UFC 87 sets Target Center gate record
By Jim Murphy August 11th, 2008The UFC’s first appearance in the Twin Cities set a record for total gate at the Target Center:
UFC 87 “Seek and Destroy” drew a gate of $2.2 million and 15,082 in attendance for the debut of the UFC in Minnesota.
The highest gate of the Target Center in Minneapolis watched Georges St. Pierre successfully defend his welterweight crown against the Jon Fitch.
The UFC beat Billy Joel and Elton John’s record at the Target Center. The UFC previously beat the duo and The Rolling Stones at UFC 68 “Uprising” to break the gate record at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. The event, the UFC’s first in Ohio, set a North American attendance record of 19,079. The UFC would top that number with its debut in Canada at UFC 83 with 21,390.
“We got a lot of places we’ve got to hit, but we’re going to be back here,” White said. “This is a great town, great sports fans, it’s been a really good experience.”
It’s not often we agree catagorically with everything Dana White says, but he hit the nail on the head here. The Minneapolis fans were enthusiastic and more impressively very knowledgeable about the sport. Completely absent was the bloodthirsty meth addict habit of chanting “boring” or booing during groundfighting sequences. Arguably the best live MMA crowd ever in the US…
