On the heels of the Vancouver City Council’s announcement to regulate MMA for a trial period of two years, the Canadian Press gives an update on MMA’s quest for legalization in Canada on both the provincial and federal levels:
TORONTO – Having succeeded in helping re-open Vancouver to mixed martial arts, the UFC continues the fight to get the sport sanctioned in Ontario.
That involves a two-pronged approach, with lobbyists working on both the Ontario and federal governments. Having expected sellouts shows in May in Montreal and June in Vancouver should help the UFC cause in Toronto, although privately the UFC acknowledges Ontario has proved to be more difficult than expected.
That’s frustrating to an organization that knows a burgeoning mixed martial arts audience awaits it in Toronto.
“We know the interest is there,” said Marc Ratner, the UFC’s vice-president of regulatory and government affairs.
“Toronto, on a per-capita basis, is our best market — pay-per-view buys, of television viewers, of bars that are buying it. It’s very much a hotbed.”
The UFC also saw the Toronto effect in the number of fans that came from Ontario to see UFC 83 and UFC 97 in Montreal in April 2008 and 2009.
Canada has proved to be an ace in the hole for the UFC, whose top officials admit they never expected the sport to be such a hit north of the border. The UFC is extremely keen to harvest that interest in Ontario.
The MMA juggernaut has engaged former Ontario premier David Peterson and his Cassells Brock & Blackwell law firm to help lobby the Ontario government. Meanwhile on the federal front, the UFC is using the services of the Capital Hill Group, a lobbyist that specializes “in building constructive, mutually beneficial partnerships between business and government,” according to its website.
Ratner and the UFC already have the Rogers Center and the Air Canada Centre on side. A senior Rogers executive even reached out to local media earlier this year to add his voice to those who want the sport sanctioned in Ontario.
In addition to working on the province, Ratner and his team are trying to get the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to expand the section that permits boxing to include mixed martial arts.
The existing wording has not stopped shows from being staged from B.C. to Nova Scotia. Still, there is currently a confusing patchwork quilt of regulation governing MMA in Canada, with the sport approved in some jurisdictions, but not in others.
Ratner has been to Ottawa once already and is planning a second visit to Ontario in the next two months. He talks weekly to his provincial and federal lobbyists here and is also looking west.
“I’ve been talking to Edmonton, I’ve been talking to Calgary,” he said.
“I think Alberta definitely is a possibility … We’re absolutely looking at it,” he added. “We had a wonderful letter from the mayor of Edmonton inviting us to bring a show there. So there’s a lot of positives.”
Payout Perspective:
MMAPayout.com received word about a month ago that the case for regulation on the federal front had hit a snag. It was being argued that changing Section 83 of the criminal code — the section that could be interpreted to outlaw MMA events — would require opening the the entire code, and that would open a whole new can of worms that parliament did not want to deal with.
However, we’re now getting word that progress is being made on both fronts. The UFC hired a new lobbyist group in November – Capital Hill – that now allows them to push the issue at both levels: federal and provincial. The timeline for the bill to pass is still very much up in the air, but the hope remains that we’ll see a decision in 2010 (which would at the very least open the doors for a 2011 UFC event in the province).
UFC in Toronto would no doubt be the biggest event the promotion has done to date. When I went to Montreal I’d say the majority of people I spoke to had traveled from the Greater Toronto Area. The whole golden horseshoe region represents more than 8 million people and almost a third of the Canadian population. Much like the WWE, the UFC would draw higher than average gates regardless of the current state of the promotion (up or down, UFC of course being up right now). As well having MMA events be sanctioned ad drawing big in Ontraio would also force the nation’s number 1 sports broadcaster(TSN) to cover the UFC and other promotions which in turn would just continue to fuel popularity in an already growing sport.
I’ve often thought that the UFC should seek to hold 4-6 shows per year in Canada, every year.
The UFC needs to take more advantage of Canada as a whole. I say do at least three shows there a year. The live gates are always fantastic. Despite popular opinion, I think the UFC should slow down on europe as it has not taken off as expected, and hit Canada and Mexico more. After UFC 100 did 25 million views in mexico, I have no doubt an event would fair quite well at the capital.