The upcoming UFC 306: Riyadh Season Noche UFC is a one-and-done event and Dana White claims that he’ll never try anything like that ever again. Well, it seems that the CEO could be making the right decision because there’s been a worrying update about the Sphere event. Despite how big of a spectacle it has the potential to be, it turns out that the upcoming PPV at the Sphere is struggling with ticket sales with less than two weeks to go.

Dana White has reportedly invested more than $20 million to make the Sphere event happen. It even features one of the promotion’s biggest stars, Sean O’Malley, competing in the biggest fight of his career against Merab Dvalishvili, but it could all go to waste as the Sphere hasn’t even sold out yet.

Dana White in trouble with Noche UFC’s ticket sales

The UFC CEO is in full swing trying to present a “love letter to Mexican people” at the $2.3 billion structure in Las Vegas. Having mentioned how amazed he was when he went to see a U2 concert at the Sphere, Dana White has made it his mission to put on the greatest live combat sports event in history. However, those plans seem to be facing a curveball with almost 3,000 tickets still unsold.

Yes, the current set-up of the total crowd capacity for UFC 306: Riyadh Season Noche UFC has been 15,410, according to various reports. The beneficial thing is that most of the tickets are gone, sold to fans, but about one-fifth of the total seats are still unsold, 2,929 seats, to be exact. On the other hand, the biggest problem that the UFC is facing is that they only have over a couple of weeks to go before they get this issue settled.

Meanwhile, we can’t be too sure of the state of ticket sales right now because, unfortunately, these reports are almost a week old. Things may have changed since then. But why are so many tickets unsold? Let us take a look a some potential reasons, including the ticket prices.

A look at Noche UFC’s ticket prices

If we visit Ticketmaster’s website, we’ll find that the ticket prices for Noche UFC are as high as a whopping $12,000. The minimum price, or the cheap seats, as most would say, are priced at $3,000. Well, the Sphere event is a one-off event, and ticket prices were bound to be higher than an average UFC event. Further, Dana White has already trimmed down the capacity to around 15,000 in a venue where 20,000 people can be seated without any hassle and the unsold tickets could prove to be a considerable loss for the promotion.

The setup of the Octagon will also be significantly different from any UFC fan has ever seen. The Sphere is mostly designed for musical and theatrical performances, which is why one side of the venue will have the fans seated and the other side, in front of the giant screen, will be the UFC fighters who’ll battle each other at the world’s most visually spectacular arena.

Now that we have looked at the seating and the prices, let’s take a look at the card. Do you think the Sphere card is as strong as you would expect for such a hyped event? Sure, there are two title fights headlining the event. We have fan favorites Diego Lopes and Brian Ortega setting the stage for the main and co-main events. But what about the other fights?

There is a Mexican fighter in all but two fights on the event lineup but was this the right move to make? As expected, the Mexican Independence Day show should give the stage to Mexican fighters, but perhaps a big name like Conor McGregor could have headlined the event and made it all the more special. The Irishman’s UFC 303 bout attracted $20M in gate revenue before the fight was canceled.

Forget McGregor, the UFC 308 card in Abu Dhabi, or the UFC 307 card in Utah boasts stronger lineups than Noche UFC. Did the UFC drop the ball with the matchmaking for the one-of-a-kind event?

What do you have to say about the lack of ticket sales with Noche UFC approaching fast? Drop your comments below.