December 16, 2009 - 11:11 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Will the UFC finally get to Vancouver in 2010? Today is the day we find out.
Yesterday, Vancouver City Council received an in-camera briefing of a staff report on MMA that hasn’t yet been publicly released yet (I will post a link as soon as it goes up online).
From what I am hearing, Vancouver City Council will proceed on establishing a 2-year trial for MMA events, including a major UFC card to be held at GM Place in June, this morning.
Now, as readers of this website are aware, I have been a very vocal advocate petitioning for this kind of decision (here is Part 1 and Part 2 of a three-part series in favour of MMA that I never quite finished off).
But as I have dug deeper into this story, I have started to realize the parameters of risk surrounding such a decision.
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October 23, 2009 - 4:40 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Just got home after a good day in business, so let’s delay the post on municipal largesse and the third installment of CivicScene’s series on MMA until Monday.
One quick question though: With Science World successful in securing over $10 million from the Federal government, and still chasing money from other levels of government, why are they kicking out a non-profit pre-school/kindergarten Montesourri school from their premises?
More on this at a future date.
October 22, 2009 - 9:31 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Yesterday I dealt with the rocky road that MMA has had to encounter in Vancouver over the past few years. Today I want to delve into what I outlined as the three most pressing issues that City Council will have to consider in the vote that is now expected sometime in November:
- Safety
- Liability
- Economic Impact
While at one point these might have been considerations that Council could use as justification for delaying the return of professionally sanctioned fights to Vancouver, the concerns have largely been alleviated by the facts.
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October 21, 2009 - 10:00 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
The following post is Part 1 of a 3-part series that CivicScene will be offering to readers over the coming days on the future of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) in Vancouver.
The issue of MMA has proven to be a surprising hot potato for Vancouver City Council in the past year, and although a final sanctioning vote was expected in October (and now hopefully in November), a city-wide ban still hangs around the neck of North America’s fastest growing professional sport.
Canada's prodigal son and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is the world's most popular MMA fighter and a huge box office draw.
There are a variety of issues which City Council must regularly confront that are far more complex and significant to Vancouver than the dilemma of whether to lift this ban or not. From my interest and research on the topic, there are three key factors that Council must consider in their decision-making: 1) Safety 2) Liability and 3) Economic Impact.
These issues should form the criteria of whether MMA is once again suitable for Vancouver, as opposition based on personal preferences regarding combat sports must be put aside. If the three above-mentioned issues are properly addressed (and as I will detail in a further post, they seem to have passed local scrutiny with flying colours), then Council has no choice but to move forward on a sport that could provide a major economic lift to the city.
Before getting into the each of these factors, however, let’s examine the recent history of MMA’s uphill struggle here in Vancouver.
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