UFC’s stopover in Orlando for UFC on FOX 17 was a huge success in national TV ratings, holding steady despite competition from the NFL and Star Wars.
UFC on FOX 17 at the Amway Center drew an announced attendance of 14,459 and a live gate of $1.71 million. Both up from UFC on FOX 11 with a Fabricio Werdum vs. Travis Browne headliner.
UFC on FOX 11 took place in April 2014 at Amway Center and drew 14,410 fans for a live gate of $1,651,776.
Orlando holds the top two spots for most money made at UFC Live Gates at a non-PPV UFC event in the United States.
The question now is not if UFC will return to Orlando. That should be a given.
The question now is if those numbers causes UFC President Dana White to bring UFC pay per view to Orlando?
The national TV viewers for UFC on Fox 17 from Orlando, headlined by Rafael dos Anjos successful lightweight title defense against Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, garnered 2,781,000 viewers. The number was exactly what the FOX show had been doing the past two years in December, with 2.8 million viewers for a 2014 show headlined by Junior Dos Santos vs. Stipe Miocic,, and a 2013 show headlined by Demetrious Johnson vs. Joseph Benavidez for the flyweight title.
Keep in mind UFC had stiff competition from an NFL game with the New York Jets vs. Dallas Cowboys that did 7,410,000 viewers on the NFL Network. Also UFC’s numbers were more than likely impacted by the opening weekend for Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Aside from the NFL game, the UFC show was the most watched sports event of the night nationally.
The previous two UFC on FOX shows also did in the same range, with the July show headlined by T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao doing 2,756,000 viewers and the April show headlined by Luke Rockhold vs Lyoto Machida doing 2,745,000 viewers.
The three-hour prelims from 5-8 p.m. on FS1, headlined by Myles Jury vs. Charles Oliveira did 693,000 viewers, slightly up from the 654,000 and 613,000 of the previous two December shows.
UFC averaged 2,835,000 viewers for its four FOX specials in 2015.
[…] 4. UFC Returns to Orlando Which Turns into a Big Success […]