LVMS numbers outmuscle UFC boasts

Another great sports event for Las Vegas.

I enjoy the Ultimate Fighting Championship brand of mixed martial arts. It’s the fastest growing sport in the world, and I watch it regularly on cable TV.

Our metropolitan area is and always will be a minor league sports town that hosts major league events from fighting to racing to rodeo.

I’m an MMA fan, but I must challenge some chest-thumping comments by UFC president Dana White that his organization is the only major league "franchise" in Las Vegas.

Maybe he’s never been to Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

This is not to detract from what White has done with the financial backing of friends and casino executives Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who created Zuffa, parent company of the UFC. They acquired the struggling UFC for $2 million in 2001, and Forbes estimates it’s now worth about $1 billion.

It’s a great asset to Las Vegas and the worldwide sports community.

But the biggest sports "franchise" in Southern Nevada is Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which hosts the state’s biggest single-day sports events. The annual NASCAR Sprint Cup race in March draws 140,000, and the Nationwide race the day before attracts more than 100,000. The Cup race is the best-attended sporting event west of Dallas.

Between Feb. 2, 2008, and Jan. 31, six major UFC events in Las Vegas had combined attendance of 80,087 and produced $86.2 million in nongaming revenue, according to research by Applied Analysis, which was commissioned by Lorenzo Fertitta, chairman and chief executive of Zuffa.

A study for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority shows this year’s Sprint Cup race generated $154 million in gaming and nongaming revenue. (The research does not release nongaming-only statistics.)

The gap between UFC and the speedway grows wider by adding the impact of two three-day NHRA drag racing events that combine to draw more than 100,000 fans.

Fertitta said although the UFC’s local economic impact ranks second to NASCAR, the MMA league’s fan base might surpass the fan base of the one-day auto race because of television.

We’ll throw a rear naked choke on that claim.

The pay-per-view count for Saturday’s MMA event is not in, but the previous best is about 1.1 million buys, and some analysts estimate each buy is shared by an average of eight viewers.

That pales to the national audience for the free telecast of this year’s Sprint Cup race in Las Vegas that produced 11 million viewers, according to Nielsen Media.

The only category UFC leads in is pay-per-view audience, and that’s because all NASCAR races are free on TV, provided you have cable.

Major UFC events are seen in more than 100 countries and territories in 20 languages. NASCAR claims its Cup races are broadcast to more than 150 countries in more than 30 languages.

You be the judge.

The speedway and UFC are great for the area. That’s not debatable.

The UFC has accomplished so much in such a short time, White should avoid hyperbole such as when he told the Review-Journal he knows "for a fact — I don’t think — that we’re going to be the biggest sport in the world."

It will be at least a few generations — if ever — before UFC challenges soccer worldwide in popularity and/or TV viewership.

Globally, UFC also must contend with Formula One racing, which has its events shown in nearly every country and claims a TV audience of 600 million for each race.

In this country, UFC never will top the NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR’s primary Cup series or the NBA. It has a shot at besting the NHL.

UFC does, however, win the back-flip battle. NASCAR’s Carl Edwards does his victorious flips from the windowsill of his car, and welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre does a 360 from the octagon’s mat.

And when racers fight, they usually leave their helmets on, so MMA has the edge there.

We’re lucky to live in a city that boasts the speedway and serves as home to the UFC. Enough said.

Jeff Wolf’s motor sports column is published Friday. He can be reached at 383-0247 or jwolf@reviewjournal.com. Wolf also explains why he stands behind beleaguered NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield in his motor sports blog at lvrj.com/blogs/heavypedal.