On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including this weekend’s UFC event, which will be the first live sports event held in The Sphere.
UFC spent more than $20 million to hold the event at Jim Dolan‘s new entertainment venue, Dana White told Sportico. He added that the event will be “the most incredible f—ing thing that anybody has ever seen in sports,” utilizing the venue’s massive video boards and haptic motors in seats.
The hosts debate how much a venue like The Sphere can change the experience for live sports. They talk about the balance between in-venue fans watching the action vs. the jumbotron, the importance of filling dead time between action, and how the venue’s technology differs from other, more standard arenas. They also talk about how the location might impact PPV buys. The gate is expected to be, by far, the largest in UFC history.
Next they discuss a fun marketing story in the WNBA. The Connecticut Sun are selling first-round playoff tickets and are doing so by hyping the roughly 60% chance that they’ll face Caitlin Clark‘s Indiana Fever in the first round. Other teams that might face Clark’s Fever haven’t yet begun selling tickets. It appears to be a gamble by the Sun that the possibility of Clark’s presence might sell more tickets, at slightly elevated prices, before the matchup is actually set in stone. Mohegan Sun Arena seats about 10,000 fans.
They close by talking about big news for U.S. Soccer. The organization has formally hired Mauricio Pochettino to be the next coach of the men’s national team, by far the biggest name to hold the position. They talk about two interesting angles: 1) The timing, with the U.S. set to co-host the men’s World Cup in less than two years; and 2) the fact that billionaire Ken Griffin funded a “significant” part of Pochettino’s new salary.
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