- UFC 284 breaks Rolling Stones record for national arena revenue
- Event sets new sporting event attendance record for RAC Arena
- UFC 284 part of McGowan Government's major events strategy for tourism
The highly successful UFC 284 event at RAC Arena broke a series of records in a lucrative week for Western Australia's hospitality and tourism businesses.
UFC 284: Makhachev vs Volkanovski set both national and RAC Arena revenue records while breaking the sporting event attendance record for RAC Arena.
The McGowan Government, through Tourism WA, brought UFC to Australia exclusively for the first time in more than 1000 days driving economic returns for WA.
It was the centrepiece of arguably the biggest ever weekend of sporting and cultural events in Perth.
The gross ticketing revenue for UFC 284 was $5,911,598. This beat the previous Australian record held by the Rolling Stones at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena in 2014.
UFC 284 also had the highest number of ticket sales for a single sporting event in RAC Arena's history, with 14,124 fans filling the arena.
Almost 9,000 of those tickets - about 70 per cent - were sold to people from out of WA who travelled to Perth for the event.
In comparison, about 30 per cent of the ticketholders came from out of State for the previous UFC 221 in Perth in 2018.
The previous sporting event attendance record for RAC Arena was 13,908 at last year's Super Netball victory by the West Coast Fever against the Melbourne Vixens - another event delivered by the McGowan Government through Tourism WA.
The final economic impact of UFC284 on the local economy is still being finalised but it will be significantly more than the $5.3 million of direct revenue for local businesses in 2018.
UFC 284 drew big crowds throughout the week at various events, including about 6,000 fans for the ceremonial weigh in at RAC Arena on Saturday and a further 6,000 for the public press conference and Elizabeth Quay Open Workouts.
UFC attracted a massive global social media and pay-per-view audience from around 172 countries. Promotions for Perth and WA were featured throughout the UFC 284 broadcasts in 40 different languages.
While in Perth, UFC athletes and celebrity ticketholders also explored some of Perth's most iconic destinations such as Rottnest Island and the Swan Valley, sharing their experiences with tens of millions of social media followers.
UFC 284 was made possible because of a McGowan Government election commitment in 2017 to lift a ban on the UFC's Octagon, allowing Tourism WA to secure major UFC events for the benefit of local tourism and State economy.
UFC 284 capped off a huge range of diverse sporting and cultural events in Perth last weekend.
This included over 50,000 people at Optus Stadium for Red Hot Chili Peppers and Post Malone, 14,000 at St Jerome's Laneway Festival, Sting entertaining 12,000
people at Kings Park, Perth Festival, Fringe World, West Australian Ballet at The Quarry, the Australia Sprint Car Championship at Perth Motorplex and the Swimming WA State Championships at HBF Stadium.
Comments attributed to Tourism Minister Roger Cook:
"We have a deliberate and focused strategy to target major events to drive tourism to Western Australia for the economic benefit of WA businesses.
"Everyone saw, and tens of thousands of people experienced, the perfect example of this last weekend with a great mix of different sporting and cultural events bringing a pulsating energy to Perth.
"UFC 284 brought 9,000 people into our State who sent the message around Australia and the world that WA is an amazing place to live and play.
"The event was bigger than the Rolling Stones which shows you can get what you want if you try.
"Our tourism strategy has huge momentum with so much more to come, including Bjork and High Voltage ahead."
Minister's office - 6552 6500
