Portraits Of Pilgrimage Groups At UFC China And Anxiety Disorder At Local Fighting Events

Sports big business reporter

15,128 people and tens of millions of dollars. These are the two numbers that all fighting practitioners want to know after the UFC holds its first event in mainland China. The former is the number of spectators of the game, and the latter is the scale of ticket revenue. At a time when local fighting events in China rely on large-scale ticket giveaways to fill empty venues, and organizers are always tight-lipped about ticket revenue, these two figures released by UFC are highly credible in the industry, and almost no one questions them, and they can What is asserted is that both figures set historical records for fighting events held in China. But for those who attended the game in person on November 25, these two dry statistics alone simply cannot reflect that on the night of November 25, the UFC pilgrims who came from all over the country shook the dome and paid homage. The fanatical atmosphere of worship and the huge business prospects behind it.

▼Li Jingliang KOed his opponent in the Shanghai competition, and the audience cheered immediately

There is no doubt that the UFC Shanghai Fight Night on November 25th is a super event in the Chinese fighting world. From the die-hard fans who have been watching the game for more than ten years and have come all the way from the Yunnan and Guizhou regions, to the urban white-collar workers in Shanghai who have just tried MMA for fitness, from the hundreds of Chinese sports media who have come here because of it, to the long-term live coverage of UFC The American media, from the Chinese fighting stars who came to cheer for their brothers, to the fighting event bosses who quietly came in to watch and learn... If you could draw a portrait of these 15,000 UFC pilgrims one by one, you would find that they are absolutely amazing. Although the expressions of most people are piety, awe, fanaticism, and envy, there must be some fighting event bosses who can't hide their anxious expressions. Even if these people will openly declare that they welcome Dances with Wolves in front of others, they still can’t help but complain privately that the UFC has begun to wield a sickle to harvest China’s immature MMA (mixed martial arts) market.

▼A total of eight Chinese athletes competed in UFC Shanghai, led by Li Jingliang and Wang Guan

On the one hand, China's local fighting and fighting events are burning money like crazy but generally losing money, and the fan audience is seriously lacking in loyalty to the event. On the other hand, Chinese fighting fans worship a "Fight Night" that is relatively ordinary in the UFC event level. This strong contrast is obviously torturing and even tormenting many people. But at the same time, many people have overlooked one point: UFC recruited hundreds of American staff to come to China for the Shanghai game, and almost all the competition equipment was flown from the United States. Everything the UFC did was It is just to ensure that Chinese fans can experience the authentic UFC games as much as possible. Only by realizing the professional attitude of the UFC during the competition in China, perhaps everyone can realize with a more open mind that what the UFC brings to China's local fighting events is not an anxiety disorder, but a reassurance and three revelations.

The audiences for UFC and Chinese fighting events are obviously different: urban white-collar workers and greasy uncles each have their own preferences?

At a time when fighting events in China generally rely on free tickets to make attendance less embarrassing, UFC Shanghai's box office has reached tens of millions of yuan. Obviously we made a conscious mistake in the past: there are no niche sports, only niche sports. tournament. So who are the people who like UFC in China? You might as well observe a typical pilgrim group with the sports business reporter - five MMA enthusiasts from Zhengzhou, Henan. During the three days in Shanghai, he or she fully demonstrated their deep love for UFC and MMA sports. In-depth thoughts on how to further promote it in China. If we really want to draw a portrait of the UFC pilgrim group, they are obviously the best choice.

▼UFC chose to hold the event in Shanghai, which is undoubtedly in line with its fan base positioning

Perhaps it is influenced by the martial arts tradition of the Central Plains, or it may benefit from the promotion of Henan Satellite TV's "Martial Arts: Cage Pair". In short, mixed martial arts is quite popular in Zhengzhou. New MMA clubs open every month, and students They are basically urban white-collar workers and college students. 29-year-old Wang Yuan (name proposed) is the co-founder and head coach of an MMA club. He has been in the industry for nearly ten years. He and his club are well-known in the local area. There are currently 45 students, including 1/ 3 are all female students, but Wang Yuan’s club has not yet trained top professional players. As soon as UFC announced that it would hold UFC "Fight Night" in Shanghai on July 29, Wang Yuan sent this message to the student group and asked if any students were willing to form a group to watch the game. Initially, 10 people signed up, but after accounting for costs, there were still four students left. Wang Yuan made a rough calculation and found that round-trip tickets, food and accommodation, and tickets (480 yuan/ticket) add up. Each person needs to pay 2,000 yuan in advance, and any excess will be refunded.

