Barstool Sports acquired Rough n’ Rowdy in 2017 with big plans to make it a major pay-per-view experience for their fans.
Seven years later, they may have reached the limit on how big those plans can get.
As they prepare for Rough n’ Rowdy 25 on Friday night with a main event featuring The Abel Brothers vs. Frank The Tank’s Army, Barstool owner Dave Portnoy is mulling over whether or not this might be the last one.
Dave wants at least 20k PPV buys for #RNR25 or else he may have to pull the plug on @roughnrowdy pic.twitter.com/cmxxQz3rel
— The Unnamed Show (@barstoolunnamed) August 8, 2024
“I may bring an end to Rough n’ Rowdy if I don’t like the numbers here,” Portnoy told co-host Kirk Minihane and Ryan Whitney on Thursday’s episode of The Unnamed Show. “It’s a lot of work.”
Whitney asked what the main issue was and if there was a specific number they had to hit to make him feel better about the event’s future.
“It’s pretty expensive to put together,” he said. “I want at least 20,000 pay-per-view buys.”
“Have the numbers been good the last few times?” asked Minihane.
“Starting to wane a tiny bit,” Portnoy responded. “Maybe you need the headline fights. I don’t know, we’ll see what the numbers are tomorrow.”
When Barstool purchased the event in 2017, Portnoy said it was getting around 13,000 PPV buys. By 2018, Barstool claimed the event was garnering over 40,000 buys. Numbers are hard to come by after that but a 2020 Barstool message board claims that PPV buys had dropped to the 30K range by then. For Portnoy to now set a bar of 20K shows how much things have fallen off.
A quick perusal of the comments around Portnoy’s admission seems to confirm the sentiment that the event hasn’t had an exciting headliner in a while. The rising cost over the years also appears to have contributed to subscriber attrition.
Of course, all of this could also just be a savvy way to goose buys from loyal Stoolies who want to make Portnoy happy. Perhaps we’ll find out the fate of Rough n’ Rowdy by Saturday.
