THE UFC RUMOR MILL KEEPS CHURNING: VINCE AND DANA POISED TO BUY THE UFC?
Posted on | June 17, 2008 | 1 Comment
By: Rich Bergeron
Leave it to a hard-nosed, hard-hitting, in-your-face sports news site like THE SPORTS MUFFIN to come out with the scoop of the year in MMA. Rumor now has it that Dana White and Vince McMahon are going to buy the Ultimate Fighting Championship and leave the Fertitta brothers to tend to their casino and real estate empire. This comes as no surprise, but the motivation for the move seems to be more sinister than it sounds. The strategy in getting Vince on board is alleged to involve locking all other possible MMA leagues from Madison Square Garden should MMA be granted sanctioning in New York. According to the folks over at Sports Muffin Vince has “exclusive rights to Madison Square Garden for any Sports Entertainment.” That just didn’t pass my smell test when the author of this piece proclaims that means Vince and Dana can lock out other MMA leagues from MSG. For one, I can’t find a single source that confirms this exclusive rights setup Vince has. Also, how the heck can anyone in their right mind categorize MMA as “Sports Entertainment?”
At any rate, I’m trying to find out more about that situation to see if its true. There’s no doubt about the fact that Vince McMahon and his family have a storied history with Madison Square Garden, holding various wrestling events there over a span of more than 80 years. I hit the bricks and did some research, and the following Wikkipedia description of WWE and Madison Square Garden ties does not seem to indicate a monopoly held by Vince at MSG:
“Connecticut-based World Wrestling Entertainment considers it [Madison Square Garden] a home arena as well, due to the fact that all generations of the McMahon family, including Vince McMahon’s father and grandfather, have promoted shows at the Garden. MSG has hosted several WrestleMania and SummerSlam events, two Survivor Series events and the 2000 and 2008 Royal Rumble. More WWE Championships have been won at MSG than any other arena. WWE’s strong relationship with Madison Square Garden prevented competitor World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from ever having a show at the Garden. In 2005, WWE severed business ties with the arena because WWE felt that increased rental costs would prevent them from making a profit in the building. However, over a year later, World Wrestling Entertainment temporarily patched things up with MSG and the hiatus ended with a September 11, 2006 edition of RAW and HEAT. Though they pulled the 20th installment of SummerSlam, which would have been held at the Garden on August 26, 2007. (It was held at the Continental Airlines Arena) WWE continues to make occasional appearances at MSG, and returned for the 2008 Royal Rumble in January.”
It also appears WWE will host an event at MSG in August of this year. But, as far as any exclusive rights, it seems only wrestling has applied so far, so it seems a bit far fetched that a “Sports Entertainment” rights arrangement could ever prevent other MMA leagues from hosting shows at the venue. Unless, of course, MMA turns into glorified WWE shows with every fight staged and story lines out of soap opera episodes. Besides, even the UFC has enjoyed decent attendance at UFC 78 in the Prudential Center Arena in New Jersey. You never know, if the UFC and Vince do somehow monopolize MSG maybe EliteXC and CBS will go and put on an event at Yankee Stadium. It could always backfire on the ultra-egos.
New York City events approved for MMA is not the pinnacle, be-all-end-all that will determine the ultimate survival of the sport of mixed martial arts. It is not even the last bastion that will open the floodgates in other states. It is the failure to communicate and cooperate that is starting to choke the sport into a lull where as far as the “fastest growing sport in the world” a peak has finally been reached. IFL CEO Jay Larkin admitted a little while back in a conference call to announce the cancellation of the company’s August 15th event that indeed the peak is behind this sport and pure competition without cooperation and co-promotion is starting to kill it.
Yet, for all its worth all these rumors are being kicked up because Dana is about to drop a bombshell of an announcement about the UFC. Lo and behold there is a free UFC show slated for Affliction: Banned’s debut night of July 19th. Other leagues are getting over-sold and over-hyped, given sweetheart TV deals, and gaining steam. But, leave it to Dana to throw a monkey wrench in everything. This is his sport to many fans, the house that Ruth built so to speak. He’s not letting go of it without a fight. This rumor is not long on fact and full of speculation, but it introduces an interesting probability of what would become of the UFC under Vince McMahon’s ULTIMATE control?
Would another Wildlife foundation file suit and take the initials UFC away? (Universal Forest Conservation)
Would UFC fighters start inhaling steroids?
Would the cage be fitted with barbed wire for certain super fights?
Would strikes delivered from off the top of the cage fence count?
Will posses be able to storm the cage and prevent their fighter from being grounded and pounded into oblivion?