On the evening of November 22 before departure, the club also held a small farewell ceremony for these five UFC tourists, and these five promised to share their experience of the game with the student group. But after arriving in Shanghai on the 23rd, these five people had no time to share their experiences with the rear. From going to the Kerry Center where the players are staying to ask for autographs, to queuing up for the opportunity to ask questions at the weigh-in ceremony, from asking friends to take them to a gym that cooperates with UFC to observe the special training class of UFC Hall of Famer Antonio Nogueira, to I will watch the UFC game on the night of November 25th, and also meet with MMA fans who I have never met before. During the three days that Wang Yuan and the other five people spent in Shanghai, apart from being overwhelmed with admiration and admiration, one of the most intuitive "costs" of the pilgrimage was that each person spent more than a thousand yuan more than the budget.

▼UFC Hall of Fame member Nogueira holds a special training class in Shanghai. The class fee is 500 yuan per person and the viewing tickets are 150 yuan each.

Wang Yuan summarized his most intuitive experience of watching the game: "The biggest secret of the UFC is to create blockbuster matchups and blockbuster stars. Although 'Spider' Silva unexpectedly retired from the Shanghai event this time, resulting in a lack of top stars in the game, the UFC However, as many as eight Chinese fighters were arranged to participate in the competition at once. Thinking about the past, it was extremely difficult for Chinese athletes to sign with the UFC, but now there are as many as eight fighters participating. This suddenly triggered a sense of pride in the Chinese MMA community. Who doesn’t want to witness this historical moment? Looking at many domestic competitions, what they lack most is the ability to create topics.”

"Many of the videos our club plays on weekdays are UFC videos. UFC star players have very distinct characteristics, and everyone will unconsciously imitate their tricks. As for domestic competitions, we rarely go to watch them. In addition to the differences in the competitive level of the players, More importantly, the competition is very unprofessional in terms of player pairing. There is a big gap in the strength of the opposing players, and they often KO at very fast speeds. It is not suitable for students to observe and learn. Moreover, the competition does not have a very professional packaging level for the players. In addition to the previous Yang Jianping is very in line with the taste of white-collar workers. Some players are good, but they don’t even have clear muscle lines. I’m afraid they are more suitable for greasy middle-aged uncles to appreciate.”

Speaking of the consumption cost of this UFC China event, Wang Yuan told the Sports Business reporter that in addition to watching the event, he also used this UFC Shanghai event to meet many colleagues and MMA enthusiasts who had only chatted online before. It is definitely a big gathering in China's MMA world. There are many people who spent three to five thousand yuan to watch this game. "This is the first time UFC has come to mainland China to hold an event. For people with our income level, it is quite cost-effective to spend three to five thousand yuan to go to the venue and experience UFC events that we could only watch on TV in the past. . Of course, I also know that some star players will go around asking for tickets this time and buy VIP tickets to entertain business partners, or some wealthy students from some boxing gyms will pay a lot of money to buy tickets to honor their master, but I think these are isolated phenomena. The main audience for UFC is those MMA enthusiasts who can afford it independently."

As Wang Yuan said, MMA enthusiasts like Wang Yuan should account for a large proportion of the 15,000 viewers. They are about 25-30 years old, live in first- and second-tier cities, and have a monthly income of more than 10,000 yuan. They have liked to practice MMA since college and even signed up for an MMA club, practicing two to three times a week. In his spare time, he likes to watch UFC games online, and his total monthly expenditure on MMA is about two to three thousand yuan.

