UFC’s business booming despite COVID, Dana White says

UFC president Dana White remains arrogant of the company’s enactment successful becoming the archetypal large athletics backmost successful concern during the tallness of the COVID-19 pandemic successful 2020.

He’s adjacent much excited astir what was accomplished by the MMA promotion successful 2021.

“It was the champion twelvemonth we ever had,” White said successful his sprawling second-floor bureau astatine the company’s office successful southwest Las Vegas. “We’re popping connected each metric you tin imagine. Sponsorship is done the roof. Social media, our numbers connected pay-per-view, our numbers connected television, arena records. This concern is connected fire.”

According to White, societal media subscribers are up 41 percent year-over-year and YouTube numbers are up 31 percent. Viewing hours connected TV and over-the-top platforms, arsenic good arsenic visits to the UFC’s website and each different numbers person accrued astatine better-than-expected levels.

The UFC’s success, spurred successful portion by its determination to proceed hosting unrecorded events astatine a clip erstwhile different nonrecreational sports were paused and determination was small contention successful the marketplace, was a large driving unit successful genitor institution Endeavor topping net projections successful the 3rd quarter.

“How are you not going to stake connected maine now?” White said. “If you look astatine the 20-year past of our company, we went done the recession of 2008 to 2010. Then we spell done a pandemic successful 2020 and 2021. I support looking astatine each the places we inactive haven’t gone. Then determination are truthful galore small tiny details I could archer you astir our concern that the country for maturation is unbelievable. There is nary ceiling.”

The UFC topped its grounds for astir pay-per-view income successful a twelvemonth successful 2021, and White said helium thinks the all-time indoor unrecorded gross grounds for California volition autumn erstwhile the institution hosts UFC 270 connected Jan. 22 successful Anaheim, the archetypal large paper of 2022.

Part of the UFC’s quality to thrive contempt the planetary interaction of the pandemic was due to the fact that the institution had built a installation adjacent to its office wherever it could big unrecorded play events connected fundamentally a closed soundstage wherever it could power the environment. That besides meant securing 2 hotels to location fighters, judges, referees, committee officials, unit and adjacent immoderate media wherever they could beryllium tested and mostly quarantined.

The Apex has been a godsend for the UFC, and White said economically it would marque consciousness to proceed moving play Fight Night events determination due to the fact that accumulation costs are minimal, past going connected the roadworthy lone for large pay-per-view shows successful states wherever restrictions would let for afloat venues.

White, however, said helium thinks it’s important to instrumentality the amusement backmost connected the roadworthy astatine immoderate point.

“Doing shows implicit astatine the Apex is similar sitting astatine location successful your underwear doing a Zoom call,” helium said. “It’s precise cozy and comfy, but it’s not the mode to tally a business. We built this disconnected going to places similar Omaha, Nebraska, and each these towns that don’t get fights. We bring these events in, and erstwhile you acquisition a unrecorded fight, it makes you an adjacent bigger fan. It’s thing that needs to beryllium done.

“I cognize we person to get backmost connected the road, but I’m OK staying present until everything is somewhat mean again.”

White understands the archetypal question that ever volition beryllium asked erstwhile touting the company’s occurrence is however overmuch is being passed connected to the fighters. He disputes numbers that person been made nationalist suggesting minuscule portions of the profits going to the athletes, but said much wealth successful the company’s coffers volition ever mean much for the athletes.

“Fighter wage is wherefore I usually don’t bushed my thorax and speech astir however large we’re doing,” White said. “It has gone up by a monolithic magnitude since 2016. All the champions stock successful PPV money, and we’re mounting records there. Trust me, everybody is making money. We worked done the pandemic and kept each of our employees and kept the fighters working. Fighter wage has continually gone up.”

Contact Adam Hill astatine ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ connected Twitter.