But, all kidding aside, Vince McMahon would bring a wealth of connections, money, influence, and business savvy to what is really a troubled league that everybody thinks is coasting on a wave of domination. Donald Trump’s dipping his toes in the sport’s waters with Affliction’s MMA league already. Oscar De La Hoya even toyed with the idea of entering the promotional ranks of the sport. He’s tight with Affliction himself. By six degrees of separation Tito Ortiz is a new friend of Donald Trump’s after being on The Apprentice. He’ll likely end up at Affliction. The UFC will need its own big guns to compete and continue to run rampant as the biggest and baddest of them all with competitors like Showtime-driven EliteXC and the fledgling Affliction promising to bring it hard right out of the gate. The Fertittas just don’t have that financial fight left in them.
The rumor behind this Mr. McMahon debacle can be traced to the Forbes article that loosely proclaimed the UFC’s net worth to be “a billion.” The Fertittas were in the throes of a grand celebration after making all kinds of millionaire lists. Yet, the economy has soured since then. They sunk the UFC into a $350 million debt instrument that now has junk bond status. The UFC is actually still in debt, technically speaking. It’s worth is all wrapped up in its potential. The Fertittas will have to continue to spend money to make money to keep the league competitive. They are at the same time heavily involved in the privatization of Station Casinos, countless other Real Estate deals and investments, and also dealing with a housing, credit, and economic crisis. National news frequently puts Nevada at the top of the list for housing issues and foreclosure problems. The Fertittas’ home base is there, and it’s overbuilt and underfed at the moment. They have their own credit facilities to catch up on without having to worry about keeping the UFC’s tab current. They need to get out from under it, plain and simple.
Along comes Vince McMahon and Dana White, which is a potential partnership White himself reportedly chuckled about during an interview where that possibility came up:
“The hottest of the rumors, and those that were posed to the UFC president on CNBC, include speculation that the promotion has signed recently retired boxing superstar Floyd Mayweather, Jr.; that they will enter into a partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment and Vince McMahon; that a new television deal with either FOX, ABC, or ESPN is on the table; or that the company will announce it is going public. All of which White responded to with a definite, and at times chuckling, “No.””
What a pair! What a match made in highlight reel heaven. You take the two biggest egos in sports history, one from real sports and one from orchestrated sports, and you put them together. Sounds like a trailer for a reality series already before the horse is even out of the gate. They should be coaches on the ultimate fighter at some point and then fight each other, right? If Vince was on the team back when Dana and Tito were going to fight, Vince would have done it in pure WWE style.
Anyway, the mere discussion of the topic of a White/McMahon merger inspires visions of a crazed, over-involved, maniacal Mr. McMahon totally putting Dana White’s performance as the kid who takes the ball and goes home with it to complete shame. I see McMahon coming in intending to cripple every other competitor, take them over, and make all the old employees work for him. Take notice of how Vince bought Killer Kowalski’s ECW off the bankruptcy block and divided and conquered World Championship Wrestling in the same year (2001). Imagine if McMahon were around during the PRIDE buyout? We would have UFCmania, the true Superbowl of MMA, and the fifth installment would be on PPV this weekend.
You can’t go wrong with two incredibly polarizing figures at the top of the organization. Or can you? There is that old doomed failure-before-it-began football league Vince founded. What was that thing called? The XFL? Gimme a break, Vince.
If you can give Vince McMahon true props for his most outstanding skill, you’d have to reward his ruthless, winner-take-all approach to business. He never lets anyone or anything get in his way, and he’s involved in everything. Much to the chagrin of the fans who love to hate him, he even wins matches he inserts himself into sometimes. This from a guy who’s Dad didn’t even want him involved in the sport at all when little Vince started tagging along at events at age 12. Give it a few weeks and Vince’ll want to be in the cage. He’ll bring Randy Couture back for the occasion and fight him one handed and win because Randy’ll get 200 million for it. If he can’t beat you, he’ll buy you, that’s Vince’s motto. And he does match up well with the ruthlessness factor the Fertittas bring to the table. Though he’s not quite the billionaire he’s made out to be, Vince is responsible for that infamous moment in Wrestling history that has been re-staged countless times by multiple different players now: THE MONTREAL SCREW-JOB. It’s worth the read to follow the link. It’s kind of like what the Fertittas did to Xyience.
I do think Vince McMahon may want the UFC, but I do wonder what he’d do with it if he ever had control. I have to admit that possibility concerns me. We are at the precipice of a new age in mixed martial arts, and the UFC will have to really pull out all stops if they want to remain viable and sustainable for the duration. Jay Larkin’s grim conference call about the IFL’s troubles didn’t bode to well as a “State of the Nation” address for the sport. All I can say is Dana White better come to the table with something huge the next time he opens his mouth in front of a microphone.
Tags: Bret Hart > casinos > Dana > Dana White > Fertitta > Fertitta Brothers > Fertittas > Madison Square Garden > Michaels > Mixed Martial Arts > MMA > Mr. McMahon > Station Casinos > SummerSlam > UFC > Vince McMahon > WCW > White > World Championship Wrestling > Wrestlemania > wrestling > WWE > WWF