http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/dec/27/ufc-will-rule-world-and-bring-vegas-along-ride/
Sunday, Dec. 27, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Dana White
UFC will be the biggest sport in the world by 2020.
People were saying I was a lunatic 10 years ago when we first got
this going, but the stuff we’re working on right now on so many
levels is mind-boggling.
The UFC will be on network television in the coming years, but
we’re not going to go out and do a stupid deal because we don’t
need them. We built this thing without help from anybody, and
that’s why the UFC has been able to flourish even in these hard
times.
The sport was just sanctioned in Massachusetts and Vancouver. We’re
going to get it done in Ontario and New York in 2010. And we’re
already working on taking the UFC global. We’ve already done
Germany, England and Ireland, and we just sold 22,000 seats for an
event in Australia in 15 minutes.
Think about this: Right now in the United States, there is nothing
bigger than the NFL. It is huge. But the NFL has been spending
billions of dollars trying to break into other countries and it’s
not working. You know why? Because these people in other countries
don’t care about American football. They didn’t grow up playing it
and they’re not invested in American teams.
I take two guys and put them in an octagon and they can use any
martial art they want — that transcends all culture barriers. Right
now we are on some form of television in over 175 countries. We’re
all human beings and we all “get” fighting.
That said: Las Vegas is a Mecca for fighting.
Between the UFC and our sister company the WEC, World Extreme
Cagefighting, the economic impact fighting has in Las Vegas is
astronomical. And I’m from here. I lived in Boston for a while, I
love it too, but the reality is I’m from Las Vegas.
Every time I walk through the back of the MGM Grand or Mandalay
Bay, valet parkers and waiters will stop me and say, “Dana, thank
you for bringing the event here this weekend.” That’s when these
guys make their money. We bring a lot of people into town for these
events, and we bring them regularly.
So, in the next 10 years, Las Vegas will benefit even more from
UFC’s success.
Me and Lorenzo Fertitta will sit down and figure out a game plan
for the next 10 years, and we’ll execute it.
So, is 10 years enough time to make this the biggest sport in the
world? Hell, yeah.
Dana White is the president of Ultimate Fighting Championship.