Business as Usual Update: Former Strikeforce President and CEO Scott Coker Quietly Demoted to Executive VP and General Manager This content is protected Quote: An interesting tidbit to come out of this weeks UFC Fighter Summit is that former Strikeforce president and CEO Scott Coker has been quietly demoted to the role of executive vice president and general manager of the recently Zuffa-purchased promotion. No official announcement was made about the title change and its unclear if Cokers role with the promotion will change as a result, however the agenda for the week-long event revealed the news that managed slipped under the media radar. Business as Usual Update: Former Strikeforce President and CEO Scott Coker Quietly Demoted to Executive VP and General Manager | Cagepotato http://www.cagepotato.com/business-...-demoted-to-executive-vp-and-general-manager/ And so starts the business as usual. Apparently the former President of the WEC has taken over his role, and Sean Shelby has taken over matchmaking. According to this article Coker and his assistant are the only remaining full time SF employees. Only a matter of time now before all SF fighters are merged and SF ceases to exist. Next stop Bellator!!
The column doesn't say this. It says that Coker's title has changed but there's no word as of yet whether his role has changed. When Harris controlled Strikeforce his title was General Manager. And the talk of Harris being brought in above Coker was simply speculation on the writer's part - he also throws out the possibility that there's nobody above Coker except Dana White. And Sean Shelby was brought at the very beginning of the buyout. Was never patricularly comfortable with Bob Cook being involved in matchmaking with his other links. And Rich Chou didn't exactly make their matchmaking any less chaotic, illogical or self-defeating since he was brought on board. And again as long as the deal is in place with Showtime, Strikeforce survives. It took them over four years to merge WEC into the UFC and that only happened when the television issues were resolved.
Why are you waxing philosophical? It says it there plainly in black and white. Scott Coker WAS the SF CEO. That doesn't say CEO does it. Whether his role has changed is academic. Naturally of course your title is usually reflective of your role. Either way from CEO to GM is obviously a demotion. And im not expecting the SF acquisition to take as long as the WEC for the obvious reason that the WEC was not in competition with the UFC. As soon as SF's TV contract is up with ShowTime the brand will be dead. In addition as fighters contracts expire they'll become UFC employee's. I give it less than 2 years for SF to be completely assimilated.
As I made clear from bolding part of initial post, I was referring to the idea that Reed had been brought in to run Strikeforce above him. Its not happened and there's no evidence its going to. And again if he's doing the same role with a different name then no its not a demotion, just fitting Strikeforce into Zuffa structures. Strikeforce's contract with Showtime doesn't end until 2014 unless one side breaks it. While I'll be stunned if the best fighters don't eventually end up in the UFC with the titles unified, I have no idea what happens to Strikeforce - it may well be shut down but it could survive as a secondary promotion or morph into simply being the name of UFC programming on Showtime. I expect the Zuffa-Showtime relationship to be the deciding factor.
To date no promotion that the UFC has acquired has remained as separate brand. It stands to reason that SF will be no different.
Its not as clear cut as you're making out. You're speak like every promotion they bought was acquired with the sole intention of shutting down. That's simply wrong. Both Pride and WEC were purchased with the intention of keeping them alive. WEC was around for four years while Zuffa made a real attempt to get Pride onto Japanese television. WEC was folded into the UFC when it became clear its ratings were weakening and Versus became willing and able to buy some UFC shows. Pride was folded into the UFC when it became clear that they weren't getting onto Japanese television and had been sold a pup by DSE. If Showtime are willing to extend the Strikeforce deal in 2014 but unwilling to go the extra mile to buy the UFC license is Zuffa just going to turn that money down? The simple fact is Strikeforce could be shut down by next year, it could survive until 2014 or it could carve out a niche that makes it a permanent but secondary part of the Zuffa organisation. Which just do not know yet.
You can believe whatever you like. I don't believe for a minute that the UFC had any intention of keeping PRIDE. To then lay the blame at PRIDE's door for Zuffa's lack of due diligence if we are to believe the UFC version of events is a lame cop out. PRIDE was a VERY successful brand. The UFC carved up what they wanted and dispensed with the rest. This is what happened. And has also happened to other brands bought by the UFC. Thus in my eyes any other explanation(s) are just excuses. As the results speak for themself.
Pride HAD been a very successful brand. The reason it was sold was because it had been thrown of television in the midst of scandal and DSE could no longer afford to run it. If Zuffa had been able to get it on television then they could have been successful - they wasn't able to so there was no future for the brand. And I don't see how this is excuses. These are just the facts. The UFC has directly bought four of its rivals. One was around FOUR YEARS after it was purchased. The second they made a real effort to keep it going but failed. The third (WFA) they made no secret of buying to cherrypick the talent. Yes its likely that at some point soon Strikeforce will be folded but you cannot say that for certain and have no idea of knowning when, how and why it happens.
None of that matters. Their all assimilated now and SF WILL be next. As for the WEC the UFC took all the fighters above featherweight. The only reason why it stayed as long as it did is because the lower divisions historically had been somewhat unsuccessful in terms of drawing power and stars hence why their lowest division was lightweight. Like iv already said the WEC offered no threat. And that was the only reason for its longevity after the purchase.
It was above lightweight actually and that was more them trying to better focus WEC on what had always been its biggest strength - the lighter weights. And again you're not looking at the chronology. IFL about to get television deal on Versus, UFC can't make deal with Versus due to Spike terms, Zuffa buys Versus and signs deal with Versus, UFC reups with Spike but inserts clause that allows it to run four shows outside the deal for other channels, Versus experiments with two UFC shows before WEC television deal with Versus ends in 2010, Versus signs new deal for four UFC fights, UFC no longer needs WEC to maintain a presence on Versus, WEC folds. What that shows is that if the UFC finds a use for a satellite company then they will keep it around. Coker has so much time to find that purpose otherwise Strikeforce gets closed down. That's all I'm saying.
Don't really understand. It says "Strikeforce Executive VP & General Manager Scott Coker" It says him after "President" Dana White. If the executive VP is anything like Vice President of the U.S for example...That's a pretty good title. Of course Dana is the president, and going to stay that way. If Scott Coker is like right behind him...I'd consider that as pretty good. Executive might mean something a little different though.....