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Howard Stutz | INSIDE GAMING
Culinary challenging UFC to rile Fertittas
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Updated: May 22, 2011 | 2:24 p.m.
Culinary Local 226 has used various venues in an unsuccessful quest over the years to unionize at least half of Station Casinos' 13,000 employees.
Stepping into the Octagon, however, may not be the wisest move.
The union, through the New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council, has squared off with Zuffa LLC, the Las Vegas-based owner of Ultimate Fighting Championship, a multibillion-dollar-a-year business.
Station Casinos' founders Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta are Zuffa's majority owners. The organization is leading an effort in the New York Legislature to legalize sanctioned mixed martial events in the state.
New York is the last untapped American market for mixed martial arts and could provide a lucrative payout for both the state and fighting organizations such as the UFC.
An economic impact study, funded by the UFC, shows MMA events in New York could generate $23 million in annual revenue to the state.
The Culinary, through its New York affiliate, is trying to squelch the legislation as a way of getting back at the Fertitta brothers and Station Casinos. Union lobbyists want to keep a bill from passing New York's Assembly and Senate before lawmakers adjourn at the end of June.
The move has perplexed and angered outspoken UFC President Dana White, who called the union's action "extortion" in an interview last week.
White's comment was a little more diplomatic than his remarks at the UFC 129 postfight press conference in Toronto. He said "these union idiots" are trying to keep the UFC out of New York, "because of my partners, the Fertitta brothers."
White said unions are not acting in the best interests of their members. A UFC card at New York City's Madison Square Garden would employ hundreds of union electricians, stagehands, security guards and ushers. It would also fill surrounding hotel rooms, whose workers are union members.
White said UFC 129, which included the UFC Fan Expo, paid more than $1.5 million in direct wages to unionized workers. Toronto realized an economic impact of $45 million in just 72 hours during the event.
"It doesn't make any sense," White said. "The union is using the dues of union members to fight against something that would provide jobs and wages to other union members."
Station Casinos is a separate business entity from UFC. The only connection is the Fertittas, who have ownership in both. Zuffa CEO Lorenzo Fertitta went to New York to lobby for the legislation.
The union's opposition, said White, "has nothing to do with UFC or MMA." The fight, he said, is between the Culinary and Station Casinos.
White put a submission hold on several of the union's arguments.
Zuffa acquired rival Strikeforce in March and UFC is the world's largest MMA organization, but it is not a monopoly. The UFC would hold two cards a year in New York. White predicted as many as 70 other fight cards by independent operators.
As for union claims that Zuffa doesn't care about its employees, White said the organization has implemented 24-hour, worldwide accident insurance for 350 fighters under contract with UFC and Strikeforce.
White also put a takedown on allegations that the UFC is anti-union. The business works with organized labor where it holds fights and uses a union-owned travel booking company, ensuring UFC fighters and staff stay in unionized hotels.
The Culinary declined comment, referring the matter to the New York affiliate. Culinary leaders recently said Station Casinos didn't put on a defense argument in a current unfair labor practice hearing before an administrative law judge. The company countered that it didn't need to present rebuttal because the claims were meritless.
Taking on UFC is just another tactic in the fight.
Station Casinos soon will emerge from bankruptcy reorganization with $4 billion less in debt and a new ownership structure. The Fertittas won't be in the majority but will control day-to-day operations. In that structure, the Culinary's organizing quest could be all but KO'd.
As for New York and the UFC, the union should just tap out.
Howard Stutz's Inside Gaming column appears Sundays. He can be reached at hstutz@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3871. He blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/stutz. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
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@Simon.Cason
I know all about Helwani's "article". You might want to read with a bit more of a critical eye. I will assume you are not a New Yorker, not involved in the fight here, and don't know all the details of what is going on here. In other words, you are exactly who Zuffa and Helwani are targeting with their rediculous story. Try visiting our blog and reading up on the issues: http://nymmanow.blogspot.com
This isn't journalism. This might as well be advertising for the Fertittas, the local good ole boys. You fell for their propaganda hook, line, and sinker. The Unite Here people aren't against MMA in New York just because of the Station Casinos deal. They have other reasons to be opposed that Helwani's article summarized very well. This article seems to be a carbon copy of Helwani's, but without the objectivity and full facts. I'm sure the Fertittas have an opening somewhere for a publicist. You should send them an application for employment.
