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Everyone knows I am that guy. That annoying guy, that is the 1st one to say I-Told-You-So. My wife gets upset because somehow I am always right, or at least can make myself right.
This is my Affliction - I told you so
On June 20th We blogged about Affliction's 6-Million-Dollar-Purse.
I said there was NO WAY they could afford to pay this much money out. Compared to the UFC these numbers were way more than any fighter deserved and for the 1st event there wounldnt be enough PPV Buys to make it worthwile.
If you didnt see the final totals, here's what we know:
Tim Sylvia : 800k
Andrei Arlovski: 750k
Fedor Emelianenko: 300k
Josh Barnett: 300k
Matt Lindland: 300k
Ben Rothwell: 250k
Vitor Belfort: 140k
Babalu Sobral: 90k
Paul Buentello: 80k
Pedro Rizzo: 70k
When these numbers were reported everyone lost their mind, wondering how Sylvia was the Top and Fedor only made $300,000. Again had anyone done their homework they would realize these were ONLY the fight payouts. Almost all of the fighters, if not all of the fighters, received signing bonuses.
NBC Sports confirms this:
"Emelianenko received a sizable part of his Affliction contract up front in the form of a signing bonus, and added that Emelianenko also owns the rights to his fight footage in several European countries. That second part may not mean much right now but if Affliction chooses to hold an event in Europe, they would have to pay him for the footage.
That also explains why “M-1 Global” was on the Affliction mats. If M-1, a European fight company headed by Emelianenko’s manager Vadim Finkelstein, holds an event in Europe, they can use the Affliction footage to sell their show."
I was critcize by friends and colleagues saying they would easily do 500,000 in PPV buys and could easily cover the payouts. While I miswrote the numbers UFC does in PPV Buys, Tom Atencio must have done Trump-Math and realized that the 1st show wasnt even close to profitable.
One of My Favorite Writers, Dave Meltzer sums it up better than I Ever could:
"But Affliction has huge hurdles in becoming a long-term factor in this game. Whether the show did in excess of 100,000 buys, as promoter Tom Atencio claims, or 50,000-85,000, which were the earliest cable industry estimates, either way, the losses were in the millions for a show Atencio stated would have needed 250,000-300,000 buys to break even. Atencio has already stated they can’t afford losses like this on a second show, and hinted that the name fighters would have to work with them on some of the huge deals or they won’t be around much longer."
According to Ryan Wales of Bleacher Report:
"It is now being reported that Affliction is asking its fighters to take a pay cut for the sophomore show. Some reports are that the pay-cut could be up to 50 percent.
But don't worry, in exchange, Affliction will make sure you get an easy opponent. That's right. They won't pay you what you're worth, but at least you can destroy a can in the process."
Fight Opinion interviewed Josh Barnett on Wednesday, "I'm Not Taking a Pay Cut if Asked"
Rumor has it that Atencio is now requesting a 50 percent pay cut from its fighters.
What does this mean for Future Affliction Events? Only time will tell. This is exactly the problem that sports without caps have issues with. Look to baseball and basketball, the fighters grow to be bigger than the organization.
Say what you want about Dana. Reality is, they can put on 2 events a month and handle all the egos.
Wow. I had no idea they were in over their heads like this. You definitely do your homework. Are you thinking they won't even make a third event if they have another huge loss on their second even coming up? I am still trying to get over Fedor getting paid the same as Matt Lindland. No offense to Matt Lindland, Fedor is just a lot more entertaining to watch.
____________________ Pain is just the feeling of Fear leaving your body...
I think they expected a loss on the first event but had hi hopes in getting fighters to take lower payouts and didn't have that upfront and the problem you run into with 1 fight agreements.
Start up costs, they promoted this fight more than any other event because it was unknown. They won't have as much costs for promotion in the future but they need to get more ppl buying if they want to offer those payouts. They would have to at least hit UFC #'s which will be tough.
The UFC went into the red apprx. 40 million dollars before Zuffa and Dana turned it around. How far is Affliction willing to go? Randy's interview above had a good point; Affliction had a heck of an advertisement for their clothing brand. I wonder if they saw a bump in sales after the event.
they need your business right about now, also afflicition clothing line is attached to a women's brand Sinful, i was actually thinkin bout gettin a pair of them $80 sweats for one of my girls' b-day's next month, i love them lil thin sweatpants on a skinny girl with a big ol' ass
____________________ Some people spend their whole lives wondering if they've made a difference. Marines don't have that problem - JFK
Their stuff is about to get out of reach for most people (if its not already). I think they need to relax on upping the price. In this economy that is going to be one of the first things people cut back on. I like their stuff but I can't bring myself to pay $60 for a t-shirt.
I bet Tito would take a pay cut to put his lips around Trump's trumpet, if you get on eBay at the right time...sometimes you can catch an Affliction tee for 35, i've been doing some research because I'm great with my money which kinda sorta means I'm a cheap bastard and I save a lot of money, so yea...i'm a jew at heart
____________________ Some people spend their whole lives wondering if they've made a difference. Marines don't have that problem - JFK
Good call with Ebay. A guy I work with get's 40% off because he works at Buckle but I haven't taken advantage of that yet. I'm thinking about getting a job there and buying a crap load of shirts and selling them on Ebay. He does it sometimes.
Mat wrote: Does anyone know if it's a separate entity?
This is going to be a long one...nevermind I'll just paraphrase what I just read in the MMA LIFE section of FIGHT! magazine under the article "The Gilded Age; As Mixed Martial Arts Booms, So Does MMA Merchandising" by Rhett Butler
'Tom Attencio Talks Affliction Addiction'
Joe Rogan made a comment last year before some fights that he was going to throw up if he saw one more Affliction shirt, and after Randy (who has his own clothing line known to most of us as Xtreme Couture is a part of Affliction) resigned his contract in the UFC Dana banned any of the fighters in the UFC from wearing their Affliction gear at any events. Revenue for Affliction surpassed the $6 million mark (probably because their shirts are more than most men in their 18-34 years really want to spend on a tee shirt) and that they didn't plan that their clothing line would boom the way that it did.
the closing paragraph in full context
"In just three short years, Affliction has developed an extremely successful clothing line that is recognizable both within and outside the MMA community. And the company promises to go bigger, with their launch as the newest MMA fight promoter on the block. Their first show, co-promoted with Adrenaline MMA, had drawn Fedor Emelianenko, Tim Sylvia, Adrei Arlovski, Josh Barnett, Pedro Rizzo, Matt Lindland, and Ben Rothwell. The show set for July 19, is aptly dubbed - Affliction: Banned."
so with everyone now realizing that I get magazines far later than most people since I'm stationed overseas, the answer to the question is "YES". Affliction fight promotion and Affliction clothing are quite the entity (or at least a PART of it) and for the hopes of all MMA fans worldwide, we hope they stick around longer than the stitching on their $70 tee-shirts.
____________________ Some people spend their whole lives wondering if they've made a difference. Marines don't have that problem - JFK
yea i know what you mean, but even if it were 50/50 would you rather spend 30 bucks on a fake/real shirt no matter what if the regular retail price is 70+? good enough odds for me, i'm a gambler
____________________ Some people spend their whole lives wondering if they've made a difference. Marines don't have that problem - JFK
