Dragon Gate USA offering live PPV for $1.99 (Pac vs. Low Ki, WM Weekend)

[Warner2BruceTD]

DGUSA Offers $1.99 Live iPPV
by Gabe Sapolsky

Dragon Gate USA will offer it's "Open The Ultimate Gate 2012" live iPPV at www.WWNLive.com on March 30th for just $1.99. DGUSA Vice President Gabe Sapolsky writes this column explaining why this once-in-a-lifetime offer is being made.

We are very proud of our Dragon Gate USA brand. We want you to see it.

We know our in ring action and overall presentation have reached a new level. We are excited and confident. However, we have to admit that our iPPV buy rate has hit a plateau.

Don't get me wrong, we are very happy with our buys, and they have slowly increased over our first year at WWNLive.com. We have just hit a wall that we are looking to break through.

We don't have a TV station backing us or a corporation willing to dump millions of dollars into the product. We are a self-sufficient independent promotion.

This has a lot of advantages. We don't have corporate suits with no idea about wrestling telling us what we can or can't do. There are no politics. We don't have to cater the masses by bringing in washed up names to try to get ratings. Really, we don't have to answer to anyone. We can put out the product we want with the interest of best serving you.

However, the negative is that it's tough to gain exposure and get new eyeballs on DGUSA and EVOLVE without the backing of a TV network and/or major sponsorship.

So we have decided to take matters into our own hands.

We are going to take advantage of the fact that we produce iPPV in house at www.WWNLive.com. We are going to offer the March 30th "Open The Ultimate Gate 2012" live iPPV featuring PAC vs. Low Ki for just $1.99.

Yes, we will lose money on this and we are giving up one of our most important shows of the year for just $1.99. We know it will be worth it because you will be blown away when you see the current DGUSA brand.

I need to make it clear that the $1.99 price gets you the live showing only. This is a one-time-only very special offer. We can never make an offer like this again. We will also offer the March 30th iPPV at our regular price of $14.99, which will get you the live showing and then On Demand access.

As an added bonus, this isn't just a promotion to attract new fans. This is our way of thanking those of you who have supported us over our first year of iPPV at WWNLive.com.

This is as straight forward as I can get. We want you to see Dragon Gate USA and EVOLVE. We have hit a new peak with both brands. Now on March 30th you will get a chance to witness what it is all about for just $1.99.

This is the first night of the WrestleMania Weekend double shot. Night two will have the 'Dragon Gate 6-Man' WrestleMania tradition match as the main event.

Low Ki vs. Pac for $1.99, might as well be free, if you guys are home that night you might as well give it a shot. DGUSA gives you great action, the last set of shows were really good. Plus this is WM weekend, so the rest of the lineup will be stacked.

You have to give Gabe credit, he is trying something new and attempting to hook new fans. He's listening to the people, because a bargain basement PPV was suggested to him over on the Observer board a few months back in the infamous thread of doom where he got ripped to shreds by everybody.

[Warner2BruceTD]

larry, are you checking these shows (or ROH) out live?

[Warner2BruceTD]

I have a few questions for you guys.

In order to break even on this, they have to increase the buys seven to eight times the normal buyrate at a $2 price point. IIRC, I believe they do something like 300 low end, and 700 high end. So lets say 500 for the sake of this argument. There is no chance they are doing anywhere near 3000-3500 buys, which Gabe even concedes in the letter.

With the $2 price point and giving away the Low Ki vs Pac match, they should increase though. But by how much? And the big question is, how many of those new viewers will come back at $15, even of they really like what they see? How many will check out the website and buy merch?

Let's say they increase 50%, which is a big number. Thats roughly 250 new customers. Lets assume all 250 are new to the product. Lets say about half of those people (125) really like the show and buy, at minimum, one more PPV at some point (maybe even the next night, which im sure will be pushed hard). Thays about $1900 in additional revenue.

To gain that $1900, they are sacrificing $5000 in revenue with the $2 deal ($7500 @ $15 x 500 vs. $1500 @ $2 x 750, figuring for a 50% increase on 500 buys). I just cant see this working, unless they invrease the buys by far more than 50% (good luck), AND a large percentage of those new viewers become regular customers.

So my question for you guys, is this. Have you ever purchased a DGUSA event? And if not, is the $2 price point enticing to you? And if the show blows you away, would you buy the show the next night at $15? How about future shows? Or would it be a case of, fuck it, i'll watch this essentially for free, but I doubt i'll ever come back?

I think people who already like DGUSA are going to jump on this, so I think it's a great opportinity to set up compelling storylines for future shows. I dont think a significant amount of new viewers will buy, and I think a small fraction of those people will ever come back.

Thoughts?

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

larry, are you checking these shows (or ROH) out live?

lol, you need to ask?

Of course.

I'll be the normal looking dude in the crowd.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

And, sometimes, you gotta just give shit away for free, W2B, and its not about "making your money back" in the short term.

How much free Red Bull did Red Bull give away on college campuses? Same with any energy drink, really. Uncountable gallons of that shit that if you sold at face, is uncountable, really.

But, what happens...word of mouth. 250 more people with eyes on the product are 250 more eyes that can spread the word that it is a good product.

I doubt this one is even planning on making the same money as before. Its all about just simply getting exposure. That's all. Sometimes, you can't count those in dollars and sense.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

And W2B, I'm meeting up with a few mopes that I talk wrestling with on the 'Canes forum I'm on for WrestleMania, I'm going to be introducing them to their first ROH or DGUSA show as well.

