For years fans that were looking for a match-up of two great fighters battling it out in the ring had to turn to boxing. But as a new generation begins to grow, the sport of mixed martial arts is slowly drawing the attention of those fans.
At the forefront of that movement is the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, a mixed martial arts corporation founded in 1993. The company’s popularity has skyrocketed, leading to a higher demand for tickets among fans, even landing them on the TicketNews top ten sports events earlier this year. To help meet that extra demand the UFC recently agreed to terms with StubHub and RazorGator subsidiary Primesport to be their official secondary ticketing partners.
“This is something our fans need now,” UFC President Dana White told the SportsBusiness Journal. “Our last fight sold out in less than one minute when tickets went on public sale.”
StubHub will be the official fan-to-fan marketplace of the fighting league, while Primesport will be handling ticket packages that include things like hotels, transportation and other amenities for the customer.
When the UFC was first getting off the ground, many of their events were held in front of meager crowds, failing to sell out a majority of the time. Now 15 years later, the UFC showcases more than a dozen pay-per-view events per year as well as a television partnership with Spike Television.
“Partnering with the UFC is an opportunity we have long welcomed, as we’ve witnessed an explosion of interest from UFC fans in our marketplace,” said Chris Tsakalakis, President of StubHub said in the press release.
Stubhub is also the official secondary market place for Major League Baseball, while Ticketmaster handles the secondary ticket sales for the other major sports leagues.
