Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Will Invicta FC survive their first show?

So it's no secret that Invicta Fighting Championships announced their debut show Apr. 28 in Kansas City headlined by Marloes Coenen vs Romy Ruyssen. It looks like their are some pretty good matches on the show. So of course you're getting a lot of the usual feel good BS from the usual suspects. But the whole show comes across as a company blowing their wad on the debut show in the hopes that their uphill battle to survive will succeed. Look, MMA is a tough business anyway and women's MMA has not proven that it has enough of a fanbase in the US to support an all women's show. And even if there was a positive track record, I'm sure we all know about MMA companies that put on one show and disappeared from the face of the earth. And I'm not impressed with Janet Martin's track record at Black Eye Promotions. Her show in October did so poorly that she left the promotion. I heard she got pushed out. Does it matter? Supposedly they told her she couldn't do any more shows with primarily women's matches. I guess she likes hitting her head against the wall. The biggest problem for this show is it will not be on TV. My understanding is they will probably do an internet PPV. That's fine but iPPV's have yet to prove to be a reliable revenue generator. Also it means that Invicta has to pay for the production of the show. And what sometimes happens is companies will cheap out on the production crew and the show is so poorly produced that it's unwatchable. That doesn't always happen but it happens enough. A poor production will kill the audience. So that means that Invicta is depending mostly on the live gate for revenue. And that's even if they have some sponsors. That's why they need a TV deal. It takes a lot of pressure off of the gate. I don't see how a main event with two European fighters will attract local fans to this show. So having a lot of fans in attendance disguised as empty seats should be a concern. I don't know what it would take to draw US fans to an all women's MMA show because no one has ever done it. And I don't see it happening with this show either. How much money can Invicta afford to lose?

No comments:

Post a Comment