Dana White and Gregor Robertson meet for the first time before last Thursday's press conference.
UFC 115 has come and gone, and Vancouver has not lost its moral high ground, nor was the event overtaken by gang warfare. Most importantly for the issue of the day regarding the card, there were no major injuries to warrant concern about insurance or indemnity for the City.
No, UFC 115 was a spectacle of epic proportions that brought a broad cross-section of fans from across Metro Vancouver to GM Place. I saw kids that were under 10 and jumping off the walls, and I saw senior citizens who God bless their souls, had trouble walking up the stairs. I saw guys and girls, I saw ethnicity across the rainbow that Vancouver has to offer, and saw casual and diehard fans in the crowd.
It was well run, it was entertaining as hell, and it made a mint for local economy (one figure I heard from someone who tracks this kind of stuff told me it was at least in excess of $13 million).
UFC is definitely coming back to the city – that has been confirmed by Dana White, and further echoed by the Mayor’s office.
And in the end, it was the political muscle of Gregor Robertson that turned a bureaucratic nightmare into a huge win for the city.
Showdown Joe and I made up after our blog war over whether the UFC had pulled out of Vancouver back in April.
When Showdown Joe of Rogers Sportsnet incorrectly reported that the UFC had pulled out of Vancouver (read the comments for some interesting tidbits from Joe and I), the event was in peril.
The city licensing department, and more specifically department head Tom Hammel, had never dealt with anything like this, and were completely unaware about the fight game (in spite of their report back to City Council). The Vancouver Atheletic Commission was and continues to remain completely clueless. Councillor Raymond Louie had put in some very difficult conditions on the lifting of the MMA ban back in December that made the insurance components that a promoter needed to put on the table overwhelming. There was a complete lack of knowledge about what MMA represented, or really how much money it could inject into the city. And finally, there was no movement from either the federal government to change the criminal code, or the province to create a provincial sanctioning body.
That is when the Mayor stepped in. He pulled the parties together. He sat in on the meetings that took place between city staff and UFC officials. He played deal maker with Vegas when he had to.
And why? Because he got it, both in terms of what the general public was pushing for, and for the impact it would have on the city. He was not tied up in dogmatic nanny-state politics, but rather he followed the populist winds while at the same time going through great lenghts to protect the City and more specifically taxpayers from any undue risk.
That is why the day after last week’s press conference, Dana White praised the Mayor like no other politician I have ever witnessed (and I have been following White and the UFC for many, many years).
Robertson stepped in, and brokered a successful result.
Funnily enough, this might be one of Gregor Robertson’s most popular interventions, the circumstances of which prove why this man is going to be Mayor until 2015. Of that, I would put good money on.
I want to take a moment to commend UFC VP of Regulatory Affairs, who was truly the unsung hero in all of this. His work with the athletic commission (for which I must say is truly a joke), and his ability to educate and provide the infrastructure to make things run smoothly, was out of this world. He was a driving force behind this win, and deserve recognition (even if he doesn’t particularly care about it).
UFC will be back within 12-18 months, my friends, and for all of you who missed out on the show, I highly recommend you get tickets next time. This was a show that few events in Vancouver can rival.
