I would like to say I am not the most fanatic sports fan when it comes to any sport. In fact I only watch basketball and fights such as mixed martial arts. These are on rare occasions that I do this. But for years there is something I have noticed that bothers me. Sports like hockey, basketball, baseball, and football do not force you to pay to watch it. But sports like boxing and UFC have pay-per-view. I do not see this as fair. I personally like boxing and mma fighting over the other sports, but it seems like they are insulting the other sports. They seem so good that you have to pay to watch them. Reality is there is something unique about every sport.
Now for those who do not know there are other ways to watch sports other than on cable or satelite. People who have an Xbox 360 and an Xbox live gold membership can watch sports on ESPN. I played around with this and I thought this would be a way to watch all sports equally. I was wrong. There is now a separate UFC application on the Xbox 360. Meaning you have to pay to watch the fights.
When you see any sport in person, you have to pay for it. There are always people willing to see a sport event live. But on television? A Celtics game you do not have to pay for meaning it is easier and cheaper to follow the season. But the UFC and boxing make it difficult to follow and more expensive. Some UFC events can cost $100. I could go to a live concert with that money. The only way to watch UFC fights or boxing fights for free is to watch older fights. Which I will admit can be interesting to watch. But I would like to be able to watch the newer fights as well...without having to cough up my paycheck to do this. Teamsports are the ones that do not cost money to watch. The fighting ones do. Dana White who is the president of the UFC has stated that the UFC is the fastest growing sport. Quite frankly I don't see how it is if people always have to pay for it. I could understand major fights, but not every fight.
I agree with this post completely. I understand that these associations need to make money, but just like any other sport, I believe they should be getting money from the people who actually attend the events, not the people who want to watch them in the comfort of their own homes. I also agree about the pricing of these events. If they really do need to charge people to see watch these events, the price should be something in the range of what you would pay to see a movie, instead of what you would pay to see an event in person.
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