‘Dana White Fumbled This’: Fans Raise Eyebrows as UFC’s $20 Million Sphere Event Cuts Ticket Prices by 80%

The UFC and Dana White have done the fans dirty with ticket prices. The UFC Noche event tickets initially rolled out with the cheapest seats being priced at $3,000 since the UFC had spent $20 million on it. But given that they were competing with Canelo Alvarez for the Mexican independence day weekend and the UFC Noche seats were going unsold, those prices have been sliced to the bones.

Yes, the tickets went from $3,000 down to $1,000. And for the final blow, these same tickets are now selling for $500.

This means that they cut the prices by over 80% in just a matter of weeks. Now, this is something many fans had already predicted would happen if UFC remained myopic in its approach and its self induced illusion about being as big a sport as boxing.

Besides, you cannot, in good conscience be advised to try and sell out a PPV with Sean O’Malley in the main event over a weekend that sees Canelo Alvarez, the biggest name in boxing, fighting for his home crowd over their independence day celebrations.

Fans are of course, not happy with the president Dana White or the UFC, calling them out for ‘price gouging’ and fumbling what could have been the biggest day in the promotion’s history.

“Dana really fumbled this,glad mma fans letting him know that the quality of the card is what matters most.”

 

This fan called out Sean O’Malley for not being a big enough star to sell out the tickets despite the high prices,

“O’malley is NOT a star”

One fan called out the UFC for price gouging, a trend the fan has been noticing in the post-COVID UFC era, calling them ‘greedy’,

“Typical UFC price gouging after COVID. It’s disgusting. Greedy f*cks. Suga is not the star Dana claims he is lol and it’s showing”

One user believed that Conor McGregor was the only fighter who could justify a $3k ticket for an event,

“Apart from Conor nobody was selling this shit for 3k”

This fan called out Dana White for being a failed businessman and taking credit for growing the UFC when it was actually  Conor McGregor who did it,

“I feel like Dana was never that good of a businessman He had the harsh and greedy traits but McGregor made the business Dana claims to have built”

As it turns out, the UFC ticket prices aren’t the only thing that are taking a hit. As the ticket prices drop, the estimated gate for the event has also dropped drastically. The event is now turning out to be much less ‘historic’ than Dana White hyped it up to be.

UFC’s $20 Million Sphere Event Sees Massive Gate Drop

Dana White had big expectations from the UFC 306 event. The organization even hired multiple Emmy winning producers to help them set the event up.

With so much hype around the event, White initially predicted a gate of $25-$27 million. However, he has now reduced that estimate to around $21 million.

This is not very surprising to anyone gaging the public interest in the event. Many on social media have called it out in the past for being a very ‘mid’ card that banks too much on the spectacle of the arena to justify the insane price tag.

And it’s not just the UFC president that needs to be worried about the thousands of unsold tickets. The event has a big sponsor in the Turki Alalshikh headed Riyadh Season banner.

The Saudis are looking to get into the sport of UFC as well with regular collaborations. However, the success of this partnership may just come down to UFC Noche. And so far, things are not looking good for either party.