With CJI 2 just days away, Craig Jones claims they still need to sell a whole lot of tickets to break even.
The Craig Jones Invitational is known for raising record prize money and purses for Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) athletes. CJI 1 hosted two tournaments that made Kade Ruotolo and Nick Rodriguez millionaires, and now CJI 2 will have a $1 million team tournament
and a $100,000 four-woman bracket on top of individual “show money” for their athletes.CJI will also again air their August 30-31 event
for free on YouTube.
While those factors make it good for the fans and the athletes, it does make it hard for the annual BJJ spectacle to be sustainable for the long run.
Craig Jones claims CJI 2 needs to sell 2000 more tickets to avoid losing money
“Guys, we’re 2000 tickets shy of this breakeven point for (CJI 2),” Craig Jones claimed on a recent Instagram story.
While CJI 2 does have sponsors, hosting a free live YouTube stream instead of putting the popular BJJ show on a streaming platform does leave a lot of money on the table.
“I got massive streaming rights offers, but I turned that shit down because I don’t want to sell my soul to some people out there,” Jones said. “We have to put this on a streaming platform next year to make it viable — if we even do it again, because I really don’t want to do that. I want to keep this free on YouTube.
“If you guys want to support and are watching the free broadcast at home, just get a cheap general admission ticket and get us across the line. Please, or I’ll be bankrupt,” he said.
Craig Jones: CJI will stay free on YouTube if we sell enough tickets
In his plea to sell more tickets, Craig Jones also now claims that CJI 2 selling well means that CJI 3 will remain free for fans in 2026.
“5,115 tickets sold (so far),” Jones wrote on Instagram. “7000 target. If we hit that, CJI stays free on YouTube.”
Hours after his initial video above, Jones says CJI 2 still needs to sell over 1800 tickets. Checking the CJI 2 ticketing website also shows that most sections in the Thomas & Mack Center have “low” ticket availability. As of this writing though, there are still nine sections with “medium” availability.
For context, on the cheapest seats ranging from $67.50 to $112, Section 213 is the only one that’s categorized with “medium” availability, and it has 91 seats still available. Four sections are completely sold out, while the other similarly prized sections are categorized as “low” availability ranging from 3 to over 30 seats available.
Among the lower bowl areas priced from $225 to $495, one section is fully sold out, five have “low” availability, and eight sections still have “medium” availability.
The four VIP area tickets are running out, with only 32 total tickets left priced at $2025.
How much does the format change affect the hype behind CJI 2?
Much like their inaugural event, CJI 2 will again have a pretty stacked line up of BJJ stars and world champions, but they’re also switching to a completely different format from what worked last time.
Team tournaments are designed to bring more chaos and action during the actual event, while CJI 1 arguably had higher stakes as it tried to determine the best grapplers in the world in two weight classes. CJI 2 will most likely end up being the far more entertaining show overall, but will it bring an equal amount of hype during the lead up as its predecessor?
Perhaps slow ticket sales is already an early indicator, but for what it’s worth, Craig Jones already announced previously that they’re going back to regular 16-man tournaments for CJI 3.
Jones’ team may or may not lose money, but grappling fans are likely to win regardless on August 30-31. CJI 2, with its attempts to borrow from pro wrestling, is almost guaranteed to showcase an incredibly fun and chaotic product… for free.
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