Vancouver officials disordered, UFC 115 moving on
The proposed UFC scheduled for June 12 at GM Place in Vancouver will not go ahead, as continuing delays in…
The proposed UFC scheduled for June 12 at GM Place in Vancouver will not go ahead, as continuing delays in city regulation have pushed the UFC to switch to a venue in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Joe Ferraro, an MMA analyst for Rogers Sportsnet, said he has confirmed with UFC boss Dana White on Monday that the Vancouver show is off.
“The information I received is, it’s time to move on. They’ve got to announce their show, they can’t wait any longer, and the city is still far from being able to let them announce a date. They’d still love to come to Vancouver, there are no hard feelings, they know that a show here would be incredible and open the area up to a whole new fan base. But they can’t wait around for any longer,” Ferraro told The Vancouver Sun.
Tickets were due to go on sale for the Vancouver UFC fight card in two weeks, but the company needs between 10 and 12 weeks lead time to put marketing, a production and ticket sales in place. According to Ferraro, “We’re in Week 11 now.”
“We’re still working furiously with the city,” said Harvey Jones vice-president and general manager of arena operations at GM Place. “We’re trying to satisfy their requirements to alleviate them of risk and liability. We’re getting close and running out of time, but there’s still hope we can get it done in time for June 12 to be a reality.”
Jones suggested the odds of the event going ahead were about 50-50.
Vancouver city councillor Kerry Jang said negotiations were “still ongoing and progressing nicely,” but when asked if the bureaucratic hurdles could be cleared by the next council meeting on April 6, said, “There’s no reason why not. Technically, of course, it’s illegal under the Canadian Criminal Code, but we had [Federal Heritage and Culture Minister] James Moore come and say ‘we’ve been working on it, we’ll make it legal.’ That hasn’t happened yet.”
At issue for the city is the matter of liability, should a fighter sue the city for allowing them to compete in an event in which they became injured — a situation that, to date, hasn’t occurred anywhere else.
Former Vancouver Athletic Commission member Dr. Raj Sandhu said the city is embroiled in a battle between departments, city staff and council, with problems that go beyond simple regulation.
“The liability issue is garbage. They wanted $12 million in liability put up by the promoters,” said Sandhu. “We had WWE wrestling here, nobody asked them for $12 million. When Trevor Berbick boxed here, no $12 million liability for him. So all of a sudden they come up with this figure; It’s as if [Mayor] Gregor Robertson wants to come out squeaky clean. He doesn’t want the event.”
Maximum Fighting Championships boss Mark Pavelich, who hosts 4,000-plus seat events in Edmonton, said the demands on promoters in Vancouver are excessive.
“The impression I got was that it’s going to be a significant amount of insurance … Definitely way more than any of us pay anywhere else and the premiums would be gigantic.”
Said Jang, “It’s my fiduciary responsibility to make sure the city of Vancouver is not held liable for any incident, so if the UFC can’t meet our standards, as high as they might be, they’d probably have to go somewhere else in the meantime.”
Payout Perspective:
This is just the latest twist in the see-saw battle to get the UFC into a Canadian city other than Montreal. Despite the news last week that the UFC had been given a conditional license to host the show in June, more recent reports indicated the UFC was considering the idea of scrapping its Vancouver plans in favor of less complex event preparation in the neighboring province of Alberta.
It’s known that the WEC has booked several June dates at Calgary’s Saddledome in anticipation of its Canadian debut. If Cincinnati doesn’t work, it’s possible Calgary could be a back-up for the UFC.
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