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.
First is the fact that MMA runs afoul of Section 83 of Canada’s Criminal Code, which bans “prize fights” with the exception of sanctioned boxing. On the other hand, the section also seems to give provinces the power to decide which combat sports are legal.
Which then leads us to the BC government, which has not yet signalled whether it will sanction such an event. Even though Attorney General Mike de Jong has called MMA “clearly a legitimate sport with legitimate athletes” and followed up by saying that he would be “happy to see them in the city” (Vancouver), there has been absolutely no movement whatsoever by the government.
This then leads to many questions. If the sport isn’t provincially sanctioned, and it is currently not in line with the Canadian Criminal Code, will cops be willing to enforce the law at such an event? And how about liability – if unsanctioned, will the city be on the hook should anything go wrong?
The city will likely pass the 2-year trial with a proviso that the UFC indemnifies the city from all financial risk associated with potential injury and subsequent lawsuits. I am also hearing that Vancouver wants a guarantee for a “fan expo,” which in Las Vegas draws 40,000 people over two days.
I want to end off this post with a quote from Massachusetts Senator James Timilty about the rapid growth of the sport. Timilty acknowledges that events are:
“held in venues across the state every day. That is why passing legislation to regulate the sport was so important. We want it to be safe for everyone.”
And therein lies the key to this whole debate. If this sport is an unstoppable force (and trust me, with the way things are going, it is), sanctioning is the way to go to ensure that underground fights are no longer a part of the MMA landscape in British Columbia.
I will be in meetings this morning, and unable to watch the Council meeting. So I plan on making some calls later in the day and posting details about the decision sometime in the afternoon.
