Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier Sells 2,804 Tickets, Just Over $225K Live Gate

The numbers are back for the last Strikeforce show in San Jose and the overall attendance and gate figures don’t seem encouraging for the once thriving promotion.

According to the California State Athletic Commission, Strikeforce: Barnett vs. Cormier drew in a crowd of 5,413 with 2,804 tickets being sold.

The final gate pulled in $226,005 for the Saturday night event held at the HP Pavilion in San Jose headlined by the finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix between Josh Barnett and eventual winner Daniel Cormier.

With the numbers released of 2,804 tickets being sold, and that means the other 2,609 tickets were comped tickets.

The reason why these numbers might seem so startling is because of Strikeforce’s past history at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, which essentially served as their home for many years prior to being bought out by Zuffa.

In June 2010 for the event featuring former heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko against Fabricio Werdum, the attendance was 11,757 with a reported gate of $1,066,739.

Later that year in Oct 2010 for the event headlined by Nick Diaz vs. K.J. Noons 2 drew in a crowd of 7,559 and a gate of $528,446.50.

In early 2011, when Nick Diaz returned to San Jose to face Evangelista ‘Cyborg’ Santos the attendance came in at 8,817 with a gate of $533,214.50.

Obviously the latest numbers returned for the Strikeforce in San Jose are much lower than past efforts for the promotion at the HP Pavilion.

When the UFC held their first event at the HP Pavilion for UFC 139 in Nov. 2011, the card pulled in an attendance of 13,832 with a live gate of $1,268,600.

The UFC will actually land in San Jose in July for the UFC on Fuel 4 card, so it will be interesting to see if the numbers rebound when they return to the city for the first time since their initial show their last November.