Chris Parry of The Vancouver Sun is reporting that the Vancouver City Council will address the issue of MMA Regulation with a “yea or nay” vote this Thursday:
Vancouver City Council will finally put the issue of mixed martial arts regulation to a yea or nay vote Thursday, when city staff table a report on how the sport can be run profitably and safely on a local level.
Ultimate Fighting Championship Assistant General Counsel Mike Mersch and Executive VP and General Counsel Lawrence Esptein will be at the meeting, which will be open to the public and receive submissions from Vancouver police and Honour Combat Championships, one of the promotions that held a successful sold- out amateur ‘test event’ on November 27.
Councillors Heather Deal and Kerry Jang attended the HCC event and came away suitably impressed with the professionalism, fighter safety, officiating and – surprisingly – the action in the ring.
“I’m actually having a lot more fun then I thought I would,” said Jang on the night.
NPA Councillor Suzanne Anton was an early adopter of MMA regulation in the city, despite being part of the Sam Sullivan-led council that backed away from the sport in September 2007, citing liability concerns.
“I want to be on this bandwagon,” said Anton. “Bandwagons come and go. If you wait too long and they’ll be over and its a very popular sport right now. I want the UFC to come! Bring it on!”
….
The UFC has tentatively booked GM Place for a June 2010 pay-per-view event. UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner told The Sun recently that as soon as Vancouver gives the go-ahead, it would take around “20 or 30 days for us to confirm a date for next year.”
Officials in Montreal have pegged the economic impact of a UFC event at around $20m in increased tourism, production, commission fees and associated revenue.
MMA is big business on Vancouver Island and in the interior, with regions such as Prince George, Vernon, Pemberton, Nanaimo and Victoria having hosted local sold out events. Montreal has hosted two UFC events without incident and will likely see a third in early 2010, while Calgary and Edmonton host regional promotion events on a weekly basis.
Medical studies out of the UK have indicated the sport is far safer than many other pro sports, such as football and boxing, due to the lack of concentrated, prolonged attacks on the head.
Critics complain, however, that the spectacle of two individuals fighting in a cage is barbaric and likely to inspire associated violence outside the arena.
Actual evidence of spectator violence is hard to come by however, and 41 states in the US have now regulated the sport, with Massachusetts, Maine and Indiana joining the throng in November.
Payout Perspective:
The idea that MMA perpetuates non-sport violence isn’t such a leap when every bit of information that an individual has about the sport is a false stereotype based upon what the UFC used to be in the early 90s. But the sport has changed, so has the audience, and there is no evidence to suggest that the incidence of mixed martial arts is at all correlated with crime or acts of violence.
Moreover, you could also further state the case that MMA provides an outlet for troubled individuals (youth or adults) to channel their aggression, benefit from the discipline that martial arts demands, and gain from the new, positive social environment they’ve surrounded themselves with.
Every indication that we’ve heard so far points towards a yea vote, but there are no guarantees in this business. Stay tuned.
Leave a Reply