2010
02.06
02.06
In an interview with mmajunkie.com WEC President Reed Harris has said that a WEC PPV will only be used for a “major event or two per year,” he also reiterated that they still plan to be mainly seen on Versus. This is a good thing for all parties involved because it makes the PPV card seem more like a special event and help not make their fan base pick and choose between UFC and WEC. So Friends, Romans and countrymen, put down your e-pitchforks and torches. There has been much grumbling about the current going price of the PPV, $44.99. Some say that a WEC show is not worth it due to its smaller scale. Fans will also have a UFC show to order also. That’s about 100 bucks in one month that you would be giving Zuffa. I will admit 45 bucks is high for me, if they dropped it to $30 I would buy that in an instant . The fact that they want $50 isn’t that out of the ordinary for the PPV market. WWE charges the same for their PPV, Boxing charges the same or more in some cases. $50 is the standard for the market. If Zuffa wanted to try something interesting they could offer a package deal of say UFC XX, XX and the WEC show for a reduced price like $100 for all three. WWE does the same thing with their Road to Wrestlemania package.
This also could be a huge blessing for WEC. With PPV will come more adverts from Zuffa which will then draw more people to the WEC name and hopefully transfer to more viewers for the Versus shows. This could become a coming out party of sorts for WEC, imagine the WEC having their own countdown show. Yes, they did have one previously for the Brown Faber II fight but that was so long ago. WEC deserves this, in all honestly since I started watching them (WEC 43), they have not had a boring card. I may not know all the guy’s names and their backgrounds but I’ll be damned if by the end of the show I’m not looking them up. In a perfect world, EVERYONE would purchase this PPV. I saw a tweet the other day about this subject and it made a great point in that we watch UFC with a group of friends but the WEC by ourselves?
The card the WEC has constructed for this event is of the highest quality. You have two title fights and Mike Brown up against Manny Gamburyan for a possible shot at the winner of Faber Aldo. All these fights could easily be the headline of a WEC card or at least a co-headliner. The WEC is giving away three big fights in one show instead of playing it safe and spreading them out across various Versus cards. Also for the people who complain that WEC fighters are under paid will likely see a nice pay increase. That is, if you order the show and do that whole supporting your fighter thing.
So friends, Romans, and Countrymen put down you pitch forks and invite your friends over and show them the WEC.
You can Follow Mike on Twitter @mikemazzacre
Is Reed Harris running for political office, is he offering change from full blown greed to only half greed?
Forget the pitch fork and bring out the cannon.
i think it’s a little unfair to rip on Reed and the WEC. They have a fantastic product and now it’s wrong for them to maximize their potential profit from it? It’s not like Reed is telling EVERYONE to go and buy the PPV, he’s telling us to get 10 of our buds, some beer and wings and then just have a good time. He’s encouraging you to have 10 other people over who could’ve spent $45 to watch the event on PPV by themselves.
As I said before, WEC has a great product and it’s about damn time they start to make the most money they can off of it. Of the three announced match ups we have 3 Main Event potential match ups. Brown/Aldo is HUGE imo and I’d pay the $45 to see this fight alone. BenHen/Cowboy will be pretty good like their first fight and then we have Brown/Gamburyan. Any of those three fights could’ve been the main event for any free card on Versus but instead they give us those three all on one card. i’m also predicting the young and ever-so talented Anthony Nkojuani being on this card because he’s exciting to watch. The WEC puts on a handful of GREAT free fight cards every year, ’bout damn time they started charging for them. $45 for a jam-packed PPV once or twice per year? I’m in.