Madison Square Garden stands as a mecca for the UFC, a crowning jewel of a venue to cap their efforts to have the sport accepted at the highest of levels. The UFC has sought legalize MMA in New York and put on a card on the hallowed venue for the past several years. The Garden is just beyond reach, though, as the UFC has been unsuccessful in getting the state legislature in New York to pass regulation overseeing MMA. The battle over mixed martial arts in NY has little to do with the sport, though. MMA itself is caught in the crossfire of a much larger battle that has little to do with armbars or triangle chokes.
MMA in New York: Where did It all Go Wrong
MMA Legislation efforts have been underway for several years now, but the best hope for passage seemed to come this past June. Leading into the June committee vote on MMA legislation, things were thought to be looking good. A bill had passed the Assembly unanimously last year before stalling, the bill would now head to the Tourism committee and presumably to the larger Assembly for a full vote. Things looked to be a formality. Dana White was said to be confident that the bill would pass a committee vote and there were some who believed that the big surprise being mentioned at the time by White was NY passing MMA regulation into law. Once the committee went into session, all hell seemed to break loose.Sam Caplan gave some insight to the seeming unusual happenings that took place around the time of the first committee vote on MMA legislation:
FiveOuncesOfPain.com was informed by an anonymous source earlier this afternoon that the committee for Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development of New York held a vote on Wednesday to decide whether the state should regulate Mixed Martial Arts. According to the source, the bill was voted down in overwhelming fashion. An anonymous member of a major state athletic commission confirmed the information that was provided to Five Ounces Of Pain by our initial source.
........ However, the proposal was unexpectedly voted down for reasons that are not yet clear. In a strange turn of events, it is believed that the chair of the committee, Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who introduced the proposal, ended up voting against it.
The committee decided to take a week delay and but the delay ended up being for naught. MMAWeekly reported on the ultimate tabling of the legislation for the 2008 session:
MMAWeekly.com on Wednesday learned that Bill 1-11458-A, that would effectively legalize the sport of mixed martial arts in the state of New York, will not go to a vote within the Tourism, Arts, and Sports Development committee until January of 2009.
Elizabeth Nostrand, Legislative Director for Steve Englebrecht, the bill's sponsor, said that following a botched vote on the house floor last Tuesday, in which several committee members attempted to change their votes after placing them, Englebrecht decided to delay the next vote on the bill.
"It was put on the committee's agenda, but the chair decided it would be best for purposes of clarification to give all sides an opportunity to weigh in so the best interests of the participants and the state of New York could be served," � Nostrand said.
Unite Here's Moves Go From The Shadows To The Light
WCBS shed some light on the reason passing MMA legislation has been so difficult in New York:
The sole correspondence received by the Senate Committee on Tourism, Recreation and Sports Development, which has jurisdiction over pending legislation, came from UNITE HERE, the hotel and restaurant workers' union.
Pointing to continued opposition from the American Medical Association because of "great potential injury," the union said police also are concerned about teenagers mimicking moves and staging fights.
"The potential social cost of holding MMA fighting exhibitions should be fully explored before the Legislature acts to allow such events in New York," the union wrote.
The hotel workers' union, which claims 90,000 New York members and spent $100,000 on Albany lobbyists last year while making more than $130,000 in New York political donations, mostly to the Democratic and Working Families parties, has also been trying to represent workers at Station Casinos in Las Vegas, off-strip casinos that say they can't afford union pay. Behind the UFC is Zuffa LLC, which donated $25,000 to New York's Democratic Committee last year. Brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta III are behind both the station casinos and the UFC effort.
Union spokesman Eric Sharfstein declined to comment about dealings with Station Casinos and the union's opposition to mixed martial arts in New York.
The Las Vegas local of UNITE HERE, the Culinary Union Local 226, is the largest local of UNITE HERE, and the most politically potent. Locally and nationally they are a force to be reckoned with. Unite Here has chosen to use their political muscle to oppose the passage of MMA legislation in New York, the reasons for this opposition we will elaborate on later in this piece. Unite Here's efforts working against MMA legislation go back at least a couple of years. Unite Here's close ties and influence with some members of the Tourism committee, as well the full legislature at large, were key in stopping MMA legislation in its tracks. As a source intimately familiar with Unite Here's moves against MMA legislation in New York states: "(Unite Here) is probably the only thing standing in between MMA being sanctioned in NY."
Unite Here's has done several things to block MMA legislation in the state, but the letter opposing MMA has been the only concrete item that would indicate an active effort to derail legalization of the sport. Other clandestine efforts have been under way for quite some time, though.
In order to lobby on a particular subject, this must be disclosed in reports filed with the state government. Reading the 2007 filing for Unite Here one of the items the registered to lobby on is a bit unlike the others:
Subject(s) Lobbied : HEALTHY NY, BUDGET, ALBANY CONVENTION CENTER, GENERAL CASINO GAMING ISSUES, IDA REFORM, LABOR PEACE, LABOR ISSUES, MIXED MARTIAL ARTS
With them able to lobby, they have been active in doing so. UFC VP Marc Ratner has said : "The Tourism Committee .... our bill did not come out of there. One of the legislators needs to be properly educated, because he said something about no referees. Some people think it is still no holds barred or no rules."� While the sentiment of educating the committee is admirable, they may be doing a game of catch up in that respect. Sources close to Unite Here indicate that their own education/miseducation efforts had been underway for some time when Ratner made those statements.
