In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (subscription required), Dave Meltzer is reporting this weekend's show, which emanates from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and is headlined by a light-heavyweight bout between Quinton Jackson and Matt Hamill, has sold just $1.5 million in tickets, which he estimates at around 4,500 tickets.
Meltzer writes:
The 5/28 Las Vegas show had $1.5 million in tickets sold to the public, which would probably be around 4,500, but that doesn't include casino sales which for Vegas are substantial. But that's well below the usual pace for a PPV show in that city for non-casino sales. The card wasn't doing well with Gray Maynard vs. Frankie Edgar on top and losing the main event isn't going to help matters.
UFC 125, which was headlined by this show's original main event of Frankie Edgar against Gray Maynard for the lightweight championship, also struggled mightily at the gate, selling only 6,978 tickets with an additional 5,896 in the building on comps. The gate for that show, held Jan. 1, was $2.17 million.
Meltzer also writes that UFC 131 in Vancouver has sold around 10,000 tickets for $2.7 million (about 4,000 shy of capacity). That number seems to be inflated because as of Wednesday night, 1,628 tickets were available for the show on StubHub (compared to only 190 for UFC 130). Not only that, the lowest face value price for the show was $100. You can find tickets for half that.
Meltzer notes the upcoming UFC on Versus show, the company's debut effort in Pittsburgh, has sold about 5,000 tickets.
Is this a sign of the UFC's high ticket prices catching up with them for non-marquee events? Tickets for this weekend's show ranged from $75-$800 while tickets for UFC on Versus go for $50-$250. The UFC cannot be happy about this. The late May show is usually one of the company's bigger shows, as is the early July show (dating back to 2006). This year, both of those shows are looking to be flops at the gate. It will be interesting to see the advance for July's UFC 132 because it's difficult to see it being bigger than UFC 130.