▼UFC fans are concentrated in first- and second-tier cities, mainly young college students and urban white-collar workers

With the help of Wang Yuan's tour group, it may be possible to draw a rough portrait of the pilgrims for UFC Shanghai, and this is the demographic background that enables UFC Shanghai to achieve a box office of tens of millions. But for China's local fighting events, this part of UFC's consumer group is like a mirror in the mirror. They can see it, but it is difficult to convert them into their own consumers in the short term. Wang Yuan said bluntly: "Let's make an analogy. There are 300 million basketball fans in China, but the vast majority of them like to watch the NBA. Those who watch the NBA dare to say that they never watch the CBA, but those who watch the CBA often do so at the same time." I know how to watch NBA. In the same way, UFC has many fans in China, but no one pays attention to local fighting events in China. Therefore, UFC Shanghai is very popular, but it really has no direct relationship with local fighting events in China."

UFC Shanghai Exacerbates Fighting Anxiety in China: The Physicalization of the Wushu Association + Policy Protection Is Not a Good Medicine

UFC's fan base is mainly urban white-collar workers in first- and second-tier cities, while the audience for local fighting events in China is middle-aged greasy uncles in third- and fourth-tier cities? UFC fans spend two to three thousand yuan a month on MMA sports, but it is difficult for these high-quality consumers to become the audience of local fighting events in China? Although Wang Yuan's views are not supported by big data, the successful hosting of UFC Shanghai has really aggravated the anxiety of some Chinese fighting events. On the night of the match on November 25, a fighting event founder was making fun of the UFC’s mediocre back-up matches in a fight group with over 300 people, but at the same time he continued to post about himself in the circle of friends. After receiving a lot of likes for the photos and short videos of him watching the game at the scene, the veteran quickly deleted these posts from his Moments.

▼The duel between Wang Guan and "Royal Bruce Lee" is regarded as the highest level of competition among the eight Chinese players.

The complex mood of this veteran is completely understandable. After all, those "pursuing" Chinese fighting events still regard UFC as a competitor. On weekdays, when I call on everyone to repost my event in the WeChat group and give out red envelopes, it is difficult to cause any commotion. Now, just posting to a circle of friends who are watching the UFC live has received a large number of likes, which is really embarrassing. What exacerbates the anxiety of these fighting event organizers is that UFC Shanghai has demonstrated extraordinary appeal from ticket sales and weighing ceremonies to enthusiastic media coverage and guest lineups:

Ticket sales: The regular seats of Shanghai Station tickets are divided into seven price ranges: 280, 480, 680, 880, 1080, 1380, and 2980 yuan. There are also three VIP packages of 8880, 10880, and 13880 yuan. Objectively speaking, compared with similar domestic events, the prices of these tickets for UFC Shanghai are relatively high. But since the official launch in early August, 90% of the tickets have been sold within a month. One month before the start of the game, the tournament announced that the tickets were sold out. Finally, as you can see, the Mercedes-Benz Center was packed on game night on November 25th. In addition, Sports Business discovered during random interviews that not only fans from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai were buying tickets, but also fans from Inner Mongolia, Guizhou and other places and even MMA athletes and boxing gym owners.

Reporting by the media at their own expense: This is a realistic topic that does not need to be avoided. In China, given that boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts are niche sports and receive relatively low media attention, event organizers will generally actively invite media to report and provide certain accommodation and transportation subsidies. However, this time for UFC Shanghai, the media basically registered on the official website in accordance with UFC regulations. The event did not provide transportation and food subsidies. However, in the end, more than 100 Chinese media came at their own expense, in addition to about 20 overseas media also came to Shanghai to follow up and report, which shows how attractive this game is to the media.

▼19-year-old Song Yadong became famous after KOing his opponent in Shanghai Station, and is expected to receive key training from UFC in the future

Weighing Ceremony: In China, the weighing ceremony of fighting events is basically a formality for the players, which is relatively boring and boring, so it is generally only open to the media. However, the UFC Shanghai weigh-in ceremony on November 24 was open to fans. As a result, nearly 10,000 fans came to the weigh-in ceremony, and fans lined up in a long line to ask questions to their favorite players. It can be said arbitrarily that in a fighting event held in China, there has never been such a sight of tens of thousands of fans watching the weighing ceremony live.

