Dana White announces that the UFC is expanding
Who says you can't be successful during a global pandemic. The UFC is expanding. Its roster? No, well maybe, just not yet. But they're expanding their Las Vegas footprint.
Vegas has always been the main home for the best of combat sports. And it's chief present resident, the UFC has just purchased another 10 acres of land around its growing facilities.
Dana White announces UFC's expansion plans
What started out as just their headquarters, expanded to the Performance Institute. It's hands down the best state of the art in training facilities. It makes Olympic Training Centers jealous. And some of the world's best nutritionists are staffed theirs as well.
Then they grew out to include The Apex. The original Ultimate Fighter house was put up for sale in June of 2018 for $5 million. The Apex facility isn't just a mini-sized arena. It's a full production television studio as well. Able to hold it's present UFC cards, as well as it's home to The Dana White Tuesday Night Contender Series.
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Now comes word of their newest expansion. And while it may be great news for the company, the addition of 10 acres of land, especially in a time where there are no live gates, may make some fighters scratch their heads.
Within the last six months, fighters like Henry Cejudo, Jose Aldo, Jon Jones, Conor McGregor, and many fewer profile names have asked for bumps in salary. The usual response is, "asking for pay raises during a pandemic, isn't the best idea". Well, the city of Nevada despite loving that the UFC calls it home didn't exactly give it to them for free.
The organization was paid quite handsomely by the government of Abu Dhabi to use their island as their "road base". One would safely assume a good chunk of that money bought the land. and probably paid for most of what will be built.
And the UFC's plans for that land will be very costly as well. And might just change the way the organization does business from here on out. The compound property will get its own hotel. And with that comes all its amenities. Dana White said:
"very soon we will be completely self-sufficient".
And once in this type of bubble, there will never be a need to leave. When at hotel/casino's there's non-stop interaction with the public. Those might just be a total thing of the past. But this does solve some logistical issues for the company. Whether Dana is then willing to open up the property for other martial arts events, or boxing (since Zuffa Boxing is in limbo), is not known. But he could then in theory compete with other Vegas venues and make even more money for the organization.
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