Zach Arnold at MMA Memories has a very good piece about Dana White’s recent tirade against the MMA media (as well as some of his older tirades):

The issue with White wanting to control the media speaks volumes about the pressure he has put himself under. At a time when the company is running too many shows and too many markets and too many PPVs, White is lashing out Vince McMahon-style to anyone who doesn’t kiss his ass. Dana White is the ultimate micro-manager and that kind of management style is going to cost him big time.

In fact, it already has.

In previous years, White’s attacks on the media would have resulted in the media shutting up and doing what he told them to do. Fear is a big motivator, especially when there isn’t a lot of money to be made in the media end of the game. However, the reaction from media types towards White has indicated that the worm has turned. He’s getting lectured at, mocked, and even laughed at.

Our good friend Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals warned that once you start ridiculing your enemy and belittling them, then you start to gain the upper hand.

“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

There is nothing more important for a promoter, especially one who is a front man, than to have credibility. When your credibility starts eroding with the general public, then you need the media on your side. In White’s case, the same media that he belittles and besmirches is not going to be as sympathetic to his cause when things start to get rough for him. It may be a Zuffa-ruled MMA world, but the competition is growing. Strikeforce will have about 20 shows in 2010. Bellator will have a new season airing on Fox Sports Net. There will be countless MMA events happening around the world — including DREAM shows that will feature Strikeforce fighters. Yes, UFC is “the brand” in much the same way that the NFL likes to say that “The Shield” is king in their sport. However, unless UFC starts making writers financially-dependent on what the company does, then writers have options. They don’t need to sit and take the abuse from Dana White behind the scenes or on goofy video blogs… and they won’t.

I’d note that Vince McMahon learned from his mistakes and has made an effort to be more conciliatory to the online pro wrestling media in recent years. Granted, part of that is the necessity of a less autocratic management style when running a publicly held company.

While I respect the fact that Dana White has lofty goals for his promotion and the sport, the reality is that currently the UFC is a niche sport that may be ‘cooling off’–at least temporarily–in terms of its mainstream popularity. PPV buy rates and ticket sales don’t lie, and from a high of 1.5 to 1.7 million buys for UFC 100 to just under a million for UFC 101 we’ve reached a point where most of the events do roughly half as many buys. While UFC 100 may have been a unique event historically, a bigger concern is the drop off from UFC 101 to subsequent events. For whatever reason, approximately half of the people that purchased UFC 101 didn’t buy UFC 102 nor have they bought subsequent events.

Live attendance has also been down at recent events. The Ultimate Fighter Finale–featuring Kimbo Slice–drew only 60% capacity at an already small venue. UFC 107 drew only 13,000 fans to the FedEx Forum in Memphis which holds over 18,000 for basketball (and likely close to 20,000 for a fight card). The reported attendance for UFC 108 was over 13,000 in the 17,000 seat MGM Grand Garden Arena but in his play by play Dave Meltzer noted the following:

There is a curtain like going to a WWE TV taping where they closed down the upper level in about 25% of the arena. First time I’ve ever seen curtains used in an arena for a major UFC event.

This is done to cover up empty seats for the benefit of TV cameras.

Now, you can come up with a variety of reasons for this drop–from the company running too many events to their well publicized rash of injuries–but what the figures suggest is that at this time there’s a dependable audience of 400,000 to 500,000 MMA fans that are willing to buy every UFC event. And that’s where Dana’s attitude toward the MMA media becomes problematic. Right now, their promotion’s financial lifeblood is ‘hardcore’ fans–the same fans that follow the sport online and read and contribute to websites like Sherdog. It sure seems to be a counterproductive strategy to alienate the best medium for aggregating the UFC’s most passionate fanbase.

That problem will be compounded if the mainstream media cools off further on MMA. Some observers–including Dave Meltzer, who is typically favorable in his coverage of the UFC–suggest that is already the case. Ideally, the MMA media could be counted on to help the UFC aggregate their fanbase but not if the promotion is going to go out of its way to alienate major players for not doing their bidding.

There’s no one in the MMA media–this site included–that doesn’t want to see the UFC and the sport grow and succeed. But the MMA media shouldn’t be a promotional organ and shill for the UFC or any other promotion. We understand that the sport is also a business and that the UFC may not want competition. By definition, however, as the sport grows they’re going to *get* competition whether they like it or not. That’s Econ 101, and the barriers to entry in running a fight promotion are relatively low. It’s insulting that the UFC expects the MMA media–in theory the most knowledgeable outlet covering the sport–to pretend that other promotions in the US and elsewhere don’t exist.

The stress and pressure is starting to affect Dana White @ MMA Memories