Dana White wants the UFC in Fenway Park
by Zak Woods on Oct 5, 2009 5:11 PM EDT
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Two years ago the NHL had this crazy idea of holding a hockey game outside in the middle of the winter. The game was entitled The Winter Classic and became a huge success in no small part thanks to Sydney Crosby and the city of Buffalo. This year the outdoor game comes to Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts and maybe Dana White (a former Boston resident) has taken inspiration from his Versus acquaintance.
Dana White first mentioned the possibility of an outdoor UFC event at Fenway back at UFC 101 and today in the Boston Herald White reaffirmed his desire to take the UFC to Fenway Park. (Teddy Williams)
"It's not if we do, it's when we do," White said in a recent interview. "We're doing it. We're coming to Fenway."
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"It's the only stadium I'm even considering," the UFC president said. "I don't want to do one of these big stadiums and lose the live experience, where it's too big and you're looking down and seeing these little ants fighting inside the Octagon. Fenway is one that we can pull off. Plus the history, it's just such a bad (expletive) ballpark, even for baseball, let alone putting on a fight."
As an MMA fan I love the idea of a UFC event inside a historic ballpark (reminds me of On the Waterfront) but I have some serious concerns about this.
Is this another instance of Dana White blowing smoke?
White is certainly right about one thing, Fenway Park is one of the smallest ballparks in Major League Baseball and the park still has a capacity of 39,928. That would definitely increase with a UFC event due to the Octagon seating. Is there enough interest in New England for MMA to generate ticket sales of upwards of 40,000? The North American MMA attendance record is 21,451 and that was in Montreal. The UFC would need to double their best showing, even if they closed seats to compensate for the Octagon seating.
Zuffa would certainly want the card to be stacked in order to fill as many seats as possible. Another mega-event similar to UFC 100 would certainly raise a lot of money but it would also throw of the rest of the UFC's pay-per view schedule, which has happened this year.
The event would have to be in the summer for obvious reasons and even then you run the risk of a storm or bad weather mucking up the whole event. Besides would the Red Sox and the city of Boston really be comfortable with a bunch of MMA fans tearing up their beloved Fenway field? (Teddy Williams)
All that being said, if the UFC pulls this off I think I may have to go. For Teddy Williams!
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I lived in Boston for two years (two blocks from Fenway). There are a ton of MMA fans out there. I bet they would cut the seating heavily. The outfield seats do not even face the field. They can also close off the upper level seats which would eliminate a lot more. It is also a old stadium so you have seats on the main level that go up beneath the upper deck. Those seats could be cut and not seen on t.v. I bet if they wanted they could condense the seating to low 30,000 high 20,000 and make the stadium appear fill pretty easily.
Weather is obviously a huge concern and a real issue when bringing MMA to baseball stadiums (i am fully aware of this process) because even using a rain date would kill the attendance.
If the UFC, Fenway, and Boston could all come to an agreement the biggest hurdles are weather and weakening other cards. One away around this is… absorbing the WEC (sorry Zak, i couldn’t help myself).
Then again, maybe i am rationalizing something i want to happen. Kenmore Square would be awesome that night. Already planning my trip back.
"That's an Awfully Big Mustache"-Frank Drebin
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Hmm, I also lived about two blocks from Fenway – Peterborough Street to be exact. There is not a chance in hell that I would miss a fight at Fenway Park. I can’t imagine that the floor seats could extent throughout the playing field. I think it would be amazing if they placed the cage down around home plate with some floor seats covering the infield. That would also cut out all of the Monster seats and the bleachers.
As for Kenmore Square – I think there would be more fights between there and Lansdowne then in the cage, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.
For the record, there was the Heritage Classic in 2003 between the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens in Edmonton (in the middle of November with temperatures overing between -18 and -30 celcius, the later is -22 F). The game was such a success and fans were asking for it so they decided to do the Winter Classic every year.
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