Fight Club America
With the pinnacle rise of the UFC and the upstarts and success of other promotions such as the WEC, Strikeforce, and Dream, anyone involved in the world of mixed martial arts can’t help but be excited. MMA is a growing market and doesn’t look to slow down anytime soon. This is even evident in merchandise sales as many MMA clothing brands try to make their mark and capitalize on the ripples of a giant splash the UFC and others have caused here in America. To add to this, Hollywood is beginning to jump on the wagon and is starting to pump out fight movies like a potato launcher. Even sports media such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated are starting to report fight card results off the bigger organizations. Of course the diehard fan will argue that MMA was around way before Dana White was, but we can not dispute how influential the UFC’s marketing tactics have been in making MMA a recognizable force to the average sports fan.
But to clarify my remarks, martial arts was already huge to the rest of the world long before it was in America. From kickboxing in Holland to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to Muay Thai in Thailand, the art of hand-to-hand combat had become a necessity for many cultures. That’s not too say, there are no American practitioners of the arts. We pride ourselves as having the best wrestlers, a sport that is arguably the best base to begin MMA. But as far as a media standpoint, yes the UFC started in 1993, but it was merely a no holds barred competition and was nothing more than spectacle than anything without appropriate weight classes. Since then, the fight game has evolved dramatically. More and more states have formed fight commissions, weight classes have been established, and fights are nationally televised. The influx of fight styles such as BJJ, muay thai, boxing, wrestling, among many others, have made it almost imperative that a fighter be well-rounded.
To further benefit the movement, fighting has now become a viable career in which one could support a family as well as other endeavors. Take the average mid-level tier fighter for UFC. They probably make $20,000-50,000 a fight; that’s not counting fight bonuses and sponsorship. The same fighter will probably fight a minimum of three times a year depending on their contract. Now granted, I do understand there are gym fees, licenses, manager and agent dues, medical, not too mention the obligation of everyday life. But let’s go out on a limb and say this fighter gets the top portion of the average salary: $50,000. If they fought only three times, received money from sponsors, and maybe earned win bonuses that’s at least $200,000. That’s not bad for doing something you love for a living. I realize that I am looking at this as a “best case scenario,” and like most things in life it’s easier said than done. The point I’m trying to make, is that if one had an interest in fighting, now would be the time to get into it.
The US is littered with hundreds of gyms and respected fight teams. To help my fellow MMA friends out, I took the “pleasure” of conducting research as to what states were the best to fight out of or build a business around MMA. I took the three biggest American fight promotions (UFC, WEC, and Strikeforce) and documented every city in which they hosted an event. In addition, I recorded the frequency of each city, in other words how many times a city was used as a venue. To finish, I researched whether or not each state legalized pro and amateur MMA.
With the emergence of UFC, it’s obvious with their popularity and regularity of fight cards, that they’re primary venue city of Las Vegas would get the most hits. Add the acquiring of the WEC by Zuffa and we have a tally of 69 times a fight card was promoted and held in Las Vegas, Nevada. The second most frequented state was California with 55 hits. Since San Jose is considered “Strikeforce land” they made up 27% of the total amount of events held in California (by the “big three”). We would have to go way down the list to get to eight times held as a tie between Florida and New Jersey. At number five, Alabama held a fight card six times. The most frequented cities on the list were: Las Vegas, NV; San Jose, CA; Lemoore, CA (WEC pre-Zuffa); and Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Now as I mentioned before, this is only data from three fight organizations. It does not take into account any smaller organizations, semi-pro leagues, or defunct fight promotions (i.e. Elite XC, Affliction). It must be noted that a fallacy of sorts would be that if these organizations do not hold fights in your city or state then it is a bad place for MMA. On the contrary, there are a number of decent MMA schools and promotions that be found in almost all states. I found a website with a list of several schools per state: http://www.fightteam.net/browse.asp What I aim to accomplish with this piece is to help others determine what places in the US would help MMA enthusiasts thrive in their business, so to speak.
There are at least seven states that have not legalized or are in the process of legalizing MMA. The most notable is New York (despite Buffalo, NY being an early venue for UFC many years ago). With Dana White and the UFC in current talks with NY legislation, we will have to patiently wait to see how things unfold. Despite this, there are a number of fighters that are either from New York or have gyms there (i.e. the Serra brothers).
As far as MMA businesses, I found there to be a number of clothing brands based out of California (RVCA-Costa Mesa, California; Tapout-Grand Terrace, CA; Affliction-Signal Hill, CA; Silver Star-Irvine, CA). This is astonishing considering the sales tax in California is currently among the highest and hovers around 10%. That’s not to say, that they’re may be tax credits and reductions issued for these businesses, it could also be an issue with logistics, or it could be for the sole reason that these cities are just where they were founded. Nonetheless, there are other more business friendly states.
According to CNN, Nevada ranks second of the top ten business friendly states. There are no personal income taxes or corporate capital gains taxes. The property tax is fairly low. The only tradeoff is that consumption and gas prices are very high. Nevada is home to the UFC and Zuffa LLC. It is also the headquarters of gyms such as Wand Fight Team and Xtreme Couture. Fifth on the list is Florida. There are no personal and corporate gains taxes which is very beneficial to small businesses and entrepreneurs. American Top Team calls this state home as many of its fighters fight out of Coconut Creek, FL.
So with the information in mind where do we stand now? You will have to take it as you will. Every state has something to offer, but it’s quite apparent the best “MMA friendly” states are Nevada, California, Florida and New Jersey. Of these states, starting a gym or an MMA related business from the ground up would be Nevada and Florida. The top cities for big fight promotions are Las Vegas, NV and San Jose, CA. On the east coast, Hollywood, FL and Atlantic City, NJ get the nod.
Mixed martial arts have come a long way since the 90’s, but there is still room for vast improvements. As the sport continues to grow, more states and cities will be willing to approve MMA. As the quality of the sport improves, so will the salaries of fighters. More businesses will stand to gain from the fame and notoriety that the sport possesses. There are many hurdles that hinder the sport such as: legislation, banned substance abuse, “freak show” acts, etc. Nonetheless, it’s evident that MMA is here to stay.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fsb/0711/gallery.Top10BestStates.fsb/2.html
http://www.boe.ca.gov/sutax/pdf/Pending_Rates.pdf
http://www.fightteam.net/browse.asp
www.ufc.com
www.strikeforce.com
www.wec.tv
http://www.ikfkickboxing.com/USAStates.htm
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