If The NFL Lockout Closes One Door, Does It Open Another for UFC and MMA

[ITurnGirlsGay]

I'm going to post this topic in the sports stadium rather than the MMA for a couple of reasons.

1. MMA fans don't really need to answer this question in the first place.

2. I want to get the take of people who might or might not watch MMA, but regularly post in the Sports Stadium

3. Insight on the different takes from those who won't is actually more valuable.

Here is the article from MMAMania, it's very brief and asks some interesting questions for the future of MMA. Whether you like it or not isn't the issue. The real issue is whether or not you believe, in the event of an NFL lockout, MMA could reach new heights and if you would, in fact, check out more MMA events in the event of no football.

http://www.mmamania.com/2011/3/22/2065945/nfl-lockout-closes-one-door-opens-another-for-ufc-and-mma

I will reserve my opinion, which may actually shock many of you, until after we have had some responses.

 

[brahma62]

Honestly i don't watch alot of mma, but i love the sport and i'm always checking the latest news on it, but just because the NFL wants to be spoiled pigs, i won't watch more mma. But since i love it i picked i watch the hell outta both. People are making a big deal out of this NFL lockout, as they should, but guess what there's still college football. All these stupid rules the NFL is implementing, such as moving the kickoff and harsher punishment for illegal hits is KILLING the NFL, it's becoming a panzy sport. I prefer college football anyway.


But to be honest, in the bigger picture, this could be a huge opening for mma to move in on those hardcore NFL fans. Like the poll says some people need their contact sport, and other than football, mma is the best thing going. Dana White knows this being the kind of businessman he is. And these other mma promoters should realize it as well. While the NFL are on the verge of losing out on a 9 BILLION dollar season, MMA could come up, and greatly increase their audience. So personally i pay attention to both already, but to those who don't, this could greatly increase the MMA audience.

 

[Megatron]

While I believe MMA could gain some fans during the NFL's lockout, there's a few things I could see that would cause the UFC's popularity to not grow as much as expected:

Their events are still quite expensive. While they routinely have a few free cards that are worth watching a year, the big, big cards are saved to gain them the big dollars. Dana White isn't going to throw his cards on free TV even if a prime time slot on ESPN were available because it, more likley then not, would lose him some money. While people love their hard-hitting sports, I think many would be hesitant to spend $50ish dollars on an event where you don't know how long the main event could last.

There are still other sports going on during September/January. Baseball just begins to enter their stretch run during this time and would occupy the main part of September. Then, once October rolled around, Hockey would begin to start and the Playoffs would begin. And then just as soon as baseball ends, Basketball doesn't take long to start. So, in reality, I could see those three sports taking the Sunday afternoon timeslot that the NFL had, since they would be busy going with or without an NFL strike.

*Note - This is assuming the NBA doesn't lockout after the season. Otherwise we'll be left with the tail-end of the MLB season and NHL season, which would be more then enough for many people.

It's not a team sport. While this may seem like a dumb reason, many people are just more attracted to team sports then individual ones. Look at all of the individual sports that are going right now: Tennis, Golf, NASCAR (if you consider it one), and Bowling. While NASCAR is quite popular in the south, Tennis and Golf are only really talked about when their majors occur. It just seems easier for people to get behind a team then a certain person.

There still will be football. It will just feature teams like USC, Texas, Florida, and Ohio State. College football is still widely popular around the US and they could move some of their games to Sunday to fill in the football need that people want. While College football's designated day is Saturday, it's not like they couldn't flex some of their early season game to accommodate 1:00 ET starts and 4:15 ET starts.

So, while I could see getting a slight increase in fans, there's two free contact sports that stand in its way: college football and Hockey. Hockey is a sport that I really think would benefit from both NBA and NFL strikes, since ESPN would need something to air during October/November during the weekdays and the NHL could possibly strike up a deal for them to air a few games during the week. The NHL hasn't been on ESPN since the strike, but I think people would watch it if it was brought onto ESPN consistently (The numbers of the US/Canada gold medal game back in the 2010 Olympics help show that). It's a physical game, much like the NFL, and has some young and bright stars with Crosby, Ovechkin, Kane, Stamkos, the kid on the Oilers, etc. Those two sports I would see benefiting more from the NFL's lockout then the UFC.