Scott Coker planning big changes for Bellator® in 2015
source | MMAFighting.com
“I like tournaments,” he said. “I love tournaments, but it has to be the right tournament with the right athletes. We will revisit them at some point.”
“If we have a show every week, sometimes you have to get fighters to fill the card because there’s nobody left,” he said. “That’s what you’re not going to be seeing next year. You’ll see big fights that people will want to see, starting in January.”
“We’re looking at Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California markets. We’re looking at something on the East Coast. The Mohegan Sun is a beautiful venue, and we’ve drawn well there. St. Louis, and maybe one more city. Those markets we’ll go back to several times a year.”
“You also develop a fan base of loyal supporters,” he said. “That’s what I’ve found. And there’s something about continuity. If you go to a city two times a year, if fans know you’ll be there every April and October, they’ll expect it, put it on their calendar, and support it.”
“Our job is to put on the best fights,” he said. “Showtime had the right to approve the matchmaking, which is completely different. We can match make our own fights here. Their infrastructure is much bigger than Showtime’s. It’s a different animal. At Showtime, we were really a vendor. We provided a product for them. Viacom owns Bellator, it’s fully integrated, and they are going to use all their assets to grow the product. It’s a different animal than the last opportunity. I’ve never had so many people in the room working on one thing, which is to grow this company.”