Guests watching the game: The guest lineup for this game is also star-studded. From Feng Shanshan, who was just crowned the world's number one golfer, to the former Chinese tennis star Li Na, from "Rain God" Xiao Jingteng, "Dapeng" Dong Chengpeng to the famous director Tang Jili, in addition to the star of the CBA Shanghai Men's Basketball Team, "The Lonely God" Frey A group of local Shanghai cultural and sports stars, including Deit, also attended the game. Generally speaking, in domestic sports events, the only thing that can attract a large number of celebrities to watch the game is the CBA All-Star Game or the Chinese Super League rivalry showdown. It is difficult for local fighting events to attract such a large group of guests.

In fact, anxiety in Chinese fighting events has long been deeply rooted. On the one hand, China’s local competitions are all over the place, and the competition between them is fierce. However, major competitions lack clear profit models and can only rely on burning money to maintain the situation. However, under the pressure of losses, many competitions have disappeared; On the other hand, top foreign events are also coveting the Chinese market. Glory, the world's top free fighting event, first received investment from Yaowei Capital in 2016, and then later; as for UFC, the world's top MMA event, it has been in the market since 2010. The office was officially established in China, and the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter: The Power of China" was also broadcast on Liaoning Satellite TV. UFC has held competitions in Macau, China three times, but its real goal is to obtain the opportunity to hold competitions in mainland China.

▼The opening ceremony of the reality show "The Ultimate Fighter: The Power of China"

Under internal and external difficulties, China's fighting events are already extremely anxious. Now that UFC has successfully held events in mainland China, this will naturally further aggravate the anxiety of China's fighting events. As one of the media outlets that continues to pay attention to UFC China, Sports Business was the first to disclose in February this year that UFC China was going through the application process for UFC Shanghai. At the end of May, it was the first to disclose that the approval procedures for UFC Shanghai have basically been approved. Approved, the time was initially finalized in the fourth quarter (for details, please refer to "UFC East Journey: It is expected to come to mainland China for the first time in history to hold an event to help Chinese fighting explore and break the profit puzzle". That is to say, since then, some familiar fighting event formats Regarding this matter, a sports business reporter expressed deep concern: China's MMA market was mainly developed by China's local events, and now the UFC is doing everything possible to hold events just to pick up the ready-made products and harvest the market.

With the success of this UFC Shanghai event and the UFC is carefully considering continuing to increase its efforts in organizing competitions in China, the view that "Chinese fighting events plant trees but the UFC plucks the fruits" is quite popular among those with anxiety disorders. market. It just so happens that China's sports reform is currently focusing on promoting the actualization process of the association, and the actualization of the Chinese Wushu Association has also begun to be put on the agenda. Therefore, many fighting events also hope to absorb more of the founders of Chinese fighting games after the physicalization of the Wushu Association. People, so as to protect the interests of China's local fighting events in terms of policies and protect the enthusiasm of China's local events.

Previously, the State Sports General Administration had issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Martial Arts Events" in response to the chaos in martial arts fighting events, which implicitly put forward supervisory opinions on overseas martial arts events held in China: "The State Sports General Administration Martial Arts The Sports Management Center and the Chinese Wushu Association should strengthen the supervision of overseas martial arts organizations carrying out martial arts activities in China in accordance with the law. Overseas martial arts organizations should carry out martial arts activities in China in accordance with the law, and are not allowed to set up branches in China, and are not allowed to engage in or fund for-profit martial arts Activities. All types of counterfeit international martial arts organizations that have not been recognized by the Wushu Sports Management Center of the State Sports General Administration must cease and are not allowed to carry out any martial arts events in China."

▼The "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Supervision and Management of Martial Arts Events" proposed to strengthen the supervision of overseas martial arts events held in China.

