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San Francisco Chronicle refuses to cover MMA and UFC and UFC President bashes em

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by blog415, Aug 11, 2010.

Page 8 of 26
  1. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    We aren't. So we stop chasing them and instead shore up the areas where we can provide insightful coverage. Chasing the theoretical 22-year-old is a large part of what went wrong with the business in the first place.
     
    LongTimeListener, Aug 12, 2010
    #85
  2. flexmaster33

    flexmaster33 Well-Known Member

    A newspaper has the right to choose what it elects to cover, and I can completely understand not feeling the need to cover MMA events.

    I'm in a hotbed part of the country for this ridiculous "sport" and reluctantly choose to cover it to some extent. But by no means should the Chronicle feel obliged to send a reporter out for "Extreme Bear Hugging"
     
    flexmaster33, Aug 12, 2010
    #86
  3. Elliotte Friedman

    Elliotte Friedman Moderator Staff Member

    Never met Dana White, but he sounds like a foul-mouthed Mark Cuban. Maybe we don't like them all the time, but I sure respect their business acumen.

    I'm not a huge UFC fan, but to ignore its impact is just silly. Right now, it's a huge success. Maybe it won't be in 10 years. But we're talking right now.

    Three years ago, I was covering a Philadelphia/Montreal playoff series. The night after the Bell Centre hosted a UFC event, the Canadiens were practising in the rink. They'd flown home from Philly the day before, and it was a later one -- probably about 3 pm. The cleaning staff was still working through the seats, sweeping out mountains and mountains of garbage.

    The next day I mentioned it to one of the execs, and he blew me away with some of his info. He told me that after the average hockey game, they need three of those giant blue bins to hold the garbage. That night, they needed nine. And, they did $500,000 in alcohol sales, which is just massive.

    These are people in $100 Ed Hardy T-shirts (who cares if the clothing is hideously ugly), dating women with $5,000 boob jobs (I saw the weigh-in, which was jammed with fans, and I don't think there was a pair of real breasts in attendance) drinking half a million dollars worth of arena-priced alcohol. They've got money to spend.

    Two years ago, I did a story on Columbus goalie Steve Mason and the arena people there were telling me their highest-grossing nights were UFC events.

    Now, you can't tell me there aren't stories worth doing around all of this. It doesn't have to be sports. It can be business, culture, etc. Any creative writer/columnist could do a two/three days (maybe more) of really good stuff. You could easily sell ads around it.

    I see the snobbery, and I don't understand it. Maybe in two years it won't be necessary. But, right now, it is.
     
    Elliotte Friedman, Aug 12, 2010
    #87
  4. anonymousprick

    anonymousprick Member

    UFC has been trending upward for five years now. If it was a fad, it would have begun downtrending a couple years ago. Instead, the last two UFC pay-per-views are right up there with the Mayweather fight for most purchased of the year. And this is happening at the precise moment boxing couldn't put together Mayweather-Pacquiao and has no emerging superstars coming up. At this point, you have to be a pretty dim bulb not to see that there's a sea change going on in combat sports.
     
    anonymousprick, Aug 12, 2010
    #88
  5. SixToe

    SixToe Well-Known Member

    Ding!
     
    SixToe, Aug 12, 2010
    #89
  6. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    No, chasing them ham-handedly was one of the problems. That's why you got shit like ASAP. There's nothing wrong with cultivating young readers. Unless you think that your current readership is going to stay frozen in time like a Peanuts strip.
     
    Mystery Meat II, Aug 12, 2010
    #90
  7. RickStain

    RickStain Well-Known Member

    The nice thing about young readers is that they eventually turn into old readers.
     
    RickStain, Aug 12, 2010
    #91
  8. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    Yeah, but readers of what? My guess is they'll be reading Facebook and Twitter and RSS feeds, bitching about those damn kids who only get their news through enemas.
     
    Mystery Meat II, Aug 12, 2010
    #92
  9. Tarheel316

    Tarheel316 Well-Known Member

    Re: San Francisco Chronicle refuses to cover MMA and UFC and UFC President bashe

    Depends on the market, J.C. I turned down an MMA story and didn't get a single complaint. It's barbaric, it's garbage and if my ME ever decides we have to cover it, I will assign it to someone on my staff or pass it off to a correspondent. I personally will not mess with it.
     
    Tarheel316, Aug 12, 2010
    #93
  10. dooley_womack1

    dooley_womack1 Well-Known Member

    This.
     
    dooley_womack1, Aug 12, 2010
    #94
  11. JimmyHoward33

    JimmyHoward33 Well-Known Member

    Maybe not but do we need to try? Because the UFCs demo is going to hit 30 and we're going to need them when what this paper thinks is its demo dies. Seems to me that trying covering something different can't hurt; we're treading enough water as it is
     
    JimmyHoward33, Aug 12, 2010
    #95
  12. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Who says the UFC's demo will still be into UFC when they're 30?
     
    Bubbler, Aug 12, 2010
    #96
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