Edmonton venue breaks MMA contract, may be sued
The promoter of a series of mixed martial arts events that were to be held at the Winspear Centre beginning…
The promoter of a series of mixed martial arts events that were to be held at the Winspear Centre beginning April 9 is considering legal action after management at the concert hall backed out of the deal.
“For me, I look at it like, ‘You signed a contract in good faith, so did we, you broke the contract,’ ” said Mark Pavelich, adding he’s been advertising the event for a month.
“How do you want to compensate someone for losing their whole season, right? And it’s like, we’ve already started to look for new venues, but there’s no venue in the city that’s comparable to what we’re used to for April 9.”
The Winspear cancelled his contract after pressure from people who feel mixed martial arts is inappropriate for the prestigious concert hall, Pavelich said. But he said he was clear from the beginning what his event was about.
“You can do that, you can not like what we do,” he said. “At the same time, as we have a signed contract, we have paid deposits, we have advertising expenses and we have TV deals with very large corporations — I don’t know, you tell me, who does business like that?”
The Maximum Fighting Championship series was booked for three dates at the Winspear this year.
Management at the Winspear refused to comment, on the advice of their lawyers.