TKO Xtreme

Welcome to Part 1 of a multi-part series examining the present and future of MMA across Canada.  In this series, each Canadian province will be analyzed in terms of current MMA activity and the potential for future growth (of various kinds) based on the unique character of the place.  Moving west to east, I begin this examination in British Columbia.

 Vital statistics:

• 5th largest province with the 3rd largest population (approximately 4.5 million people)
• 4th ranked Canadian province in GDP, 7th in per person GDP
• Key urban centres – Victoria (capital); Vancouver (largest city); Kelowna (and other interior tourist cities, especially in and around the Okanagan)

Major names:

• Marcus Soares (7th degree Carlson Gracie BJJ black belt)
• Dennis Kang (pro fighter: 29-10-1)
• Sarah Kaufman (pro fighter: 7-0)

Overview:

When many non-BC residents think of British Columbia, they think of Vancouver.  For most intents and purposes, they’re correct.  In a province of 4.5 million people, 2.5 million of them are concentrated in the “metro” Vancouver area.   For those of you who either come from places where amalgamation has created “supercities” or who have escaped from urban sprawl, metro Vancouver includes Richmond, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and a host of other places that are almost completely indistinguishable from “Vancouver proper” to the casual eye.  There are unfortunate side-effects of this concentration of population in one area: there is a corresponding concentration of money and power, and with respect to MMA, that power has not been well used.

Back in January, I wrote about last autumn’s debacle: the Vancouver Athletic Commission going against the advice of their own head doctor and refusing to regulate MMA, and the effect this has had of stifling professional MMA in Vancouver and beyond.  This remains the big story, in part because the VAC has not budged on this point, and in part because small promoters keep trying to find their ways around this significant roadblock.  One of the last promotions that actually held an MMA event in the metro Vancouver area managed to circumvent the law against unregulated fights by holding the event on the Musqueam Reserve, which on the surface would make sense given similar moves in Alberta and Ontario.  However, as was documented in several news stories (here and here), that event will largely be remembered for the shooting of fighter Tim Thurston outside of the event.  Though little further information came to light about the shooting, other than bystanders noting that the victim did not appear to be a target and was in fact hit just as he was exiting the building, it underscores a major problem facing professional MMA in BC.

Simply put, most reserves in BC just do not have the organizational capacity to pull off a professional MMA event.  Even the Musqueam Reserve, which as an urban reserve (located right inside the metro area) possesses comparatively strong infrastructure and economics, could not adequately ensure the safety of fighters or spectators.  Those looking to the model of the Six Nations MMA events in Ontario would do well to remember that Six Nations is almost an anomaly in terms of population, wealth and infrastructure; even amidst concerns over the capacity of Six Nations to hold a pro-MMA event that is up to expected standards, it remains head and shoulders above the ability of almost any reserve in BC.  Without the benefit of casinos providing both facilities and cash (more on this in the Alberta segment), and divided up into absurdly small parcels of land with corresponding economic and population issues, reserves provide only a small hope for the future of pro-MMA in BC.

However small, though, they do provide some possibilities.  Small, locally-oriented events continue to run, usually on reserve land, and often in smaller or more remote cities like Nanaimo, where the stifling presence of the VAC eases somewhat.  However, this is where the greater implications of the VAC decision come into play.  While BC is a huge province, over half the population is concentrated in the “lower mainland” (that’s the southwest mainland, around Vancouver), and with the vast majority in the southern strip that includes Kamloops, Kelowna, Revelstoke and Cranbrook (small towns with big tourist populations), and Radium Hot Springs.  (Yes, it’s a small town, but seriously, “Radium Hot Springs” is just too cool of a name to not mention it in an article on BC.)  Regardless, outside of the metro Vancouver area, the ability to support potential shows becomes smaller and smaller.  Any of the larger promotions – UFC, EliteXC, WEC, or even Strikeforce – would dismiss almost any city outside of Vancouver (or possibly Victoria) because the economics would be unworkable.  And it is not just down to population size.

Consider the discrepancy in GDP, real and per person, listed above.  This disparity indicates something that is obvious to most BC residents: the gap between “haves” and “have-nots” is startling.  The vast majority of the wealth in BC is concentrated in the hands of legal-corporate types in Vancouver or government types in Victoria.  Outside of these areas, spare income drops off dramatically.  While this has been the general situation for a while, the gap has widened considerably in the last few years; with the timber industry failing badly and fisheries near collapse, neither mining or tourism have been able to significantly pick up the job market slack as of yet.  Accordingly, many people in resource towns in the interior and north have pulled up stakes and relocated to Alberta and Saskatchewan, worsening the population and economic issues (the word “crisis” has started to be tossed around).  Being honest, participating in and being a fan of MMA can both be incredibly expensive activities.  With much of the population and wealth of BC tied up in an MMA “no-fly zone”, the Vancouver Athletic Commission essentially controls the ability of MMA fans in BC to attend a major show; while someone might travel from Kelowna to Vancouver for a UFC show, it’s doubtful that a Vancouverite would make the reverse trek for a King of the Cage (or smaller) event, and that’s probably too much population and wealth sitting idle for the tastes of most larger promoters.

