Bellator 106 was interesting on any number of levels. Originally planned to be Bellator’s debut on pay-per-view, the card eventually was shuffled to Spike TV when Quinton Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz — originally rumored to be Rampage vs. Roy Jones Jr — was cancelled due to Ortiz’s injury. The card was still basically as stacked as Bellator can make a card, and likely better for the loss of Rampage vs. Tito.
It did well on Spike, drawing solid ratings, but it looks like it was still a flop at the live gate. MMA Weekly has the numbers:
Bellator 106 had 4,189 tickets sold, with 5,855 tickets going unsold, according to information received by MMAWeekly.com from the California Department of Consumer Affairs on Thursday.
Of the total amount of tickets printed for consumers, 2,407 were complimentary, which represented over 36 percent of those in attendance.
The total attendance, including purchased and complimentary tickets, was 6,596.
The report goes on to state that the estimated gate was roughly $350,000.
Bellator is basking in the glow of their solid ratings, with Bjorn Rebney maybe getting out a bit over his skis while trying to take shots at Dana White and the UFC for their ratings. Their growth is of interest to follow as is watching them try to find the right balance between “pure sport” based on tournament results and being an easy to sell product.
The next 6 months should be interesting as we watch and see if they follow through with attempts to get on pay-per-view and where the ratings go on nights that don’t feature huge advertising costs due to associated prior PPV plans.