This photo released by Tourism British Columbia an aerial view of Canada Hockey Place (GM Place) against the downtown skyline with Canada Place and the North Shore Mountains in the background. (AP Photo/Tourism British Columbia)The Associated Press
An Ultimate Fighting Championship event that was planned for Vancouver, then seemed destined to shift to Cincinnati because of legal issues may yet get a June booking on the West Coast.
Marc Ratner, UFC Vice-President of Government and Regulatory Affairs, said today that talks are still on with the City of Vancouver and he's hopeful a solution can be worked out.
"We're still negotiating, we're working with the Mayor's office . . . it's definitely not off," said Mr. Ratner.
"To paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated," he said.
City officials said yesterday the UFC had not met a number of legal requirements, including providing proof of insurance and a security deposit, which would be needed before a championship bout could be staged at GM Place, as proposed.
The UFC has not held an event in Vancouver before and was hoping to stage its initial event in June.
But news reports yesterday said the UFC event in Vancouver was going to be cancelled because of legal issues and would be rescheduled for Cincinnati.
Mr. Ratner said there are some outstanding issues, but he hopes the can all be dealt with in the next 24 hours, and Vancouver will get confirmed as the site.
"I believe it's going to have a positive outcome," he said of talks.
The B.C. government said Tuesday, it is willing to step in with regulations regarding mixed martial arts events if municipal governments won't do it themselves, Attorney General Mike de Jong said.
But he warned that civic governments will lose out on the economic benefits if they opt to give up their regulatory authority.
"The price for that is we'll keep the money and my understanding from other jurisdictions in the United States is the revenues derived from these events are substantial."
With a file from Justine Hunter in Victoria