How Long Until Bellator Closes Up Shop?

Normally, I wouldn't come up with a year due to the unpredictable nature of MMA. There's too many factors that would lead to Viacom wanting to sell Bellator.

- Worst case scenario- If the Grand Prix final/future PPV doesn't show any significant ratings or buy increase, the college prospects fail to attract attention, and the UFC's anti-trust lawsuit goes in their favor within a year, I would say 2020 would be it.

Bellator seems to be a bit of a money pit right now, but things could change. The UFC ate shit for years until they started making a profit.

yeah, UFC lost alot of money initially but they werent also trying to compete with the UFC.

Also isnt Caldwell one of their homegrown college prospects? he became champion and his event just did 465k viewers defending his belt. Atleast in this case their homegrown talent development has been a failure.

So far nothing they are doing seems to work.
 
Bellator all hinges on what Viacom is willing to spend on the hours of live programming Bellator give them. With or without Bellator they have to spend money to fill those hours. I do think if Coker and people don't get there act together in the next year with what Viacom is spending on the product they maybe on the hot seat. The suits can't be happy with spending a hell of a lot more than say in 2015 and not seeing a whole lot of change in viewership. Sure attendance is better and maybe some other things but overall the ratings just seem stagnate.

I never understood why Spike and now Paramount barely ever replays any Bellator event or put together any type of Top 10 KO's type programs. To me that speaks volumes on how much they really care about Bellator. Tells me they don't make shit on Bellator and why would they waste an hour or more of programming time on something that won't produce what reruns of Cops will or whatever movie or show. Reruns of Bellator events or one hour or half hour "top 10 style show" would help get the name and product out there better and could help draw more viewers or at least common sense would lead you to believe that. God, I remember when the UFC was on Spike. There seemed be about 2 to 4 hours of UFC programming on Spike everyday if not more on many days.


P.S.: Chances are they won't even give us Bellator 200 Live on Paramount. Talk about just morons running the show. Hell of show is being put together, plus being 200, and it will be taped delayed over some damn movie that has been replayed probably 200 times over the years that afternoon. Grow a pair of balls someone with in Bellator or Paramount and get this live.

I dont know. They were pretty quick in getting rid of Rebney, his team and changing the entire product. Team Coker is doing alot worse ratings wise while spending alot more.

Based on Viacoms past behavior it doesnt seem out of the ordinary to expect something massive to happen.
 
Bellator being on a non-sports channel like Spike and now Paramount Network limits their ability to run all the extra content that the UFC can run on Fox, FS1, FS2, and elsewhere to fill endless hours of otherwise wasted time slots with their re-runs of recent live cards, fight compilations, weigh-in shows, pre-fight shows, post-fight shows, reality shows and themed specials.
 
Weren't people saying the same thing about WSOF like 3 yrs ago? Now they're still around and just got a super injection of investor money. Apparently there's some worth in these things even if they aren't profitable.

WSOF is still around!?!
To be honest I totally forgot about them and I cant recall the last time I seen a thread in this forum about them.
 
Right now too many politics type watching UFC and hold MMA in scare-time.. Ali-act to make legitimate sport. But we will always need a BellatorMMA to put on the fights fans want, their old heroes. . . Ali-act want many promotions competing against each other. UFC & Bellator use WWF as their model. just entertainment.

UFC is out of the buying other promotions business, they need Bellator, until this push to legitimatize MMA dies down.

They need a Olympic like cup MMA event to find the real champions because I do not see it ever be like boxing or basketball....

Bellator will stay around until UFC has used their new lobbyists to put down that bill. Once they are comfortable, than things... then Bellator can be drained of talent.

Lobbyists:
Lobbyists:
Lobbyists:
Lobbyists:
 
WSOF is still around!?!
To be honest I totally forgot about them and I cant recall the last time I seen a thread in this forum about them.

WSOF is not the same, they changed name and got rid of their champs. They are now strictly tournaments champs get a million dollars. Here is Professional Fighters League general scheduled to be on NBCSports.gfgffg.png
 
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WSOF is not the same, they changed name and got rid of their champs. They are now strictly tournaments champ get a million dollars. Here is Professional Fighters League general scheduled to be on NBCSports.View attachment 355145

Thanks.
I had no idea at all.
Interesting idea. A cool mil.. thats uhm cool.
Winner takes all or?
 
Thanks.
I had no idea at all.
Interesting idea. A cool mil.. thats uhm cool.
Winner takes all or?

"The season-ending PFL Championship promises to be one of the most talked about nights in sports, with championship fights for each of the six weight classes in one night in December. Before the year ends, six MMA athletes will share in over $10,000,000 in prize money and be crowned true champions."

http://www.professionalfightersleague.com/about-the-professional-fighters-league/
 
"The season-ending PFL Championship promises to be one of the most talked about nights in sports, with championship fights for each of the six weight classes in one night in December. Before the year ends, six MMA athletes will share in over $10,000,000 in prize money and be crowned true champions."

http://www.professionalfightersleague.com/about-the-professional-fighters-league/

wtf? thats some serious coin right there.
But problem is most if not all good fighters are under contract with other ogs which means they will be shelling out 10mil to mostly unknown or has been or never was fighters.
Sounds risky to me. But at least they are trying something a bit different rather than 2going head to head with the UFC".
 
