone up quite a bit as well. The Fight of the Night, KO of the Night, and Submission of the Night bonuses were $40,000 at UFC 72 but by UFC 97 they were up to $70,000.

The UFC has also been letting guys display banners with all sorts of logos behind the fighters during introductions, something that wasn't done in the past.

I don't necessarily agree with what the UFC is doing in regards to sponsors in this particular issue, though it's hard to get a good judgement on it because I have no sense of the money that goes to these sponsorship deals, but I do understand them wanting some control over who's getting their name attached to the UFC brand.

I just want to point out, though, that the UFC has been doing some things to get fighters more money.

[mdistefano]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

i work for a company that sponsors fighters. i'm not going to say who because i don't want to attach my personal views with those of the company. we aren't a "big time" sponsoship but one of the low to mid level companies and it is killing us. even "one more round" is backing out of the ufc. next to charge ridiculous cash will be the WEC owned by Mr. White. for small companies who income 200-even 500K, paying the UFC 200K of the that is ridiculous. i know the ufc wants control over what is attached to their name, but all it is doing is pushing out the companies dedicated to the promotion of MMA. These are the companies who have been there for some time now, supporting the ufc when most of the world didn't know or didn't care about mma. Dana white is a genious when it comes to marketing and making money, but this is just about power. and the thing that sucks is that its not even his power vs. those in competition with the UFC and WEC (affliction, strikeforce) its the UFC pushing out companies who support and have a vested interest in his fighters and their well-being. its just tough to handle.

[Wet Bandit]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

The price did strike me as being surprisingly high. I understand wanting to put some heft behind the number to keep the condomdepot.com's out of sponsoring fighters (my apologies if that's who you work for), but $200k a year seems high.

One thing that will be interesting is whether or not the companies that pay that fee will be more likely to sponsor the lesser-known fighters. After all, if they've gotta pay that much money up front, it makes some sense to pay a little bit to sponsor some of the lesser-knowns in addition to the GSP's so they can get more bang for their buck from that upfront fee.

[snakerattle79]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

Poor unknown UFC fighters coz they're the one who'll be affected with this scheme

[mdistefano]

Re: More Details on the UFC Sponsorship Racket

ha, no, i don't work for condom depot. i work for an mma company, train, and do all that fun stuff. yeah, i agree. it is going to hurt the lesser knowns because I have a feeling sponsors will be the likes of anheiser busch, coors, home depot, things like that. the sport is getting huge and i'm sure dana wants huge sponsors to get huge money. sucks for us who literally bleed for mma.