AÂ UFC card is more lucrative when Conor McGregor’s on it? Who knew?
We all know that Conor McGregor’s the prized fatted calf of Zuffa whose solid gold udders produce nothing but fat stacks of revenue, but if these estimations are to be believed, his knack for money-making power has hit a whole new level.
Creepy analogy aside, McGregor being on UFC 200 means a huge payday for the UFC.
ESPN’s Darren Rovell has done all the maths and carried the pesky ones to see how much McGregor could actually generate for the company by being on the card, and the result is absolutely staggering.
White told ESPN that the first meeting between McGregor and Diaz at UFC 196 earned 1.5m pay-per-view buys. In comparison, Jon Jones v Daniel Cormier at UFC 182, which is another rematch being pegged as an alternative main event at UFC 200, only scored around 800,000 buys according to Cormier.
Based on the figures that have been released, Rovell estimates that McGregor-Diaz II would bag around 525,000 more PPV buys than the Jones-Cormier option. At $70 a PPV, McGregor’s inclusion would likely generate around $36.7 million more from PPV buys alone.
As for the live gate, UFC 196 broke the UFC record banking $8.1m, with tickets for the event ranging from $204 to $1,454.
With McGregor back on the card, and the massive amount of title fights and other exciting bouts already announced for UFC 200, ticket prices are likely to increase with the attendance figures remaining steady.
Rovell argues that a live gate number of $10m is possible, with a price jump expected because of McGregor’s star power. He estimates the difference to the live gate is then roughly $7m, with another $800,000 for additional merchandise royalties and concession revenue thrown in for good measure.
There is likely to be a ticketed fan fest around UFC 200 with tickets ranging from $45, $65 and $75 for tickets. If McGregor isn’t fighting, Rovell predicts about 10,000 less people will attend, meaning around $500,000 lost in revenue.
The magic number we arrive at is $45m. That’s how much Conor McGregor’s name alone is worth to UFC 200.
As things stand, McGregor is not fighting on the event for refusing to show up to a press conference in Las Vegas last week. We’re assuming with this sort of money at stake, the UFC will be trying their utmost to come to some sort of resolution that sees The Notorious back on the card.
