Strikeforce Challengers 17 Marks Vegas Debut; Attedance and Gate are Marginal

Strikeforce Challengers is the promotion’s series of events to give it’s up-and-comers a chance to learn and grow, and a venue for other fighters to prove they deserve a step up onto Strikeforce’s feature events on Showtime.

The Challengers series recently made its Las Vegas debut with Strikeforce Challengers 17 featuring a main event win by Bobby Voelker, which was his second win in the trilogy of bouts between him and Roger Bowling. The event took place on July 22 at The Pearl at The Palms Casino Resort, the same venue that hosts the UFC’s “Ultimate Fighter” finales.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission on Monday revealed the official attendance and gate receipts for Strikeforce Challengers 17. While the series now shares the same venue as TUF finales, it doesn’t share the same numbers as the venerable reality series finals.

Strikeforce Challengers 17 pulled in a crowd of 1,876 for a total gate of $42,987.50. There were 458 tickets sold for the event, while the majority, 1,418, were complimentary tickets. That left 98 tickets on the table as unsold.

In comparison, the TUF 13 finale in June drew an attendance of 2,035 with $440,150 in gate receipts. While there were more unsold tickets to the finale, 107, the paid attendance hit 1,583 with just 452 complimentary seats.

Both events are primarily more geared for TV than generating live tickets sales revenue, but the TUF finales also receive the season long push of the reality series on Spike TV. Challengers events are basically one-off stand along events with no significant push outside of the interest generated in the media or via advertising.