Word of mouf is invaluable, my man.

[s@ppisgod]

I have a few questions for you guys.

In order to break even on this, they have to increase the buys seven to eight times the normal buyrate at a $2 price point. IIRC, I believe they do something like 300 low end, and 700 high end. So lets say 500 for the sake of this argument. There is no chance they are doing anywhere near 3000-3500 buys, which Gabe even concedes in the letter.

With the $2 price point and giving away the Low Ki vs Pac match, they should increase though. But by how much? And the big question is, how many of those new viewers will come back at $15, even of they really like what they see? How many will check out the website and buy merch?

Let's say they increase 50%, which is a big number. Thats roughly 250 new customers. Lets assume all 250 are new to the product. Lets say about half of those people (125) really like the show and buy, at minimum, one more PPV at some point (maybe even the next night, which im sure will be pushed hard). Thays about $1900 in additional revenue.

To gain that $1900, they are sacrificing $5000 in revenue with the $2 deal ($7500 @ $15 x 500 vs. $1500 @ $2 x 750, figuring for a 50% increase on 500 buys). I just cant see this working, unless they invrease the buys by far more than 50% (good luck), AND a large percentage of those new viewers become regular customers.

So my question for you guys, is this. Have you ever purchased a DGUSA event? And if not, is the $2 price point enticing to you? And if the show blows you away, would you buy the show the next night at $15? How about future shows? Or would it be a case of, fuck it, i'll watch this essentially for free, but I doubt i'll ever come back?

I think people who already like DGUSA are going to jump on this, so I think it's a great opportinity to set up compelling storylines for future shows. I dont think a significant amount of new viewers will buy, and I think a small fraction of those people will ever come back.

Thoughts?

I saw this a couple days ago on another board. I love the idea. Even that moron Larry can see why it's a good idea. You take losses on PPVs eventually, so why not choose to take a bigger loss on one and sacrifice any money in it to try and broaden your audience. Casual to even active wrestling fans are never going to pay $15 for a PPV of something they're not familiar with in hopes that it's good. Especially with the number of streams of events available. So you throw them a bone and they could catch on and come back to that product. I remember you suggested a ROH show On-Demand a few years back with a Nigel-Tyler Black match and Aries-Danielson. I had only tiny exposure to ROH at the time, and I did buy it on your referral that it had 2 great matches at the top and it was offered OnDemand at a discount. I liked it enough to buy 1-2 more, and I would have gotten quite a bit more interested if they were on cable.

The more people you can get to buy that wouldn't normally buy, the better. And the better chance they refer it to others. If it's in DG's plan to grow, they damn sure need to make moves like this instead of following the "safe" money with their small, niche audience. I love this move by Gabe, as this is exactly the type of "think outside the box" stuff that needs to happen more outside (and maybe even inside) the WWE machine. I've been saying for years that TNA needs to drop their PPV prices and/or cut their PPVs because you price yourself out of an entire portion of the market who could have interest in you. You can't overlook the source of income, in new fans, for a one-off of income like ONE PPV.

They're not going to lose any of their loyal fan-base for making one PPV cheaper. You can still count on the people who regularly want and buy their PPVs before this to want and buy their PPVs after this, and maybe a spike in the number of those people. So go for it.

EDIT: But they should be plastering this everywhere from bus stations to message boards and back to bus stations. It only works if people know about it. If I were Gabe, I'd be making fake facebook pages posing as girls with huge tits as we speak and adding everyone under the sun. Or editing Whitney Houston's Wikipedia page to say that she died of an excitement overdose because of the wrestling deal of the century. It'd be the new rick-rolled.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Knowing Gabe's booking style like the back of my hand (and really, just understanding common sense), he always uses night one of a double shot to set up multiple angles for night two.

With that in mind, I am very curious what he has up his sleeve to hook people (especially the new people sampling) into dropping $14.99 for the next night. Presumably, many of these people will be dropping $50 for WrestleMania the same weekend, so that's a lot of money and a lot of time dedicated to wrestling in one weekend...and that's without even considering the ROH shows as well.

[FedEx227]

Those ROH shows on iPPV as well?

[Warner2BruceTD]

Those ROH shows on iPPV as well?

Yes.

$14.99 each, or $19.99 if you buy both.

[Warner2BruceTD]

ROH Friday: 8PM
ROH Sat: 1PM

DGUSA Friday: 8PM
DGUSA Sat: 8PM

Dragon Gate is going head to head with ROH on Friday, and going head to head with WWE HOF on Saturday.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Even that moron Larry can see why it's a good idea.

You fuck your mother.

[Warner2BruceTD]

ROH is running War Memorial, DG is running something called Deauville Beach Resort in Miami Beach.

larry, whats the story with these venues? How big are they, and how far from the area of Miami WWE will be having all of there events are they?

edit- War Memorial Auditorium is in Ft. Lauderdale

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

I'll probably be hitting up ROH on Friday and the Hall of Fame on Saturday. Was hoping to see Macho entered into the Hall, but whatever. I'll settle for the FOUR FUCKING HORSEMEN.

War Memorial is in FTL and its not the smallest place.
Deauville Resort is smaller than the Bingo Hall.

DGUSA might be lucky to pull 100 people to their show.

[Warner2BruceTD]

HOLY SHIT, Ring of Honor is charging $90 for ringside.

Good for them if they can get it.