DESPITE SLOWER THAN NORMAL TICKET SALES, DANA WHITE CONSIDERS UFC 102 IN PORTLAND A SUCCESS
PORTLAND, Ore. – When tonight's "UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueira" pay-per-view event begins, fans tuning in may notice something different than what they've witnessed in past broadcasts: empty seats.
As the UFC makes its first visit to the 20,000-seat Rose Garden in Portland, Ore., UFC president Dana White says he'll be "pumped" to sell 10,000 tickets for the event.
But with Portland's unemployment rate hovering around 12 percent, White said he would consider that number a success.
"Did we come in here and blow it out of the water and sell it out and everything?" White asked
MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com). "No. But listen, in this economy right now, (if) we go in and we sell 10,000 tickets, I'm pumped. You know what I mean?
"There's baseball and basketball and all these other big, major sports right now that are hurting, and people aren't buying tickets, and people aren't spending money."
White, who on Thursday admitted this week was his first-ever trip to Oregon, said based on the struggling economy in the state he's satisfied with the current status of ticket sales to the event – even if they don't necessarily match-up with previous events.
"When we go into a market and people buy a good amount of tickets, I'm more than happy – and especially when we come up here into Oregon and everyone has felt this crunch," White said. "People are being laid-off, people don't have jobs. Believe me, I'm very happy with what we've done here in Portland."
White said while some venues experience record live gates when the UFC comes to town, the organization knows they can't guarantee that same success in every new market.
"There's other markets we go into and we're kind of – I was questionable in Philly," White said. "I was like, 'It will be interesting to see what we do in Philly.' We killed it in Philly, and it was great. The way I look at here, we killed it here, too."
White also said the current economy of the country will keep him from raising ticket and pay-per-view prices any time soon.
"Listen, I'm not living in a bubble, man," White said. "I know what's going on out there, and believe me, ask (UFC co-owner) Lorenzo (Fertitta) some time, I battle with our CFO. I battle with him. We're not raising prices. We're not raising pay-per-view prices. If anything, we go into certain markets, and we'll adjust to that market.
"UFC 100, did you see ticket prices go up for UFC 100? Nope. Didn't do it. We could have done it for 100. My answer is, 'No.' It won't happen. Not while I'm here. It's not going to happen."
While the organization will have to wait and see how Portland's walk-up crowd will affect final attendance numbers, the UFC's next pay-per-view is already guaranteed promising ticket revenue.
"Dallas (site of UFC 103 on Sept. 19) is going great," White said. "It's almost sold out. We get to a point where when you sell 'x' amount of tickets, it's considered a sell-out. You still have a certain amount of time, and then you have the walk-up. So, yeah, we consider Dallas a sell-out."
Damnit, I wish I could have been there....but it was just one of those months, budget wise.
