UFC Holds Press Conference In Madison Square Garden

Added on Jan 14, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

Dana White and the UFC brass turned up the heat on New York City today at a press conference today at Madison Square Garden. The UFC has been at the forefront of trying to get MMA sanctioned in the state of New York, but has fallen short for the past three years.

White told the press corp, “Fans in New York have to travel to outside states to attend UFC events. When they do that, they’re spending tourism dollars that impact those local economies, We have cities bidding for our event. This sport is now global. It’s time to hold events in New York.”

They also presented data from an independent study they had done. According to the study conducted by HR&A Advisors, Fertitta said, holding two UFC events in New York would generate $16 million for the local economy. Events run by smaller promotions would inject an additional $7 million of revenue into the state, bringing the total to $23 million. HR&A partner Jamie Springer added “We prepared an economic study, and we made conservative assumptions for economic projections in New York. We assumed that the UFC would hold one event at Madison Square Garden and one event in upstate New York,”

Madison Square Garden Sports President Scott O’Neil was also on hand, and he assured the state of New York that the UFC was a top shelf organization and spoke highly of their past dealings with them. He said “We are thrilled that Dana and the UFC are so committed to New York. UFC and its passionate fans have a home here at Madison Square Garden, and we look forward to welcoming them as soon as the sport is regulated in New York. We have no doubt that UFC would be enormously popular at the Garden and a great addition to our lineup of world class sports and entertainment events.”

UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar was on hand, and spoke about how great it would be to fight in the state of New York. He said “I can’t wait until I get to fight here. I’ve always been a New York sports fan. Being from New Jersey, I always wanted to fight at the Garden. Fighting in Jersey is great, but there is nothing like fighting here. There is nothing like a live UFC event. Being a guy who gets to [fight in the UFC], you would think that I’d get numb to it, but I always get the chills. I think the people of New York would appreciate having [MMA] here.”

White admitted that he thought they would have gotten New York done sooner, and that for the last three years he has been saying ‘this is the year.’ He concluded “To be honest, I’m not frustrated. I’m a little baffled. It’s an education process. I feel we have a good team here in New York and we’re going to get this thing done. The process is the same everywhere we go. Our job is to educate these guys on who the fighters really are and what this sport is. We got Ontario done, and I’m confident we’ll get New York done, too.”