The
UFC Apex has been a staple of the Las Vegas-based promotion’s
calendar since the COVID-19 pandemic.
While those events were born out of necessity early on, the Apex
shows haven’t gone anywhere even with pandemic restrictions being
lifted in recent years. The atmosphere at the UFC’s home facility
is lacking compared to cards in various cities, which was once
again evident during UFC
on ESPN 56 in St. Louis on Saturday night.
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According to UFC CEO Dana White, the event gate of $2.47 million
was a Fight Night record, surpassing the previous mark set for a
card in Austin, Texas, this past December, and those in attendance
at the Enterprise Center gave it a big-fight feel — particularly
when hometown favorites such as Joaquin
Buckley, Sean
Woodson and Charles
Johnson were in action.
“Even if you were watching on ESPN, I’m sure you guys were getting
texts too. They’re like, ‘Jesus Christ, it’s like a pay-per-view
there right now.’ And when you think about how we built this
business, it was taking it out of the big markets,” White said at
the post-fight press conference.
“When we first got into the fight business, everybody just went to
Vegas, Atlantic City, sometimes New York, sometimes L.A. Those were
the only places that really had fights unless you had a local kid
that would fight. We built this business to taking this thing to
every city all over the world. And as we start to get our s—t
together, I will call it, and start to move out and go out to these
different cities like we used to, the whole sport just goes to
another level.”
In recent months, both fans and fighters have become more critical
of the promotion’s insistence on holding a steady stream of events
at the UFC Apex. During a recent financial call for TKO Group
Holdings, the parent company of the UFC, TKO chief financial
officer Andrew Schleimer seemed to indicate that Apex Fight Night
cards will continue to be part of the regular rotation. The primary
motivation appears to be that UFC Apex events are more cost
effective than going on the road.
“I think what you’ve seen since we have worked our way out of
COVID, we have held a significant amount of events outside UFC
Apex, and those that we do hold on our campus in Las Vegas, those
numbers have gone down meaningfully,” Schleimer said (transcription
via MMAFighting.com ). “That being said, bringing
events on the road is as much about growing our fan base as it is
generating income. It’s also about ensuring that we maintain
certain margins and profitability profile, and there’s a
cost-benefit analysis for us that we view opportunity costs of
doing events domestically, internationally, and holding them at
Apex.
“What we do in any budget cycle, as I’m sure you can appreciate, is
determining the right mix. Not just to generate top-line revenue,
but to ensure profitability. Those Apex events do carry the lowest
cost structure for us to hold them on our home turf in Las Vegas. I
don’t think we’ve found the perfect mix yet, but rest assured that
we’re looking at the numbers and working to do so.”
So far in 2024, the promotion has held 16 events, with eight at the
UFC Apex and eight at various venues with large crowds. On Saturday
night, White sounded as though he’d like to shift that split toward
hitting the road on a more frequent basis.
“I’ve been saying this for a long time,” White said. “We’ve got to
get out of the Apex and start doing more events in all these
different cities. We’re starting to do it. We’re getting it done
this year.”