Mark Carney's election win was a voter decision, not a media plot
Murray Wood says some blame the media when the party they support loses an election, but that's like blaming the comment...
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) could be on its way back to Saskatoon this summer, according to a report from SB Nation.
The event is rumoured to be scheduled for Saturday, June 20th at the Sasktel Centre and will be the second time Saskatoon hosts a UFC event. The first was Fight Night 74 in August, 2015.
According to Heather Bury, sports sales executive at Tourism Saskatoon, bringing events like this to the city can have a huge impact for the economy.
“For events like that in June when the city is getting nice and green and summer is on the way it is really nice to have events like that come,” she said.
“They fill our hotels and bars and restaurants. They all benefit from an influx of visitors so that’s why we work to attract events like that.”
Having the opportunity to host a UFC event isn’t just beneficial for the host city. It can also raise awareness and interest in the sport at a grassroots level.
“[Mixed Martial Arts] has come a long way even since I started training in 2006,” said Kurt Southern, co-owner of Modern Martial Arts.
“The sport in general used to be a little bit taboo like people looked at it as this violent sort of sport with a bunch of thugs and now I think the UFC has done a really good job of promoting it as a legitimate option. So them coming to Saskatoon and them showcasing that takes at least a little bit of the stigma away.”
One of the ways UFC promotes the sport is by getting local MMA gyms in the host city involved in all the festivities of the weekend.
“Last time we actually got lucky enough to do some events with [UFC],” said Southern.
“They had some people from the Special Olympics come to our gym and they had some UFC fighters come in and we all taught a class together for some Special Olympics athletes.”
Last time the city hosted a UFC fight, Southern and other local gym owners like Graham Weenk at Alliance Martial Arts Systems saw a spike in people signing up to join in the days after the event.
Weenk says he usually gets about one new signup for every 10 callers interested in joining the gym. “Then when you get the excitement of that UFC event that goes up to three or four of those ten actually come in to try it.”
Despite the growing excitement, Scott Ford, executive director of Sasktel Centre said that nothing is set in stone yet.
“We have been in conversations with the UFC for some time now and we were, and are, working on a UFC event,” he said.
“But until the client officially announces it, until we have a signed contract, these things are never confirmed.”