What is Bellator thinking by having their 200th card in the UK? It won't be live in the UK or USA. All they are doing is getting the gate money.

Another one: why is Paul Daley fighting on 199 two weeks before the 200 show? Just..because they want to punish him?

I guess all anyone can say is just how poorly Bellator is currently run.

I have to put the blame at the doorstep of Coker and whoever is in charge of Bellator from the Viacom side of things. It just amazes me that they can't see this and do something about it. If its Viacom saying no its going to be taped delayed then Coker should not be loading up the card and should've never scheduled 200 outside of the US. All of it honestly is just mind boggling what they are doing and I don't know how anyone can defend them on it or explain how this is good business.
 
I have a feeling KSW and One Championship eclipsed the UFC on viewership in their countries.
 
I have a feeling KSW and One Championship eclipsed the UFC on viewership in their countries.
from what i've been reading, KSW holds some big events in poland. MMA is bigger than just the UFC for anyone who isn't willfully blind.
 
As long as Viacom and it's subsidiary Paramount are making money on advertising revenue, It's here to stay.


Bellator all hinges on what Viacom is willing to spend on the hours of live programming Bellator give them. With or without Bellator they have to spend money to fill those hours. I do think if Coker and people don't get there act together in the next year with what Viacom is spending on the product they maybe on the hot seat. The suits can't be happy with spending a hell of a lot more than say in 2015 and not seeing a whole lot of change in viewership. Sure attendance is better and maybe some other things but overall the ratings just seem stagnate.

I never understood why Spike and now Paramount barely ever replays any Bellator event or put together any type of Top 10 KO's type programs. To me that speaks volumes on how much they really care about Bellator. Tells me they don't make shit on Bellator and why would they waste an hour or more of programming time on something that won't produce what reruns of Cops will or whatever movie or show. Reruns of Bellator events or one hour or half hour "top 10 style show" would help get the name and product out there better and could help draw more viewers or at least common sense would lead you to believe that. God, I remember when the UFC was on Spike. There seemed be about 2 to 4 hours of UFC programming on Spike everyday if not more on many days.


P.S.: Chances are they won't even give us Bellator 200 Live on Paramount. Talk about just morons running the show. Hell of show is being put together, plus being 200, and it will be taped delayed over some damn movie that has been replayed probably 200 times over the years that afternoon. Grow a pair of balls someone with in Bellator or Paramount and get this live.

The UFC produced all of that content themselves. Spike was getting free content.
 
I have a feeling KSW and One Championship eclipsed the UFC on viewership in their countries.
Poland is only one country, though.

ONE is definitely beating UFC in SE Asia, but UFC has barely even tried in SE Asia.
 
They've found a niche at this point theres enough overflow from ufc where its interesting. they have big audience also.






The average of their last 15 events equals 504k viewers (per tapology).

Place your bets now.

I say they dont make it to 2019.
 
Out of all the non-UFC MMA organizations. I feel like ONE FC has the most exciting fights ans events and they're doing very well.
 
yeah, UFC lost alot of money initially but they werent also trying to compete with the UFC.

Also isnt Caldwell one of their homegrown college prospects? he became champion and his event just did 465k viewers defending his belt. Atleast in this case their homegrown talent development has been a failure.

So far nothing they are doing seems to work.

The reason why ratings have fall flat for the most part is way they are using their roster. Peak ratings show certain guys to bring people into the product. But many times the rest of the event is avg to fair at best and people don't care. Coker also loves stacking an event or two a quarter and everything else is a crap event. Hard to build any momentum with Bellator doing that.

What I think they need to do is press the pause button. Figure out your 10-15 best draws, then figure out your next 10 best draws, then figure out your 5 to 10 best up and comers that could be stars. Tell these guys if your healthy we are getting you three fights a year. Set up 10 main cards through out the year with about six matches per a card for the main card. Get at 5 to 6 of these fighters on each card. By doing this your at least giving fans a reason to turn in for the whole event or most of it. Right now its obvious by the ratings that many fans are tuning in for the last match or two at best and I be a majority of DVR people are doing the same thing. Then round out another 8 or so events a year with something more like a challenger series style. Also get cards ready so they can really push future cards. See if you can get Viacom to do some advertising on sister networks to help push the brand. If this doesn't help your avg rating go up then Bellaor chances are is just dead in the water.
 
so Bellator 197 just pulled 242k viewers. I couldnt believe the number but everyone is reporting it.

Looks like my call of bellator not seeing 2019 is looking to be right.

Anyone still betting the other way?
 
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