It's almost getting to the point that we see a UFC event every couple of weeks now, but they're back at it with another fight card tonight from Portland, Oregon.....but before I get to my picks for the card tonight, I did want to talk about the location and the subsequent lack of ticket sales for the event tonight...
Having had a chance to hang out in Portland for a couple of days during my trip of the baseball stadiums, it was my favourite smaller city of all 35 that I went to....it reminded me a lot of Ottawa in the sense that it was a city with about 500 thousand people in the downtown core, but it had such a small town feel that you felt like you knew everyone after only a couple of days....
So, on the surface, I was excited to hear that Portland was getting a chance to be put on the map, but after thinking about it for a couple of minutes, my excitement turned to worry because I quickly realized that this event could end up being a flop and the city may never get a chance again....
There's a couple of things that are working against the city of Portland here....first off, as much as Randy Couture and Minotauro Nogueira are liked in MMA circles, there just isn't the kind of excitment as there was for a Mir/Lesnar or Silva/Griffin fight....if there was some hatred, at least there would be a selling point, but it's simply two veterans going at it....not very exciting...
The second problem is that the high-income population of Portland doesn't fit the mold of a typical MMA fan.....the people with money in Portland would be more inclined to take in an opera or a play (and then maybe head to one of many strip clubs in the area.... :-p ), instead of seeing two guys duke it out inside a cage.....
I've heard that if the card doesn't draw well, the blame will be put on the economy, and to be fair, it's the easy answer, but simply put, it's not the correct one....Yes, the slumping economy has had its effects just like it has everywhere else around the world, but it's nowhere near as bad in Portland as some people would suggest....
Much like the phrases, "the war on insert word here" and "it is what it is" (although I'm hearing it less and less now, which is a good sign for humanity), they simply represent crutches that people just hide behind when they want to sound more intelligent than they really are or they don't want to look for the real answer....
Dana White says he's happy with the fact that there have been about 10 thousand tickets sold....In his mind, Portland has done well 'cause, "There's baseball and basketball and all these other big major sports that are hurting. People aren't buying tickets and people aren't spending money."
Well, here's the problem with his theory.....last time I checked, the city of Portland only has one major professional sports franchise and the Portland Trail Blazers haven't played a game in several months, so the Portland sports fan has had plenty of time to save some of their hard earned money for an event like this....
But if you look even further, you can see that the UFC has had no problem selling the card to the typical Portland sports fan....the upper level of the Rose Garden for tonight's card has sold well since those tickets only went for about 50 dollars, but it's been the lower bowl that they've had trouble selling for 300-400 dollars...
And it goes back to the population and the overall tone of the city that I talked about before....the high-income players of Portland probably have plans to go see the opera followed by some wine and cheese tasting....the key all along for Dana White was to try and get these people to buy and it looks as though he failed and because of that, the city of Portland will suffer....
It can't be slam-dunks in every city (like it was in Philly last time out) and the sport of MMA is only going to grow more and more, but the Portland experiment represents the rare bump in the road for the UFC.....Enjoy the card tonight, Portland 'cause the chances of you seeing the octagon again are not looking good....