UFC President, Dana White has today pointed the finger at the Culinary Union for keeping the sport of mixed martial arts out of the state of New York, as well as once again pointing to the massive financial benefits a major event would have on the area. Speaking via MMAWeekly.com, Dana said:
“It has nothing to do with Mixed Martial Arts, of all things, it’s the Culinary Union that’s keeping us out of New York. They’re powerful guys here. The economic impact we have on a city is huge.”
“We’re talking about going up into Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester; these cities that are hurting right now and could really use a big event like this. We just did a fight in Toronto, not too far from Buffalo, 55,000 people. We did almost a 13 million dollar gate. We paid 1.5 million dollars in union fees up in Toronto to union workers that were working up there and we paid over a million dollars just in ticket tax up there. The economic impact we had on the city of Toronto was 45 million dollars.”
“This time we got all the way up, got all the votes all the way (through various committees), but they never put us on the floor to try and get the votes. They are spending union member dues to fight the UFC from coming (to New York).”
MMA will have to wait until next year now before trying again to get legalised in New York, something that’s known to be frustrating the legions of fans in the area. Stay tuned to MMABay for more news on this situation as we get it.By Michael Pepper.
No comments:
Post a Comment