It’s no secret that ACB MMA has been struggling recently. The Russian promotion, popular among hardcore MMA fans, has cancelled two of their most recent shows. The cancellations, first reported by Marcel Dorff, affected four of ACB’s upcoming shows.
Due to unforeseen circumstances the ACB event in Cyprus has been cancelled.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. pic.twitter.com/jaAZtg6qkF
— ACA MMA (@ACA_League) July 20, 2018
The cancellations, among other things, led many to worry about ACB’s organizational stability, financial security and future endeavors. ACB released a statement on Instagram addressing those concerns on July 30th.
ACB Struggling
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl2rhDphhPr/?hl=en&taken-by=acb_mma
“Official statement from ACB about future events.
Three events, Cyprus, Kazan and Sweden, were cancelled this year due to organizational and financial problems. In Sha Allah, the league will continue it’s activities from September. In 2018 there will be two events: in Krasnodar and in Moscow. In this time the league will go through restructuring process to work more efficiently from a financial standpoint. The league is already working on a 2019 plan and schedule, which will be revealed in the near future.
All the money from ticket sales for the cancelled events will be returned in full to the people who bought tickets for the cancelled shows.
Dear friends, don’t believe the gossips. The league has had some difficulties, which will only make us stronger and wiser! There’s no progress without challenges!”
A Move to PPV
Now, it appears the aforementioned restructuring will include a switch to a pay-per-view model, according to an ACB Instagram post added today, August 20.
No Free Events anymore. ACB goes PPV!!! You can download the ACB app. pic.twitter.com/PpuicYEd90
— Marcel Dorff 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (@BigMarcel24) August 20, 2018
“ACB will now move to Pay Per View. Keep supporting the promotion and watch our first PPV on Sept 8th!
Because of the cancellation of multiple events due to some logistical issues, we received a lot of messages from fight fans, who was offered us help by giving us some great advice. We’ll need that support in the future, because starting from the event in Krasnodar ACB is launching it’s own PPV platform ACBWorld. From now on all events will be streamed through the PPV platform and there will be no free live streams.
The events will be shown on TV only after they are over. It will be easy to purchase a paid subscription. You will just need to download an ACBWorld App, which supports iOS, Android and Smart-TV. Soon, after the app will be tested it’ll be available to download shortly. Please follow the updates after downloading, as at the first stage of functioning it will be regularly updated and improved based on your feedback.
The PPV cost will be determined after agreement with you, our fight fans! So we’re asking all MMA fans to voice their opinion on the cost of ACB 89 PPV! Also we’re asking all ACB fans to support us in this undertaking, together we’ll get the league to a new level and we will continue to deliver exciting fights for the fans around the world!”
According to the post, ACB will be creating their own app, titled ACBWorld – which will be compatible with “iOS, Android, and Smart-TV”.
ACB’s Future?
The app will go live, along with the first promotional pay-per-view under the current model, for ACB’s September 8th show. The September 8th card, ACB 89, features three of the promotion’s most anticipated fights, including: Albert Tumenov vs. Brett Cooper, Abdul-Aziz Abdulvakhabov vs. Ali Bagov, and Albert Duraev vs. Piotr Strus.
The promotion was sure to mention that there will no longer be a free streaming option for ACB cards, and replays would air only on television following the events.
In an unusual twist, ACB has seemingly put the matter of pricing up to the fans. In the post, the organization said the were “asking all MMA fans to voice their opinion on the cost of ACB 89 PPV”.
Time will tell if this move will pan out for ACB, and whether or not fans will respond well. In any case, it is promising that ACB has a plan for the future, and that its fighters will have a means to continue competing.
