The State of MMA Sponsorships: The PFL – Somethin’ about a Million
Read Time:9 Minute, 28 Second
The Professional Fighters League held its’ first event 1 year ago on June 7, 2018 after rebranding from World Series of Fighting and bringing in fresh investors to kickstart their new venture.
With a new approach to outfitting policies, a clear meritocracy system in place, and a chance to win 1 million dollars at the end of it all, the PFL made it clear to anyone that would listen that they were serious about changing MMA and they were here to stay. Given what we know now about sponsorship and outfitting policies in the UFC, Bellator and other promotions, the idea of standing right in the middle on these policies seems like a moderate change to the conversation.
The pay day of 1 million dollars for winning the season is surely alluring when you consider how truly rare big pay days are. The PFL guarantees a big pay day if you can win the Championship. Also, the PFL is expanding its digital presence and making sure its events are on major platforms when it comes to MMA content. They’ve shown that they are building a solid base altogether, building off of some business models that are already in place while introducing some new strategies. From their broadcasting deal with ESPN, to new sponsorship and investors, the PFL is shaping up to be a solid competitor with the other big names in the sport. However, there is something about that word Million that sticks out to me.
That’s such a big payday to have guaranteed year in/out, and given the star-driven nature of the sport, one should wonder how many people are interested? Can the tournament structure last? How is the PFL going to be able to sustain this model, and ultimately where is the money coming from? Will it eventually just dry up? Will investors continue to invest, or will the PFL still need to rely on investors in the future?
All of these questions start to come up when thinking about the product that is forming in front of us. A sustainable entity that’s merit based, allows some sponsorship placement with a huge bag of money at the end that everyone has a fair shake of getting. It seems like MMA heaven, but there’s something about a million dollars in MMA that makes me question it.
Will the PFL stick around?
The PFL announced in its new outfitting policy last year that they would be taking more of a hybrid approach to the situation. The promotion will be allowing up to 2 sponsorship spots for in-cage advertisement that can be changed 3 times per season. The sponsorship side of MMA is so crucial to fighters, as it allows them to supplement and maybe match or exceed their fight purse.
Building off the precedent set by UFC, where they do not allow sponsorship spots, is a way for them to keep their fighters happy, while also maximizing spots that are left for negotiating their own sponsorship. The promotion also believes that by using a tournament model, they will be able use that as a selling point for sponsors that wish to run extended campaigns. This has been a net positive for the PFL and through this model, they were able to attract the likes of Anheuser-Busch, iHeartMedia, and others, while also leaving room for the fighters to get some form of sponsorship for their performances.
Outside of these sponsors, the PFL have also been attracting other investors. People like Jimmy Iovine and Kevin Hart, and people with more of a sports background. People like Pittsburgh Penguins minority owner Mark Leschley and Washington Wizards majority owner Tim Leonsis are backing the PFL financially, and with these investors, the PFL has been able to pass Series B and C funding, which will now allow them to focus more on their efforts towards operations such as international growth, social media and analytics, and marketing.
With over 30 million dollars raised and a new deal with ESPN signed, it isn’t wild to say at this point that the PFL has raised some serious money by MMA standards, especially when you consider that they were able to do so after just one season.
Now that we know they’ve secured money to make their system work, how many people are showing up to the events and watching on TV/digital?
As Paul Gift reported, “While regular season ticket sales reports haven’t yet been received for comparison purposes, the PFL’s first two playoff events are night-and-day from its final year as WSOF. Gross ticket revenues were the lowest in the two-year sample, and almost nine out of every ten tickets (88%) were given away for free, according to reports obtained from California and Louisiana.”
When you also add into consideration that their first 3 sets of prelims for the second season averaged 123,000 viewers on ESPN2 with PFL 3 being the lowest at barely over 110,000 viewers. There is also the added reality that they are now behind the ESPN+ paywall for the main card. The question of sustainability creeps back up. As John S Nash of Bloody Elbow told me once in an interview, ‘I’m just not sure how interested MMA fans are in seeing the #25 fighter in a division compete for a million dollars.” This brings us back to the whole star-driven sport debate. But with a sport that rarely has big paydays for its athletes, I think the allure of going through a clear cut merit based tournament will prove to be a deal worth signing on for.
