Strikeforce holding firm on 4/17 date
The possibility of moving Strikeforce Nashville, which features three championship bouts, to April 24 was discussed last week by the…
The possibility of moving Strikeforce Nashville, which features three championship bouts, to April 24 was discussed last week by the promotion and CBS when word circulated that the UFC was planning its own event on the same day, also possibly in Nashville, in an aggressive counter-programming move.
We never really planned to move, but we wanted to keep our business options open, said Strikeforce CEO Coker. Everything is business as usual (for April 17) and full steam ahead.
Was it done to create some confusion in the marketplace in Nashville? Maybe. I don’t know. I’m not sure, said Coker. Is it good for mixed martial arts? I’m not sure. I don’t think so. I don’t think that when a company’s trying to counter-program you just to impact your ratings, it’s– and this could go back and forth. One day, when CBS says, ‘Alright, we’re going to go head-to-head against your pay-per-view date and you can watch Fedor (Emelianenko) or Dan Henderson for free on TV or buy a pay-per-view,’ people are going to have choices at that point. But that’s something they’d never do. CBS went out of its way to make sure there was nothing else on April 17.The irony of it all was that even for the WEC, we all said, ‘Let’s not have the fight on that date with (WEC general manager) Reed Harris. Let’s support him and move it to the 17th, said Coker.