Cage ban in Australia forces UFC out of some states
The Premier of the state of Western Australia Colin Barnett and his Sports Minister Terry Waldron don’t like the look…
The Premier of the state of Western Australia Colin Barnett and his Sports Minister Terry Waldron don’t like the look of the Octagon, and so in March banned the cage, and mandated the use of a ring for mixed martial arts contests. This is despite the recommendation of their WA Combat Sports Commission.
Use of a cage for MMA is banned in Victoria and Western Australia, and legal in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. Queensland, like Alaska, has no regulatory body for combat sports, so the cage is legal.
As a consequence, Western Australia gets less fights, more injuries, and no UFC. UFC Fight Night 33 has sold out a 12,000 seat arena in Brisbane instead of Perth in Western Australia.
UFC Managing Director of Canada, Australia and New Zealand Tom Wright said following the ban that the UFC would not allow its events to take place without the Octagon, subsequently ruling out any UFC event in Perth.
He also revealed the UFC had placed a hold on a date this month with Perth Arena’s management company, AEG Ogden, the same company that manages the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, among others.
Mr Wright confirmed that hold was taken off when the WA Government announced the ban, and said this Brisbane event effectively replaced the event planned for Perth.
“I asked for holds and as it turned out, those holds were unfortunately not necessary,” he said.
“The Brisbane event has replaced that Perth event, absolutely, and every seat in the Brisbane Entertainment Centre is going to be sold, it seats 12,000 fully packed and there will be 12,000 there.
“The last time I checked, there were 37 tickets still left for the show.
“The Perth Arena holds 17 or 18,000 and I completely guarantee, when, not if but when, the UFC gets sanctioned in Western Australia we will fill the Perth Arena as well.”
Mr Wright said he would like to see the ban overturned in order to ensure the health and safety of fighters, however he added there were additional benefits the WA Government did not seem to recognise.
“I think the WA decision is tremendously short-sighted in terms of the economic drivers,” he said.
“I don’t know of that many governments that turn away economic drivers. When people travel to UFC events they come for three or four days, they stay in hotels, they take cabs, they eat in restaurants and cafes…the economic drivers and the multiplier effect to these sorts of events is remarkable.
“We have provided all the government with economic impact studies from similar events in Vancouver and Toronto… it’s not like we’re picking numbers out of the air. Here are the numbers. They’re significant numbers and in this kind of environment I don’t know how you can turn your back on that.”
One person who is well aware of the economic and tourism impact the UFC is having on Brisbane at the moment is Brisbane Entertainment Centre general manager Tricia McNamara.
She said that in crew accommodation alone, the UFC was having a huge impact and that ticket sales reflected the event was extremely popular with tourists.
“It’s an enormous event,” she said.
“When I had my initial meetings with them regarding this, we were talking about accommodation in December and I said to them, wow there’s so much activity in Brisbane in December, I really want you to get your room nights booked early.
“I asked them how many room nights they would use and they said probably around 500 room nights, and that’s just the UFC, just their production crew, the fighters, the administration, and the entourage around it.
“500 room nights alone, just for the UFC. That’s staggering.”
Ms. McNamara said the event would not only showcase fighters, but also the city, a view backed by Daniel Gschwind, chief executive of the Queensland Tourism Industry Council.
“An emerging sport like the UFC is something that is attracting increasing attention,” he said.
“It has a rapidly growing fan base and it’s an international sport, importantly, which brings people to Brisbane and gives Brisbane exposure across a different market segment, a younger market segment that has a strong presence in Asia. It adds to the appeal of the city.
“The UFC boasts that it broadcasts to 800 million homes worldwide. If only a very small fraction of those people are more likely to come to Brisbane as a result it is an enormous boost in essentially free publicity, publicity you can’t buy through advertising.
“Sporting events bring an enormous buzz into a city, it stimulates the economy through restaurants, cafes and pubs and that’s a very real and very tangible factor.”
Fairfax Media contacted Tourism Minister Liza Harvey regarding the potential tourism benefits of a WA UFC event but was instead referred to Sports Minister Terry Waldron.
In a statement, Mr Waldron did not address questions on tourism.
“The State Government has not approved the use of a fenced enclosure for MMA contests believing it is not in the best interests of the wider community to endorse and encourage participation of fighting in a cage,” he said.
“The State Government is not considering reversing this decision.
“The UFC are free to hold events in Western Australia as long as they comply with the approved rules.”
Wright expanded on his remarks in an interview with MMAJunkie.
A boxing ring was designed for boxers, said Wright. These guys aren’t boxers – they’re mixed martial artists. So let them compete in an environment that’s designed for their sport.
It’s really just a simple letter that the minister has to write. The athletic commission, which is a bureaucratic organization that provides expert insight and recommendations to the ministry, has actually recommended that the cage ban be lifted (in Victoria). Same case in Western Australia. But both governments have decided to turn their back on those recommendations, and we don’t think it’s appropriate.
I think they don’t like the look.”
Unlike other organizations that come to the state of Victoria, like [Formula 1 racing], we’re not asking the government to write us a big fat check. All we’re asking is to do the right thing – think of the health and safety of the athletes, to think about the opportunity for the sport to grow.
If we’re going to have five or six shows here on a regular basis, I mean, as much that I love Brisbane, we’re not going to have three here and three in Sydney, right? We want to move them around. That’s how you develop a sport. That’s how you build a franchise.