It’s the current sustainability that The PFL has via its business dealings in the past year that will prove crucial in trying to forecast what the future of the PFL looks like. According to the PFL, they were averaging 2.5M viewers on Facebook Watch last season, which regardless of, if you believe that or not, will add very little to the pot in terms of monetization for an entire organization.
Investors can sell and ESPN can choose to not resign or even worse, ‘bury’ the PFL product completely if it deems there truly isn’t any added value to giving them premiere spotlights. For this to work, the answer is very simple yet overused, have fighters people wish to see. And with free agency in MMA becoming more of a regular practice by the month, the PFL has an opportunity during this next 5 year stretch to showcase itself as a promotion in the hopes of getting a top flight free agent, or grow a relative unknown into a household name.
As more winners are churned out over these next few years and word spreads of the success of the promotion, the thought and sentiment will be simple: Why deal with the many politics and rankings of the UFC when you can come here and potentially leave a millionaire in just one year? They’ll even throw in 3 sponsorship spots and a monthly stipend for you as well. It remains to be seen if such a pitch has legs to stand on, but as we look at where they are right now, a huge part of their plan is in motion already and working. All winners got paid, get enough money to cover the big paydays, attract investors. With that established model now one year into their existence, next comes the most interesting part of the process.
How does the PFL fill venues and plan to promote on an international scale? How do they grow their social media presence without watering down its value and how will they attract names that fans can’t wait to see?
This is the part of the story that is being written now. At the time of the rebranding and announcing their first season as the PFL, it was easy to write off a new promotional effort promising large sums of money and making bold claims from out of nowhere. But fast forward one year, and they have secured a major broadcasting deal, attracted some household names as both sponsors and investors, paid their fighters what they promised as far as the champions, and are knee deep into a second season. Having a roster filled with a mix of longtime fight veterans and unknown commodities so far hasn’t shown to be successful for domestic viewership, but in some part that is due to the fact that its’ only in its second season. How many does it take to finally break a star to the mainstream? Its yet to be seen and to be only 1 year in with so much guaranteed money means it may not matter now, but if they are able to use their model to sign on a few notable names it may not matter for at least a few years.
Who could be the big free agent signing, or which fighter the PFL has already has all depends on who you ask. Stories change week to week in this sport. I’m choosing to focus on this small window they have to make an impact. From rebranding the entire company, to securing broadcast deals and making sure they get value out of sponsors, leaving the door open for fighters to get their own sponsors, the PFL seems to have undoubtedly set itself up for success in the long run.
But as we take a look at some metrics a year into their operation, it’s clear there is a drop off compared to where the WSOF left off, and once contracts are up for renegotiation.
The PFL is willing to make the tournament model their strategy and to date, have been able to attract blue chip sponsorship, TV deals and investors alike. They have a season completed to be able to learn from for the future, and they are making a lot of noise as of late trying to become another successful brand in MMA. I just wonder when it comes to that prize of a million dollars, is it here to stay for the athletes? I’m sure there are thousands of fighters now that would be willing to enter, but what about the next generation of guys? Will the PFL make it to the next generation to be able to offer this opportunity to a new crop of fighters?
Having choices in MMA is always a good thing, and most that are reading this can agree a tournament structure with 1 million dollars on the line, is probably the most fair path to becoming a millionaire in MMA. So for now, while they clearly have some things to figure out as far as viewers and attendees, I’ll be watching to see who the next MMA millionaire is, at least for the moment wondering how long this all can last.
Stay tuned for the next part of the MMA Sponsorship series – “Analytics and One Championship”
Sources used to write this article:
– MarketWatch
– Investopedia
– Forbes: 1 / 2 / 3
– Show Buzz Daily
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The Scrap’s Tyreef Cash has been a Music Producer & Hip Hop Beatmaker since 2013, covering MMA since 2018. Currently studying Media Relations at the Community College of Philadelphia, Cash has also trained Shotokan Karate, Folkstyle Wrestling, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Follow Tyreef (@nixon_speaks) on Twitter.
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