In its twenty two year history, the UFC has visited Irish shores four times, once in the North and three times in Dublin. In July 2014, the UFC held their second ever event in the Republic of Ireland. Like the show before it in 2009 and the show this year in October, all of these events sold out in record breaking time. Last year, such was the interest last July, the UFC had to issue tickets to the weigh in's for the first time ever. The UFC 189 Media World Tour in March this year had over sixty thousand people applying for the less than two thousand tickets that were available to it. An event that took place during the afternoon on a weekday.
With Irishman Conor McGregor now the UFC Featherweight Champion after defeating the pound for pound best fighter in the sport, Jose Aldo, interest in the sport of MMA is peaking in Ireland. Conor's last four fights in the past fifteen months all took place in the US. Every time Conor fights in Boston or Las Vegas, thousands of his Irish fans raid their savings and or the local credit union to follow him over. At Boston in January, according to UFC President Dana White, 13% of all the tickets sales for that fight came from Ireland, an even higher percentage travelled to UFC 189 in July where he won the interim belt and even more again to UFC 194 last weekend where he became the undisputed champion.
Given that level of enthusiasm for the sport in Ireland right now, and the fact that every time a show is held in the 02 / Three Arena, it sells out in seconds, the question has come up on many occasions, why not move it to a bigger arena? Conor has spoken many times of his dream to fill out a football stadium. He also speaks in every press conference about the records he has thus far broken. He wants that attendance record and he wants it to be made in the biggest stadium in Ireland, Croke Park.
As a massive Dublin GAA fan who spends most of the year in Croke Parke, nothing would make me happier or prouder to see the Octagon assembled in the middle of GAA HQ.
However as much as I would love to see it, I sadly don't think we will ever see the UFC Octagon anywhere in Ireland other than the Three arena. I have a few reasons why.
My first reason for not believing that it will ever happen is a simple one. If they were serious about doing it they would have already done it, simple as. If Croke Park was ever to happen, you need a big fight especially one with a lot of vested Irish interest in it. It would have to be fight of the year big. A fight that casual MMA fans living on the West Coast of America would be willing to get out of bed at 9am on a Saturday morning to not only watch, but to pay $65 for the pleasure of doing so. What fight could have possibly been bigger than the McGregor vs Aldo fight. Conor fighting for the belt on home territory in a record breaking attendance crowd against one of the fighters regarded by many as the pound for pound best fighter in the world. That fight is enough to motivate people to set those alarms.
The UFC had the perfect fight in the palms of their hands to make Croke Park a reality yet they didn't. In the post fight press conference after McGregor defeated Siver in January, upon being asked whats next for Conor and would the Aldo fight be held in Dublin, Dana uttered the words every single Irish fan who couldn't afford five days in Las Vegas dreaded, " we are thinking May, in Las Vegas". Although Conor looked incredibly impressive against both Dustin Poirier and Dennis Siver, the only two ranked opponents he had faced in the UFC at the time, there was no telling how he would do against Jose Aldo. Of course hind-sight is 20/20 but back in January, the fight between Conor and Aldo was anybody's guess as to how it would go. Had the fight gone badly for Conor, his star power and aura fades along with the prospect of MMA ever happening at GAA headquarters. If the UFC were genuinely serious about doing the Croke Park show, UFC 187 in May 2015 was the time to do it.
Croke Park and the surrounding residential areas. Via Google Maps.
Second issue, the residents. Croke Park is situated about a ten minute walk from Dublin city centre and right in the centre of a densely populated residential area. The GAA stages Gaelic Football, Hurling and International Rules Football throughout the calendar year. It also subject to licenses, stages massive rock concerts for the likes of U2, One Direction and the Police. To facilitate the large crowds that attend these events, traffic diversions and road closures need to take place, while there is a massive economic benefit to the local businesses in the Croke Park area, that is balanced out by a massive amount of inconvenience that is placed upon the local residents of Croke Park. In 2014, concert promoters Aiken promotions attempted to stage five back to back Gareth Brooks gigs. After hundreds of complaints from the local residents, particularly in regards to the breach of an agreement between the residents and the GAA which only permitted three concerts a year at Croke Park, (One Direction had already played two gigs in Croke Park in May) Dublin City Council refused to grant the licence for two of the five concerts. Brooks tried to strong arm the council and when they still wouldn't grant the extra licenses, Brooks pulled out of all five gigs leaving behind 400,000 devastated fans and the promoters Aiken with a huge bill. Following Brooksgate, an independant mediator Kieran Mulvey was appointed to come up with a set of recommendations as to avoid a situation like the Garth Brooks fiasco ever happening again. The GAA accepted Mr Mulveys recommendations which can be read One of those recommendations can be seen below.