Objectively speaking, whether it is the physicalization of the Chinese Wushu Association or the design of relevant policies to protect China’s enthusiasm for hosting local events, it is natural. However, one of the essential attributes of the sports industry is to use sports for external exchanges and opening up. In 2014 The cancellation of the event approval system in Document No. 46 of 2017 is only the first step towards opening up the sports industry. In terms of martial arts events, if you want to forcefully supervise overseas events, I am afraid that it is not in line with the historical development trend, and it will not help China’s local fighting events to explore themselves. profit model. Perhaps only by looking at the successful hosting of UFC China with a more open mind and drawing advanced experience that meets their own development needs can those patients with anxiety disorders truly be cured.

Three hidden points from UFC Shanghai reveal that China’s fighting market is far from harvest time

Putting aside any sectarian opinions, what UFC Shanghai can give to local fighting events in China is not anxiety, but a reassurance. At present, except for classic events such as "Martial Arts" and "Legend of Heroes", most Chinese fighting events were born after 2010. Before the brand influence has been truly established, losses are a normal phenomenon. Throughout the development history of UFC, it has also experienced many years of losses.

As we all know, UFC was founded as early as 1993, but until 2006, the event had been difficult to achieve large-scale profitability. It was precisely because of the huge operating pressure that the founder of UFC, SEG Group (1995-2000), sold it to the Las Vegas entertainment tycoon Lorenzo Fertitta brothers in 2000 for US$2 million. The Fertitta brothers also reformed the event several times, and spent US$10 million in 2005 to launch a reality show TUF (full name: The Ultimate Fighter Reality Show) in which MMA athletes participated. Revenue has been profitable for the first time, and this has been 12 years since the UFC was founded. When the UFC still needs 12 years of growth before it can achieve sustainable profitability, why should China's local fighting events be so anxious?

▼The Fertitta brothers and UFC’s meritorious president Dana White (middle) together lead the UFC out of the trough and to the top

Putting aside the anxiety that the event has been difficult to make a profit in the development process of the event itself, UFC's first event in mainland China has achieved "applause and critical acclaim". For local fighting events in China, how can this external pressure be resolved? ? In fact, let’s think about it differently. UFC’s China event is more like a professional teaching course for Chinese fighting events. The high level of professionalism it demonstrated during the event can completely help China’s fighting events avoid detours. .

In the opinion of sports business reporters, there are three aspects of UFC China that best reflect professional standards:

First, the software and hardware standards for hosting competitions should be globally unified. In order to let Chinese fans watch an authentic UFC match, for this Shanghai match, UFC has flown everything from the octagonal cage, to the lighting, stage and sound equipment, from the host to ordinary employees, from the United States at no cost. This kind of professionalism The attitude is admirable enough. For Chinese fighting events, this point must be absorbed. Whether the event is held in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou or a small county in the 18th tier, it must be ensured that the level of the event is basically the same and cannot be too different.

Second, regard copyright protection as the lifeline of the event. As we all know, the number one income pillar of foreign events is often copyright, and UFC is a leader in copyright income. The PPV sales plan launched by UFC and Fox has created a number of copyright income records. In addition to selling the live broadcast rights to PPTV for UFC Shanghai this time, TV stations in various provinces and cities also purchased the highlight rights, and the picture rights were awarded to Getty Photo Agency. During the competition, the media are prohibited from taking pictures or videos of the event by themselves. Some media colleagues who try to take pictures of the scene and post them on WeChat will be stopped in time.

It must be pointed out that this kind of copyright protection is the most stringent among all competitions held in China (even more than the CBA and Chinese Super League). It is true that many sports events in China are currently not only unable to make money from copyright, but even have to pay TV stations a huge amount of bandwidth fees. However, fighting competition parties must speed up the exploration of market development and protection mechanisms for new media copyrights. Only by starting from scratch can Chinese fighting games gradually obtain corresponding income from copyright in the future.