All is not bleak in the BC MMA landscape, though.  Even most smaller, urban centres have at least one or two MMA training centres, and people are getting involved.  Even this is stifled somewhat, as would-be or newly professional fighters find it much harder to get exposure and have to pay (usually out of pocket) to travel to Alberta or further for fights.  But nonetheless, people are training and in increasing numbers, bars, restaurants, and clubs across BC now regularly show MMA pay per view events (and even non-PPV channels like HDNet Fights), and fighters are beginning to make more frequent appearances in the sports sections of local and major daily newspapers.  There is definitely a critical mass of both hardcore and casual MMA fans in BC; now we all sit and wait for the VAC to respond…

A quick update: While I was in the process of writing this piece, a minor news article ran on the CBC website noting that Chilliwack, a medium-sized city about an hour down the highway from Vancouver, had nixed a minor MMA event being planned there.  There are several interesting points here.  First, Chilliwack is outside of the VAC jurisdiction, and MMA is actually sanctioned there by the Frasier Valley Athletic Commission.  In this particular case, the city council overruled the relevant athletic commission.  The second point of note here is the reasoning behind the Chilliwack council’s decision: “a staff report cited concerns over the clientele the events would attract and the social impact of hosting fighting events.”  This goes back to the over-reactive image issues that I brought up in reference to the Vancouver situation in my January article.  Personally, I would love to see how the authors of the report justify those particular concerns.  Third, just like the VAC overruling their own medical officer to deny MMA events based on fears of health risks for the fighters, we again see a highly political body (in this case, the Chilliwack council) going over the heads of the people whose job it is to monitor and give professional opinion on MMA (the Frasier Valley Athletic Commission).  While there is no direct line of influence here, this is a prime example of the “stifling presence of the VAC” that I mentioned earlier.  The VAC is tightly interwoven with the politics of the movers and shakers in British Columbia, and as city councils and/or athletic commissions line up behind the Vancouver decision to deny MMA events a place, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest a low-level “culture war” against all things MMA, especially in the wealthy lower mainland.  This is likely to be far from the last case of this type, and as promoters and fans respond, I will continue to track this potentially-explosive conflict for everyone.  Stay tuned.

Looking Ahead:

While the changes in the economy of British Columbia will undoubtedly have major impacts on the future of MMA in BC, it is impossible to say exactly what will happen.  Will rising gas prices choke off economic flow in cities and towns further from Vancouver, or will the insulation increase the wage paid to miners, trades labourers, and those involved in the tourism and service industries that are willing to stay in or relocate to places like Prince George or Terrace?  And how will the changes in these smaller, more remote towns affect the captains of industry and politics in the lower mainland?  The socio-economic make up of BC is in transition, and no one is entirely sure what, exactly, it is transitioning to.  However, what is clear is that the seeds of support for MMA in BC have been planted, so barring full scale economic collapse, there will likely be a market for both MMA events (and peripheral MMA businesses like clothing stores), and participation/training, especially in the lower mainland area.

The giant elephant in the room remains the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver; no one particularly wants to discuss the extent to which the Olympics are shaping public policy, but the impact is undeniable.  The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) is pushing for a vision of the “world” coming to Vancouver and seeing it as a beautiful, modern, civilized, enviro-friendly, egalitarian city.  The only problem is, that doesn’t really describe Vancouver; metro Vancouver areas of incredibly high crime, areas of extreme poverty, and the city-wide renovations in advance of the Games are themselves incredibly wasteful and environmentally disruptive.  The push for the Games has bulldozed (literally, in some cases) opposition, and a CSIS report from last summer that was obtained by the Canadian Press in January, indicates preparations for massive crackdowns on any kind of protests and plans to keep them far, far away from the public eye.  That means that there is a huge amount of pressure being put on various sectors of Vancouver social services – from policing to city hall to, of course, the Vancouver Athletic Commission – to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to create an idyllic vision of Vancouver out of garbage cans and duct tape.  MMA appears to be one of the victims of a concerted effort to “clean up” the image of Vancouver – along with low-income housing, undeveloped ecosystems, and the civil rights of social justice groups – and we can expect the suppression of all things MMA to continue until at least the Olympic spectacle has passed.

What is interesting, though, is to speculate on the fate of MMA after the Olympics.  While Vancouver, like so many other cities around the globe, gathered support for their Olympic bid by stressing the “economic benefits” of increased tourism and global exposure, recent history tells us that hosting the Games usually leaves a city with several under-utilized yet very expensive facilities, general infrastructure chaos, and only a short-term boost in tourism dollars.  In effect, the Olympics tend to smother the economy of host cities rather than enhance them (with notable exceptions for the contractors who build the facilities, manufacture the clothing and toys, and otherwise collect big Games-specific paydays), and it will be interesting to see if, post-Olympics, MMA suddenly becomes “sexy” again for public officials.  And why not?  MMA is one of the biggest growing draws in North American sports, and even the VAC had to sit up and take notice of events in Montreal a few months ago.  Imagine in four years: a city of almost 3 million people, multiple little-used sports venues, a ravenous fan base, and stagnant economy.  It sounds like an MMA marriage made in Heaven.  If everything falls into place – and that remains a big “if” – Vancouver could be set to make a huge 180 degree turn on MMA, and if it does, MMA fans throughout the province will benefit.