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What are the expenses of setting up a cagefighting event and what permits are involved?

Thu, 10/07/2010 - 00:09
Jay Dot's picture
Joshua "The Showb...
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What are the expenses of setting up a cagefighting event and what permits are involved?

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Thu, 10/07/2010 - 06:03
#1
MrBungle's picture
MrBungle
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Well generally you go to the athletic commission and get your promoters license, here in sc that's $15,000 a year. Then you find a venue to rent, that price depends entirely on the venue. Next you have to rent a cage or ring which can be around $1700 or more a day depending on the quality of the cage you rent. You also have to pay referees, judges, time keepers all of which have to be licensed by the state athletic commission. You also have to pay for EMTs to be on hand I don't know how much that costs. And then people to run the door, concessions and security. And of course the fighters if you are planning on having pro fights.

11th dan in Parnes Jiu-Jitsu, it's one more than Ransom's. Real PJJ goes to 11!

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Thu, 10/07/2010 - 12:20
#2
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eagles51493
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and dont forget advertisement, you have to get people to show up to watch the fights.

-Jimmy

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Thu, 10/07/2010 - 14:18
#3
ptbeast's picture
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The above posters hit the high points, but let me add a few. If you are smart you will form some kind of company to protect you from liability (probably an LLC). This typically costs a couple of hundred dollars. Depending on where you are located, you may need a business license as well. Insurance in a high risk venture like this should be considered mandatory, and it is not cheap. In some states, you will be required to provide health/accident insurance for your fighters covering any injuries sustained in the cage.

You also need to have tickets printed, buy corner passes, wristbands if you are going to use them. You may want to contract with an online ticket seller. You will probably want to provide bottled water for the fighters and maybe some other kind of incentive as well (T-shirts etc.).

One good way to move tickets for an amateur show is to give the fighters a cut of ticket sales ($5-$10 for every ticket they sell), but this too has a cost.

In short, this is not the kind of venture that you can go into on a shoestring. It requires some real capital to pull off. In my experience, it is hard to make money unless you put on regular shows. People get used to coming and you sell out. Planning a one off show is a very risky venture.

Just a few thoughts.

Dave

Alive MMA/Brazilian Top Team
Portland, OR

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Thu, 10/07/2010 - 21:28
#4
BallPtPenTheif's picture
BallPtPenTheif
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Most venues rent out the space in a "four wall" arrangement. It's a music business term but what it means is that they cover security, concessions (their profit), parking, janitors, and all functions relevant to the operations of the venue.

I don't know about MMA but in the music business you take the cost of the venue, the cost for the band, the cost for promotion and then you subtract that from your expected ticket sales. That left over difference is the potential net.

So...

Venue: $6,000
The Deftones: $12,000
Opening Acts: $5,000
Promotions: $6,000
Additional Costs: $5,000
COST TOTAL: $34,000

2,000 seat venue at an average of $30 a head = $60,000

Potential profit for $26,000 if everything goes perfect, which it never does.

Totally overly generalized rough numbers but that's the general idea. Personally, I wouldn't even approach an investment like that unless I could earn 25% profit on 50% ticket sales.

It's a basic equation once you start making phone calls and start to flesh out the variables but never think that you will cover costs with potential profits. That's an easy way to black ball yourself from venues and industry folks. If you can't pull together the money, then don't do it.

But yeah, I have no clue about MMA, but if it were my job to do an event it would only take a couple days worth of phone calls to discover the puzzle pieces and I would literally hire a promotions company to handle promos even if it took half of my personal profits. Promotions is the hardest part of the puzzle and it literally takes people several years before they can develop a promotional method that works.

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