Unions don't exist to make sense. They exist to perpetuate themselves, much like government. Just tell the hapless union dues-paying stooges what they want to hear, and watch the dues come rolling in. Unions and their ignorant, low-skilled workers are made for each other.
An article by Helwani that I made a point to debunk the day it was released, and I wasn't even the first New Yorker to do so. I can only guess as to why this story line of the local 226 being a serious issue is being pushed, but it's detracting from the real efforts to get MMA sanctioned in New York.
The sad thing is it's the local New York amateur fighters and pro fighters looking to get their start that are getting screwed, here. The big shows like the UFC will never feel the pinch if it remains illegal in NY.
The two people above couldn't be more ignorant to the facts about this sport. Yes it is a sport, these fighters are athletes some being former college wrestlers, some former olympic wrestlers, judo practicioners, and high level grappling tournaments. It's a sport where by some estimates 90% of the higher level (UFC) fighters are college educated. These are not thugs, these are not crimials, they are normal people, teachers, police, firefighters, office workers, fact is, fighters come from all walks of life, most of them being normal everyday human beings who just so happen to enjoy the thrill of testing themselves against another human being. It's a primal thing and it's in every single one of us. It's called fight or flight. The people complaining about know nothing of the fight instinct instilled in man since our humble beginnings. Their ignorance shows with comments such as these. You don't like it, don't watch it. But that same feeling you have for the sport should be applied to other "violent" sports such as football or hockey, less they wan't to be considered a hypocrite. Football has more injuries, concussions, broken bones, than MMA ever has. The protection they wear is a fallacy. It's put in place to make these people complaining about violence to feel better about enjoying something as base as two men running af full speed at each other with the intent of putting the other one on their butt as hard and violently as possible.
In response to NYMMANOW, there was a Union Memo passed around that stated as such. Contact Ariel Helwani at AOLFanhouse.com. He did a really good write-up on the Unions efforts to keep UFC/MMA out of NY. And I'm confused when you say MMA is bigger than UFC. In essence yes, but the sport is at a point now that most people associate mma with UFC. So that point seems moot.
The two people above couldn't be more ignorant to the facts about this sport. Yes it is a sport, these fighters are athletes some being former college wrestlers, some former olympic wrestlers, judo practicioners, and high level grappling tournaments. It's a sport where by some estimates 90% of the higher level (UFC) fighters are college educated. These are not thugs, these are not crimials, they are normal people, teachers, police, firefighters, office workers, fact is, fighters come from all walks of life, most of them being normal everyday human beings who just so happen to enjoy the thrill of testing themselves against another human being. It's a primal thing and it's in every single one of us. It's called fight or flight. The people complaining about know nothing of the fight instinct instilled in man since our humble beginnings. Their ignorance shows with comments such as these. You don't like it, don't watch it. But that same feeling you have for the sport should be applied to other "violent" sports such as football or hockey, less they wan't to be considered a hypocrite. Football has more injuries, concussions, broken bones, than MMA ever has. The protection they wear is a fallacy. It's put in place to make these people complaining about violence to feel better about enjoying something as base as two men running af full speed at each other with the intent of putting the other one on their butt as hard and violently as possible.
Can you provide any evidence that the Unions are mounting anything more than token resistance in NY to annoy the Fertittas in Vegas?
Regardless of Union involvement in NY (which most here in NY think is negligable), to use MMA in NY as a battle axe in their hotel war is hurting the sport as a whole in NY. MMA is bigger than the UFC and this campaign that Zuffa is waging against the Union, using MMA in NY, will not help us.
I never realized New York State was so smart. This so-called "sport" is a travesty and should not be condoned. It is vile and caters to the basest instincts of humanity! Have we progressed so little since the time of the Roman Empire that we now subsitute humans against humans for humans against lions & tigers?
One group of crooks fighting another group of crooks.