UFC 131 ticket sales hurt by Vancouver Canucks' Stanley Cup run, loss of Brock Lesnar

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Saturday's UFC 131 event marks the UFC's second-ever in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, but unlike the organization's first trip to the city in June of 2010, there will be no sell out crowd.

Last year's debut in the city at UFC 115 sold out within 30 minutes of tickets going on sale, but a large quantity of those were picked up by UFC Fight Club members and resold through secondary venues. Still, even with that in consideration, fans can actually get bargain prices for this card just days out from the fight, and the day of may be able to pick them up even cheaper.

According to the Vancouver Sun, ticket resale site StubHub had more than 1,200 tickets left as of Tuesday, four days out from the event. With that many still out there and sellers desperate not to eat the cost themselves, this could be one of the cheapest UFC pay-per-view events to attend in quite some time.

There are two factors that have had a massive impact on the draw of this card, the first being the loss of Brock Lesnar from the main event, and the second being the fact that the city's NHL team the Vancouver Canucks are in the midst of a heated Stanley Cup Finals run against the Boston Bruins, and Game 5 is in town on Friday night.

Lesnar was the draw for this card initially. Lesnar and the letters U, F and C were why people were coming out for this card, and his loss really hurt the overall interest in the card. Many fans attempted to get refunds but were unable to do so, and that as well could lead to the influx of leftover tickets still available.

But the Canucks being in town the night before, which in its own right can be a massive expense for a sports fan, makes Saturday's fight card a much less appealing draw for those picking and choosing their sporting events. Vancouver is a massive hockey town, and depending on how tonight's Game 4 plays out in Boston, Vancouver could end the series in front of a hometown crowd on Friday night. That event being in town the night before has killed a lot of local interest in attending the fights the next night, which will hurt the attendance further.

The Junior Dos Santos vs. Shane Carwin headlined event will still go on, and though interest in the event has waned, those who do attend are still likely to get an entertaining show.

Penick's Analysis: Neither of these issues were really things the UFC could have anticipated when booking the event. The date worked for them and worked for the Rogers Arena, and despite the Canucks being a favorite when entering the playoffs, the venue was booked well before then as well. As far as Lesnar goes, there was no way of foretelling the return of his diverticulitis the way it hit him, and unfortunately the card suffered because of it. But the UFC will forge on as they always do. They certainly would rather have a raucous sold-out crowd, but there's nothing to be done anymore and they'll deal with what they've been dealt.

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