Dana White Says UFC 154 Tickets May Have Been “Overpriced” But Still A Huge Gate Expected

With UFC 154 just about 10 days away, the Bell Centre in Montreal has not sold out yet, but UFC President Dana White says there’s no reason to hit the panic button yet.

The return of Georges St-Pierre after more than a year away from the sport due to knee surgery was expected to result in big ticket sales and a huge pay-per-view for the biggest star the UFC has on its roster.

There has been some concern however about ticket prices at the Bell Centre for St-Pierre’s return bout against Carlos Condit, and while all of the upper level tickets have apparently sold out, it’s the lower level, more expensive tickets that still remain.

Dana White says the gate and live attendance for UFC 154 will still be one of the biggest gates of the year, but they may have priced tickets a little too high for this show.

“We’re still a week and a half out, and I heard rumblings about this gate not doing well, Georges St-Pierre not selling out. The gate’s over $3 million, the gate’s at like $3.1 million right now, I wouldn’t say that the gate sucks. The biggest you can do (at the Bell Centre) is $4 million what we did the last time with Georges St-Pierre,” White said on Wednesday.

“Maybe we did overprice this one a bit much, but times are tough out there. We’ll see what happens. As we get closer to the event, we’ll see how it goes.”

Tickets for UFC 154: St-Pierre vs. Condit ranged in price from $90.50 to $625.50 plus fees (Canadian dollars).

The concert industry recently had to undergo some changes to revamp their ticket sales which included more shows but lower priced tickets.

According to Pollstar through the midway point of 2012, concert ticket sales were up 1.2-percent from last year, but the average ticket price had dropped to $58.61. One executive was quoted as saying that the concert industry has adjusted ticket prices for “today’s economic realities”.

The UFC may soon find themselves in the same place if ticket sales for a big fight like UFC 154 can’t sell out as expected.

Still, White believes that the final gate for the upcoming card in Montreal will be one of the biggest of the year, and there’s still time left to sell tickets.

“The gate is one of the top gates of this year,” said White. “It’s at $3.1 million but we’ll see what happens over the next week and a half.”