The UFC just broke ground and announced that they’re building a new state-of-the-art campus spanning 15 acres in Las Vegas. It will have a training area, along with facilities for sports medicine and sports science, all available for fighters in their roster 24-hours a day.
Designed to protect their investments, the campus’ purpose is to prevent injuries and keep more cards in tact by having a venue to educate fighters on the latest training practices, as well as housing those athletes for rehab and recovery.
During the ground breaking event, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta was asked whether he is concerned that there will be more people complaining about salary as they’re starting another massive project for the company.
“That’s always going to be an issue,” Fertitta told the assembled media. “If we distributed 200% of our revenues, people would be complaining about fighter pay. The fact of the matter is, fighter pay has continued to increase every single year that we’ve owned the company.”
“We pay way more than anybody else in the space, that’s a factor. You do have some fighters that maybe aren’t happy with what they get, but at the end of the day, the fighters that achieve great things in this sport and get to the level of actually making a career of it, you don’t see many of those athletes complaining. That’s the fact of the matter.”
“The guys who are rising to the top are making the majority of the money.”
He then went on to say that this ground breaking facility they’re building will be very good for the company, and in turn, the fighters.
“Relative to this, we’re making an investment in the future, so that the company can continue to go on and achieve bigger things so that the revenue will continue to grow. Obviously that will continue to flow down to the fighters, so this is no different than any other business.”
Fertitta also noted that the UFC has about 400 “corporate employees”, and that number doesn’t include production teams, or independent contractors around the actual events.
Bloody Elbow’s John Nash recently unearthed details on the UFC’s revenue, debt, and earning, in an in-depth 3-part feature which showed numbers that for years have been kept out of the public. A recent credit report also shows that Zuffa is having a very strong 2015, which is expected to get even better with the upcoming 3-event weekend capped by Aldo vs McGregor.
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