Strikeforce is quickly putting the pieces together for its next year of MMA programming on Showtime and CBS. It's been a frantic month for CEO Scott Coker and his small staff as they zero in on dates, venues, and fighters for a possible 16 shows over the next 12 months.So far, one show is nearly booked, "Shamrock vs. Diaz," which hits the promotion's home base at HP Pavilion on April 11. All but two of the event's main card bouts have been revealed, with a source indicating that former EliteXC middleweight champ Robbie Lawler will fight on the card against an unnamed opponent, and terror Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos, who also remains without an opponent.
With up to 48 shows to book, that's a lot of work. But according to another source with knowledge of the negotiations between Strikeforce, ProElite, Showtime, and CBS, the deal will prove very lucrative to the San Jose, Calif. promotion.
The source, who chose to remain anonymous, said Strikeforce stands to make $25 million dollars in license fees over the course of its three-year deal with the broadcast network and its premium channel sibling.
A portion of that revenue, first disclosed by an SEC filing by ProElite on Feb. 11 and, according to the source, put in the neighborhood of five percent, will be paid to ProElite Inc. as consideration for the sale of its assets to Strikeforce. The total revenue coming into ProElite coffers could total up to $1.25 million.
Since the sale, the Los Angeles-based company has been mostly silent about its future in MMA promotion. CEO Chuck Champion told SI.com that the company had an existing TV deal with Fox Sports, and planned to nurture its relationship with the remaining active promotion under its umbrella, King of the Cage. But how that relationship would develop, and what shape the restructured company would take, remained unclear.
On March 12, Strikeforce and Showtime will trumpet the upcoming San Jose show with a media day featuring its executives and athletes.
6 comments:
25 million over three years is not that much, especially when you think about how many shows will be run.
Are you kidding me? thats more then $500,000 a show. awesome deal!
This isn't the UFC and Strikeforce is still a very young promotion. At 500K a show it's a terrific deal in this economic climate, hopefully they put on shows people want to watch and continue to grow, giving the UFC some legitimate competition it sorely needs.
well said third comment. that is money they recieve from their tv deals. they still make plenty of money from their ticket sales. looks like their tv deal will pay for most of their fighters salaries. leaving tickets sales as positive cash flow to strikeforce. i like it. if coker was the ufc pres. the ufc would be both respected and successful. instead of just successful.
Please stop showing women fights!!!
Who cares!!!
Folks need to remember that this is not far off from what Elite got.
Strikeforce will be spending a fair amount more per show in both production and in payroll.
Will it help them? Sure, but 500k won't cover the costs of production.
Coker will do far better than Elite, but this is not going to generate the kind of money that would help them become a world class org.
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