Future MMA In Vancouver A Go With Caveats

Vancouver a Go for Future MMA Events, With Caveats

Legalization of MMA in the Canadian market remains a touchy subject for many promotions. In areas like Ontario, the process remains deadlocked whereas in other provinces like British Columbia, MMA is on a trial period with many issues regarding sanctioning yet to work themselves out. By looking at the perspective of the Vancouver city council’s decision to allow a landmark UFC on June 12, we can better understand both how Mixed Martial Arts is perceived by decision makers, and what needs to be done to move the sport further along in states or provinces where MMA is banned.

In December of 2009, the Vancouver city council voted 6-3 in favor of allowing MMA events in the city, albeit only for a two-year trial period. Councilor Kerry Jang made himself available to discuss the move, along with media reports from The Toronto Sun and Rogers Sportsnet which speculated that the Vancouver UFC would be a one-time deal.

“MMA had an interest to me because there are blows to the head,” explained Jang, who is a professor of Psychology at the University of British Columbia who teaches areas like neuroscience, mental illnesses and brain physiology. “Any blow to the head—depending on where it is, the angles, the strength and force of impacts behind it—can cause no damage, or in some cases, quite severe damage.”

Two years ago, Jang never would have considered sanctioning MMA because he believed MMA was a very wild, uncontrolled and underground activity.

“We heard about the amateur bouts, or the so-called ‘illegal bouts,’ that were going on in Vancouver, and they seemed pretty vicious. There was a lot of bare knuckle brawling at that time, it seemed quite violent.”

What helped convince Jang to vote in favor of legalizing the sport in his municipality was the institution of rules to make it a sport. However, the councilor repeated an often publicized myth that MMA has only recently been civilized by weight classes, rounds, and rules. Since the early beginnings of MMA, promotions have been trying to make events safe for all participants.

According to Jonathan Snowden’s book Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting, almost all of the current rules of the Zuffa-owned organization were in place back in 2000 at UFC 28, sanctioned under the ‘Unified Rules’ in New Jersey. Referees were given the power to stop fights back at UFC 3; weight classes were instituted at UFC 12; head butts, kicks to a downed opponent and strikes to the back of the head were banned at UFC 15 and five minute rounds were implemented at UFC 21. UFC 28 was the last show to be run by the Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG); after this event, Zuffa took the organization over.

“In the last year, I’ve come to agree that it is a sport. There’s training, there’s rules involved. I went to a bout and I found it quite entertaining,” says Jang.

There is a question mark over the issue of who should be responsible for sanctioning of MMA in British Columbia. Right now it is up to individual municipalities to decide, but Jang believes that the provincial government should step in to sanction events in BC. Typically, the province indemnifies the city, but this is not so in the case of MMA. The issue of insurance was a major stumbling block that almost led to the cancellation of UFC 115.

“I was quite surprised when Attorney General Mike de Jong said ‘If we sanction it, we’re going to take all the profits from it.’ I said, ‘Is it really about money? We’re talking about indemnification and keeping the city safe and all you’re thinking about is profit!”

The bottom line was that the province was not willing to step in; therefore the city of Vancouver had to set the broad policy at $12 million dollars for insurance and indemnification for the UFC to follow. Jang further points to the Quebec example as a more viable workable relationship because both the province and municipality split a cut from the Pay-Per-View revenue.

Besides insurance, the other costs for a promoter include $300 for a promoter’s license, an event permit fee of $150, a seat tax of $1 per seat and all the commission’s direct costs related to putting on the event. These include paying for medical staff, medical tests, ambulance attendance, and officials such as referees and judges.

“All we’re trying to do is recover our costs for the city,” explains Jang, who points to costs for policing, including the monitoring and surveillance of organized crime and gang members that will occur at the UFC event.

The Toronto Sun quoted Vancouver Athletic Commission chairman Mirko Mladenovic as saying “The UFC isn’t going to make any money off this,” but this is a point of contention. Certainly the net profit made from millions in PPV revenue, a sold-out live gate and the additional sales of branded UFC merchandise can cover the premiums on a $12 million insurance policy and the commission’s costs?

Says Jang: “As far as I am concerned, they were very clear that their business case was going to make them money. Why [else] would they come here?”

There are also the matter of filing and reviewing various reports from the police, athletic commission and social development staff in Vancouver to see how the event ran. Without question, there is no difference between the logistics and crowd control of a rock concert and that of a major MMA event, so there should be no issues and any promotion willing to adhere to the city council’s requirements would probably be allowed to put on future shows in Vancouver.  This contradicts a June 7 report from The Toronto Sun that suggests the UFC returning is not a possibility.

As much as UFC 115 is a first for Vancouver, it is hoped that a well-run event can act as an example to convince lawmakers to sanction shows in Ontario. Despite the opening of a Toronto UFC office, there’s no evidence ice-cold attitudes in the province towards MMA will thaw, but Vancouver and Montreal will still be open for business in the future.