So the UFC has hired a media consulting organization to help get MMA sanctioned in NY. Here's the site they've fired up... http://www.mmafacts.com/ gawd it looks so transparent but idiots and ignoramouses will eat this up... Here's the write up from Yahoo.com's Kevin Lole <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>UFC president Dana White has said that one of his long-term goals is to have mixed martial arts sanctioned in New York so that the UFC can host an event at Madison Square Garden. Now, there is tangible evidence that he wasn’t kidding. The UFC has hired a political consulting firm, Global Strategies, to handle media relations. Global Strategies promptly created a website, www.mmafacts.com, which provides gobs of information about the sport and the company. According to a story in The New York Times on Monday, Zuffa, the company that owns the UFC, hired a prominent lobbyist at the cost of $10,000 per month. Among the nuggets at mmafacts.com, it’s reported that: The UFC averaged $2.8 million per event in gate revenue in 2007. Pay-per-view buys increased 352 percent in 2006 over 2003 levels. Pay-per-view revenues increased 424 percent in 2006 over 2003 levels. Attendees at UFC 69 in Houston reported mean incomes above $85,000. Eighty-four percent of spectators at UFC 69 in Houston and 60 percent of attendees at UFC 67 in Las Vegas were attending their first event. UFC 68 in Columbus, Ohio, produced $11 million in external economic activity for the city, according to the Ohio Athletic Commission. The controversy involving New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who on Monday was linked to a prostitution ring, can’t help the UFC’s effort. But, as UFC vice president Marc Ratner, who is heading the company’s efforts to sanction the sport in all 50 states, said on Monday, “It’s time. Plain and simple, it’s time.”</div> hmm wonder if they'll try the same thing to get it sanctioned in Ontario and therefore Toronto? especially now that Montreal sold out the UFC event in record time.
The UFC wants to go to Toronto, I'm sure. The fan base for the sport in Canada is massive. They probably want to go to Van City and Calgary as well, eventually. As for New York and Boston, I would expect both cities to host the UFC by 2010.
You know what, I don't think the UFC is going to hire anyone to get MMA sanctioned in Canadian provinces. They could sell out pretty much any arena in the US and the Canadian market is already huge without sanctioning. If it happens without their pressure they would be content, but they won't force the issue any time soon.
I think they will want it sanctioned in Toronto/Ontario as there's 5 Million + ppl in the greater T.O. area, making it a rather large city to have a UFC hosted at.