Unite Here has been doing their share of "counter-programming" the UFC's message of responsible oversight of the sport. Unite Here authored and distributed a DVD on the violence of MMA that was given to all Democratic members of the NY legislature. The DVD prominently displayed the more violent aspects of the sport, with Chuck's head-kick of Babalu being prominent in the footage. Unite Here also collected more of the gorier footage of UFC bouts to include in their "educational" DVD for legislators.
In addition to lobbying legislators, the Culinary Union engaged in a campaign to enlist sister unions in their opposition to MMA in NY State. Main targets for this campaign were teachers, nurses, and police unions. The main avenue for drumming up of support from other unions was done word of mouth. Once their support was gained, they were provided with a white paper authored by Unite Here staffers. The white paper tied together the AMA's anti-MMA position along with it's report on children's violence into a document that stood against MMA legalization. The white paper would then serve as "evidence" and used as talking points when these sister unions made their case for opposition to legal MMA fights.
While targeting the Legislature as a whole, Unite Here has been particularly adept at donating to those on the Tourism committee who hold the key to MMA legislation making it out of committee to be voted on by the larger assembly. Unite Here's 527 fund, used for political contributions, has a history of contributions to those on the Tourism committee. Campaignmoney.com shows the following contributions to some of the Democrats (or their surrogate groups) on the Tourism committee:
Brodsky: $500 in 2003, $1000 in 2004, $3400 in 2006
Del Monte $1500 in 2004, $10,000 in 2006
Fields $1000 in 2004
Gunther, $1000 in 2003
Gianaris $3500 in 2003
Hoyt $500 in 2004, $1500 in 2006
McEneny $500 in 2004, $3000 in 2006
Reilly $1500 in 2004, $4000 in 2006
O'Donnell $1000 in 2006
Of particular note are the donations to Assemblyman Bob Reilly. Reilly has shown strong opposition to the MMA as evidenced by Thomas Hausers' piece from ESPN.com. Reilly almost single-handedly brought down the June committee vote. Having been issued supporting materials from Unite Here and also being the recipient of a sizable donation from Unite Here's 527in 2006 (amounts for 2008 haven't been divulged yet), one has to ask....how much of his opposition to MMA is genuine and how much is politics? Those campaign donations have to call into question his motives.
The Roots of the Unite Here vs Fertitta Feud
The Fertitta vs Unite Here fued is a story as old as labor vs management. Las Vegas is one of the last true union towns in the country, and Unite Here is a player in the city and state (and across the US) due to this. Its the sole powerhouse in the state politically. The union was key in helping to make Nevada a competitive state for Obama in his Democratic primary by virtue of giving him their endorsement. For all the power that Unite Here has accumulated in Vegas, it still has a weakness in that it has lacked a density in the "locals" casino market in LV. Most of UH's deals involve the casinos that cater to the out of towners.
Therein lies the rub. The Fertitta's Station Casinos is THE locals player in the Vegas market and up until this point has resisted efforts to unionize their workforce. Station Casinos is the only great non-union company left in town, that is the reason this fight is taking place.
The Unite Here efforts opposing MMA legislation are but a small campaign in a long running war between the two parties. While MMA has cleaned up it's act, the war between the Fertitta's and Unite Here is still very much a no holds barred affair. Station Casinos has long been staunchly anti-union but their relations with the Unite Here took decided turn for the worse with the purchase of a union casino back in 2000
The company is the largest non-union casino employer in town. When it took over a union hotel in 2000, Station fired about 1,000 workers and required them to reapply for their jobs. According to union officials, only 150 were rehired.
"This was something new for Las Vegas," said Courtney Alexander, research director for Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 226, which represents about 50,000 workers in Las Vegas.
"Casinos are bought and sold all the time, and we had no history of mass terminations when a new owner came in. ... I think it marked a turning point in how Station was viewed as an employer in this town."
Station's Nielson said the firings have done little to affect the company's standing with its customers, or employees.
"We've said all along we are not anti-union, we are just pro-employee," he said. "If our employees believe they want to have someone involved to speak to management for them, they can. We've been here for 27 years, they've never felt the need to do that."
Since that time, Unite Here and Station have battled, both in Vegas and across the country in areas where Station manages local casino operations for others. Whether on their on or in concert with others, Unite here has made made efforts to hamstring Station at every turn Unite Here paired with the Sierra Club to amend the blueprints for Station's Red Rock Casino.
Unite Here also became an activist in rallying the shareholders of Station Casinos stock. Unite Here bought a minimal amount of stock on Station Casinos ( a little over 250 shares) in order to be able to affect the corporate governance process of Station. They made moves to amend the compensation and voting rights areas of the company . There were several instances, including these two in 2003 an 2005:
In 2003, UNITE HERE led shareholder opposition to Station Casinos' stock compensation program, citing the excessive use of stock options. In 2004, the company told investors that "we have listened to shareholders and are relying more now on restricted share awards as well as cash compensation."
(2005) The proposals by UNITE HERE--adopt simple majority voting by shareholders instead of requiring a supermajority, require annual election of directors, and let shareholders vote on the company's "poison pill" anti-takeover device--"are consistent with the proxy voting guidelines of major institutional shareholders and corporate governance organizations like the Council of Institutional Investors," said Bohner.
Station was able to shed itself of such corporate governance concerns by taking the company private in early 2007.
Conclusion
In the battles between the Unite Here group and the Fertitta's, it is hard to find anyone to root for on either side. The real peple to feel sorry for in this whole sorry episode are the MMA fans in New York state, who being to made for a labor amangement squabble that has no import on their love of the sport.
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