In a 7 to 2 vote, Moncton City Council approved spending up to $150,000 in support of the UFC Fight Night coming to the Avenir Centre October 27th.
Deputy Mayor Greg Turner says the event will be broadcast live across Canada, the United States, and 150 other countries worldwide.
“It’s hard to put a price on that, but we’ve got a brand new facility, in a city that’s up and coming right now, and this live TV exposure is basically an advertisement for our community throughout the broadcast,” says Turner.
He says the return on investment will be worth it, because “we would never have enough money to buy what that would cost in advertising, what that’s going to be giving back to our city, and exposing this building to so many people worldwide, and seeing the possibilities.”
Turner, who is also the chair of Events Moncton, says events like this typically do require a bid fee.
“They want to make sure the community is engaged [and] wants that activity in their city, to bring in a TV broadcaster, there’s huge, huge outlay of money for the promoter to put on this TV broadcast, but overall it’ll be promoting our city and our community.”
Turner says there are only three UFC events in Canada this year, one in July in Calgary, and a second this December in Toronto, so for Moncton to be chosen is recognition of the city’s vitality.
Turner says two thirds of the money comes from a city Special Events Reserve account, with the remainder coming from Events Moncton – a municipally and provincially funded organization.
Meanwhile, two Councillors voted against the motion, Paulette Theriault, and Paul Pellerin.
Councillor Blair Lawrence was absent, and Rob McKee is no longer on Council after winning his election bid in Moncton Centre as an MLA.
Pellerin questioned why the city and SMG Canada are absorbing the cost of this bid fee.
He adds there may have been an alternative given how much fans are willing to pay through Ticketmaster.
“Why couldn’t SMG just add $17 to the ticket price, and not ask the City of Moncton to subsidize $150,000 for an event, that, my understanding in the contract, they were supposed to negotiate?”
Pellerin continued by saying the extra costs are starting to pile up.
“We’re in the process of possibly subsidizing a professional basketball team to $333,000, we’re giving $150,00 to sponsor an event because it’s one of a kind in Canada,” says Pellerin. “And this is only six weeks in.”
He added “this is all stuff that, I’m not saying that the taxpayer would have said no, but they should have been made aware of that besides building the centre, they would be subsidizing profssional basketball teams, and special events.”
On top of the $150,000 approved by City Council, SMG Canada is spending another $100,000 for this UFC Fight Night.
