Pride coming to America

SeikanJudanski · 05-07-2006, 08:33 AM

from MMAweekly

In Osaka, Japan this weekend, Pride President Sakakibara announced that they will start a new series of Pride shows in America next year. It wasn't long ago that Pride started the Pride Bushido series to showcase the lighter weight talent. That has been so successful with Takanori Gomi being the face of Bushido, that it will be moving from the smaller venues to the Saitama Super Arena this June for the start of the Welterweight GP, a big deal indeed.

Pride has plans with date and place decided for their first American show this Fall after the Nevada State Athletic commission approved the ring for the Pride fights to take place in. But it wasn't said whether or not this first show would be a part of Pride's American series. Sakakibara said that they plan on having 4 to 5 shows in the U.S. as a part of the Pride American series. Also, on the horizon is the possiblity of having one or two GP's in America next year. Whether they would be part of the Pride American series is unclear.

Sakakibara wants the U.S. fans to take to the new series in America and have the series take root and grow.

LastExit34 · 05-07-2006, 08:41 AM

On the NSAC's website there is a tenative date of October 21st of this year in the Thomas and Mack Center.

http://boxing.nv.gov/schedule.htm

Eraser2K1NIN · 05-07-2006, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LastExit34

On the NSAC's website there is a tenative date of October 21st of this year in the Thomas and Mack Center.

http://boxing.nv.gov/schedule.htm

awesome! this is going to be GREAT!

[Danny] · 05-07-2006, 01:16 PM

Yeah, I figured they weren't going to pick a huge venue like Dodger Stadium. This will be good. This should bring over a lot of the 205 pound fighters and familar former UFC guys like Pulver, Wanderlei, maybe even Belfort if he beats Randleman.

DrumzCT · 05-07-2006, 01:44 PM

Definitely very excited about this. This is going to be great for the sport, show the new american MMA fans that the UFC isn't the only game in town. Competition always produces a better product. Hopefully we'll now see the UFC paying fighters better to keep them from going to Pride as well.

RobOne · 05-07-2006, 04:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrumzCT

Definitely very excited about this. This is going to be great for the sport, show the new american MMA fans that the UFC isn't the only game in town. Competition always produces a better product. Hopefully we'll now see the UFC paying fighters better to keep them from going to Pride as well.

yes this is genius on Pride's part. Cuz the only reason alot of guys jump into the UFC is because they want to fight on american soil. With this new American series, they can still get paid the big bucks, and fight at home. Real good move by Pride.

LuvMyCRX® · 05-07-2006, 08:00 PM

With the fights being shown live here in the US, that means 2 PPVs a month fo sho. Dang you MMA! Leave my wallet alone!

SeikanJudanski · 05-07-2006, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LuvMyCRX

With the fights being shown live here in the US, that means 2 PPVs a month fo sho. Dang you MMA! Leave my wallet alone!

Save your money for Pride.

lwbfl · 05-07-2006, 10:43 PM

Man, I have got to find someone with a cheater card/box something! I'm going to go broke from MMA!

subgenius · 05-08-2006, 02:12 AM

It would be nice, if PRIDE FC were to charge just $9.99 or $14.99 for their American PPVs. That would pretty much force the UFC to lower their prices as well (right?). I think that more people would buy the PPVs, if the prices was half what it is now or lower... That could mean more money, I guess.

SeikanJudanski · 05-08-2006, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by subgenius

It would be nice, if PRIDE FC were to charge just $9.99 or $14.99 for their American PPVs. That would pretty much force the UFC to lower their prices as well (right?). I think that more people would buy the PPVs, if the prices was half what it is now or lower... That could mean more money, I guess.

Actually it works different, this article from MMAweekly explains why Pride cannot reduce their prices.

Zuffa and Dream Stage Entertainment have both raised the suggested retail prices of their pay-per-view events in North America.

Pay-per-view events from the UFC, which were previously $34.95, will now cost $39.95 for the forseeable future. Pay-per-view events from Pride, which were previously $29.95, will now cost $34.95 for the forseeable future. Additionally, Pride Bushido pay-per-view events, which previously ranged from $19.95 to $24.95, will now cost $29.95.

Zuffa Raises the Bar to $39.95

Cable and satellite providers almost always use the suggested retail price provided by the event promoter, and for years that price had been $29.95 for both UFC and Pride events. Zuffa raised the price of UFC PPVs to $34.95 in April 2005, just in time for the record-breaking "Couture vs. Liddell II" event.

Zuffa decided to raise the price again, this time to $39.95, for the "Couture vs. Liddell III" event in February 2006. At the time, a Zuffa PR rep compared it to the boxing PPV model on the Underground Forum and said that the higher price point would probably not be a permanent thing and might only be used "once or twice per year." Indeed, the price of the next PPV event, UFC 58 in March, was back down to the previous $34.95 price point.