▼The main event in which "Count" Bisping was KO was broadcast live in Europe and the United States

Third, enhance the ability to create hot topics. The UFC will conduct a three-month promotional warm-up period before each event. During this process, the UFC will create multiple topics for the media to hype, including many controversial points. For example, during the warm-up of UFC Shanghai, there were two topics that were controversial:

1. Silva failed the drug test, causing the UFC to temporarily replace the main event player. The legendary star player "Spider" Silva, who was originally scheduled to be the main event in Shanghai, suddenly failed a drug test in early November. The UFC did not cover up this negative news, but publicly admitted it early in the morning. The UFC made a prompt decision and replaced "Count" Bisping within 24 hours to come to the rescue. But it has only been twenty days since Bisping's last game, and he was injured in the last game. According to the requirements of the American NYSAC Association, Bisping should not participate in the game again in the short term, but China is not a member of the NYSAC. country, so Bisping can participate in UFC Shanghai without restriction. However, this arrangement will still cause concerns about Bisping's competitive status. The topic of whether Bisping should participate in the competition once aroused widespread discussion (the final contest Siping was directly knocked out in the first round).

▼Silva’s doping scandal once caused concern among Chinese UFC fans, who were worried about the decline in attention of UFC Shanghai.

2. UFC Shanghai has arranged for as many as eight Chinese athletes to participate. It is well known that the UFC is extremely strict in player selection. Before this, only a few people in China, including Zhang Tiequan, Juma Beike, and Li Jingliang, had actually received official UFC contracts. This time in Shanghai, UFC actually signed eight Chinese fighters in one fell swoop. This certainly made many Chinese fans quite proud and believed that the competitive level of Chinese MMA has been significantly improved. However, foreign media such as Agence France-Presse believed that this It was the worst overall level of fighter competition ever held by the UFC. Because the topic was so controversial, it was still being debated until the end of the game.

▼Some foreign media believe that UFC Shanghai is the worst competitive event in UFC history

Compared with UFC, which can always find hot topics at every event, in the past few years, only two fights between Yilong and Buakaw ("Wulin Style" in 2015) in China's fighting events have aroused widespread discussion in the industry. Luohe Station, 2016 "Martial Arts Style" Nanjing Station) and the Yilong Challenge Finals between Yilong and Xitichai (2017 "Martial Arts Style" Yunnan Station). Therefore, Chinese fighting events must strengthen their celebrity packaging and the ability to hype up the event's topics. Of course, these packaging capabilities are also a reflection of professionalism and cannot be achieved overnight.

In any case, the success of UFC Shanghai has sent a message to the Chinese fighting community, which is struggling to find a profit model: as long as the event is professional enough, it can definitely be both popular and popular. Of course, UFC’s first event in mainland China is not perfect. For example, UFC Shanghai Station only has two sponsors, General Tire and AirAsia. After all, many brands are not willing to sponsor just one event. They need The most important thing is long-term cooperation with brands. As for the live broadcast platform, UFC Shanghai only has one online platform in China, PPTV, and no live TV platform. In addition, what worries Chinese boxing fans is that in order to broadcast Bisping's main event to Europe and the United States on time, when Li Jingliang appeared before the co-main event, his appearance ceremony was compressed and the entrance music was not played. This is undoubtedly Also a flaw.

▼The Chinese fighting market still needs to be deeply cultivated. The number of die-hard fans willing to spend real money is relatively small, and it is far from the harvest season.

Obviously, the above-mentioned flaws are all areas that need to be strengthened in the 2018 UFC China event. More importantly, even though UFC holds one event in China every year, it is not a permanent event in China after all, so there is no need to worry about Chinese fighting events. In the future, it will always be China's local fighting events that can truly harvest the Chinese fighting market. But right now, China’s fighting market is far from mature, let alone who will harvest it. The UFC has proven through this Shanghai event that it has a large number of die-hard fans in China. They are willing to pay real money for the UFC. At this moment, our local fighting events in China should ask ourselves: Have we cultivated our own die-hard fan?

Note: Some of the pictures used in this article come from the Internet