IFL’s World Grand Prix is a make or break event
Posted by Sam CaplanSaturday’s live broadcast of the first round of the IFL World Grand Prix could be the most crucial event in the league’s brief history.
While new IFL president and COO Jay Larkin has understandably tried to downplay talk that this could be a make or break show for the company regarding whether the ratings performance will determine the IFL’s viability as a live product, I firmly believe that whether the Dec. 29 show gets picked up will have a lot to do with how many people watch on Saturday.
The bottom line is that IFL co-founded and commissioner Kurt Otto has said that the league needs to secure live television in ‘08 if it wants to remain competitive and tonight’s numbers will go a long way in determining whether we’ll see more live IFL telecasts.
MyNetworkTV is not a highly rated network so I don’t even want to begin to guess what numbers would be considered good and what wouldn’t. On average, I would say the league draws between a 0.4 and a 0.7. I’m not a television expert, but I think anything below 0.9 would be considered a disappointment.
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I agree. Which is why I don’t understand why they are only going to show 2 live fights.
I also think they should have done whatever it takes to get Ben on.
http://www.mixfight.ru/news/2007/11/3/fedors-open-message/
Evan:
They only are getting an hour from MyNetworkTV. They have 43 minutes to work with in that hour and to commit to anything to more than two matches would be irresponsible. The bouts are scheduled for three rounds of four minutes but you still have to factor in breaks between rounds, the intro at the top of the show, and I’m sure they’ll also want to do some vignettes and interviews to promote the fighters a bit.
You can also bet that they will try to land an on-camera interview with Randy Couture, who will be at the event to corner Jay Hieron.
Well I guess they couldn’t push UFC wired back. Funny how that is what is probably limiting them to 1 hour and not 2 or 3. The UFC are masters at schedule F-ING other orgs. Wasn’t it the president of the WFA who called Dana out on that?
I do agree that their future is heavily weighed on this which is why I wonder if they should have held this on a weekday so they could have a larger time slot. 1 hour of live MMA or any sport for that matter just doesn’t do it for me. You just don’t get enough. Tuesday or Thursday so they don’t compete with the NFL or TUF.