“Where any additional non-concert special event is proposed the Event Promoter and Croke Park
Stadium Management should enter a formal consultation process with the representatives of the
Residents’ Associations before agreeing to apply for a specific licence for such an event.”
Back to the topic on hand, in order for the UFC to receive a license to hold an event in Croke Park, they need to make their case heard to the residents association, the GAA and then Dublin City Council. Given that this whole Garth Brooks situation unfolded the week before UFC Fight Night Dublin in July 2014, the top brass at the UFC are very familiar with the whole situation and probably are not all the more keen to go booking a fight here, especially when Irish fans are breaking gate records all the way in Las Vegas.
The View from the Upper Davin Stand. Photo by the Author Andrew Cowan.
Thirdly the practicality of Croke Park as a fight venue. To those who don't know, Croke Park is an outdoor stadium, the majority of the stands are exposed to the elements. Unlike the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne where UFC 193 took place, Croke Park does not have a roof. And as Dana White made reference to our weather, Dublin is not Abu Dhabi. That means in order to stage a successful event, practical issues need to be addressed. Firstly covering the Octagon and media areas. This would involve building some sort of structure in the centre of the playing field large enough to cover the Octagon and media areas. This structure would also have to support large screens on all sides because if you are sitting in the Upper Davin Stand, it will be near impossible to tell who you are even looking at with the naked eye, let alone who has the upper hand in a grappling exchange on the mat. To make the stadium suitable for attending a UFC event there is a massive cost element. Renting all this equipment and paying all the staff to assemble it costs a lot of money, a cost the UFC don't have in Vegas.
A lot of people argue against the cost aspect by saying it can be offset in tickets sales, fair point, the stadium holds nearly eighty three thousand. Along with the pitch you are in to the one hundred thousand mark. However most of these tickets, particularly the ones in the upper stands will have to be sold at a lower price compared to a standard UFC event. How could the UFC charge people who can only see the event through binoculars or a screen anymore than €30-€40 a person? The UFC would also have to foot part of the bill for the expenses of the Gardai as well as a donation to the Croke Park residents associations community fund. Gate sales are not the biggest money makers for the UFC, its pay per view sales. Their last event, UFC 194 is rumoured to have sold over 1 million buys at $65 dollars each. Add in the revenue from sponsors and advertisement and it is fair to say that the UFC didn't do too badly from the event. For Croke Park though this is an issue.
Dana White when asked why they weren't doing the McGregor vs Aldo fight here, he alluded to the fact that the pay per view buys suffer massively, he put a figure of a loss of anywhere between 25-30% which when UFC 194 is trending to have sold nearly 1million pay per views, 25% of that 1 million is 250,000 x $65 per buy equals a loss of nearly $16million dollars in pay per view revenue alone, not counting the additional sponsorship and advertisement revenue that is lost from the large reduction in audience size.
Finally, the man who even conjured up the notion of bringing the UFC to Croke Park could be the very reason it doesn't happen. Listen to any interview with McGregor and it is easy to see what it is that motivates him. Money. And to make a long article that little bit shorter, if Conor was to headline the UFC Croke Park show, he would stand to lose 25-30% of his biggest source of income, the pay per view cut he receives from headlining these events. That could equate to a multi million dollar loss for Conor where he to fight in Croke Park over say the MGM or the TD Garden in Boston. The UFC can't do Croke Park without him and he won't do it unless it is as he puts it, "Good Business".