However, with $39.95 as the price point for UFC 59 earlier this month, and for UFC 60 in May, and for UFC 61 in July, and for UFC 62 after that (tentatively planned to be headlined by Liddell vs. Renato Sobral), and for UFC 63 after that (tentatively planned to be headlined by Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre), it now appears that $39.95 will be the suggested retail price for every UFC PPV in the forseeable future.

If Zuffa is confident that it can sell just as many PPVs at the $39.95 price point as it could at the $34.95 price point, then this price increase makes sense from a business standpoint.

It's also a very significant move within the pay-per-view industry because the "normal" price for a UFC PPV ($39.95) is now actually higher than the "normal" price for a World Wrestling Entertainment PPV ($34.95). This gives cable and satellite companies incentive to provide UFC PPVs with more replay timeslots throughout the month, and to promote UFC PPVs more than WWE PPVs, especially since the North American sales of WWE PPVs have fallen off significantly over the past five years.

Why Pride Had Little Choice But to Follow Suit with its Own Price Increase

Given the higher price of UFC PPVs, it could have potentially made Pride look bad in the PPV industry if the company had continued to charge $29.95 for its PPV events at the same time that its biggest competitor was charging $10 more for events of the same length. This is purely about perception. If you're charging $29.95 for three-hour PPV events and your biggest competitor is charging $39.95 for three-hour PPV events, it makes your competitor look like the "premium product" by comparison.

Pride doesn't have to match the UFC's PPV price, but it does have to come close for perception purposes. There really wasn't much of a choice for Pride other than to go up to $34.95, given that Zuffa had gone up to $39.95.

It's very similar in the pro wrestling industry, where the #2 pro wrestling company in terms of North American PPV sales (TNA) has to charge $29.95 for its pay-per-view events, in order to come close to the $34.95 price point of the #1 pro wrestling company in terms of North American PPV sales (WWE). If TNA charged $24.95 or $19.95, it would make TNA look second-rate by comparison.

For many of the same reasons, Pride has also raised the price of its "Bushido" line of pay-per-views. While the "regular" Pride events will now cost $34.95, the Pride Bushido events from this point forward will cost $29.95. Previously, the suggested retail price was only $19.95 for the three-hour Pride Bushido events, although it was raised on one occasion to $24.95 for the four-hour-long "Bushido: The Tournament" event.

subgenius · 05-08-2006, 11:42 AM

Yuck. I think that sucks.

Maybe they will start selling a package deal so that we can get a series for a discount...

angryjonny · 05-11-2006, 10:21 PM

It has been mentioned by Silva that he wants to defend his belt against Minotoro at the USA show! That would be amazing.

In 2006, one of Silva’s plans is to defend his title, which could take place in the American edition of PRIDE, set for October in Las Vegas.

“I would really like to face Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (Pictures),” he said. “I think he must beat a top [fighter] to get his ‘credential.’ I feel it will be him, someone I really wanted to fight with, because he’s courageous, just like his brother. He holds the punches, gets into the game and I’m sure that I will do with him a very technical fight, with lots of punches on the face than the one I did with Arona. It will be a very exciting fight. He’s definitely someone on my level.”

SeikanJudanski · 05-11-2006, 10:30 PM

Speaking of Silva, I got this Brazilian dude who I met online, that lives in Silva´s town and trains at Chute Box or something like that. He sent me some pictures the other day. Check em out.

Don´t clown the dude, he ain´t no HW, but a real cool kid.

Juggalo · 05-12-2006, 11:06 PM

You guys dont get pride on PPV now?

angryjonny · 05-12-2006, 11:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juggalo

You guys dont get pride on PPV now?

Who you talking about?

Marktown · 05-29-2006, 03:39 PM

I think Pride has a better product than the UFC because on a Pride PPV it isn't live and you don't have to have stupid Joe Rogan doing stupid interviews where the fighters only thank their sponsors. I wonder, though, how a live Pride event would go over in the states. In general, the average American fan isn't as intelligent as the Japanese fan when it comes to MMA. The american fan wants to see striking and can't appreciate the groundwork aspect of MMA I think. That's a big reason UFC went to having rounds and all the rule changes that it has over the years, fans didn't want to see the long drawn out ground match. The Japanese fans can appreciate the technical aspects of fighting and don't just want to see blood. Still, I'd go to a Pride event before a UFC event any day!!

PS. Anyone know what Vitor Belfort is up to these days?

Marko

nazzyfan · 05-30-2006, 03:46 AM

how many people does that stadium hold? And will we get the same quality of fighters as a regular Pride event? ie. Crocop, emelianenko, Gomi, Nog, etc. Also when tix might go on sale?

Mulla · 05-30-2006, 07:45 AM

I think it'll be interesting to see how different the atmosphere is between the Japanese and American Pride shows. Obviously the Japanese crowd are very quiet and they seem to study the fights, whereas American audiences tend to get restless if a fight goes to the ground and can often start booing (Ive noticed this more so at events held in Cali).

subgenius · 05-30-2006, 01:37 PM

I think that the whole PRIDE is better than the UFC argument is stupid.