MMA in NY Bill delayed till 2010
Bad news for my fellow New Yorkers. The bill to legalize MMA in NY state, the attractively named S2165A, has been tabled until the legislature meets again, which will not be until January of 2010. It gets worse though. MMA Weekly has the full story, which you can read an important excerpt from below (The Fight Nerd brings you all killer and no filler).
Sarah Crean, a staffer with Cultural Affairs chair Sen. Jose M. Serrano, said the current legislative environment made the prospect of the MMA bill’s passage grim.
“Given what’s going on, probably all they’re going to be looking at is financing and very urgent bills,” said Crean. “What looks like is going to happen (to the MMA bill) is it’s going to have to go through the process again in our committee next year when session starts again.”
The next legislative session begins in January 2010.
The bill will now have to go back through the process in 2010, and even if it does pass next year, the soonest the UFC, or any other promotion, would be able to hold an event in New York would be late in the year or early 2011.
“Essentially, we just ran out of time,” said a representative from the office of Assemblyman Steve Englebright, who sponsored the bill in the House.
The bill will now go back to the Tourism, Arts, and Sports Committee in January 2010.
“If a bill passes on the floor, it would just go back onto the floor calendar next year,” continued the representative. “But since this bill didn’t make it to the floor yet, it has to automatically go back to the committee of origin, which really kind of stinks.”
Kind of stinks? That is a polite way if putting it. I don’t mind having to go to New Jersey for fights but… wait, yes I do mind! It’s Jersey for crying out loud! I don’t want to have sit through what is ideally a 2 and a half hour ride that turns into a 5-6 hour mess on a weekend for what I could be seeing via a quick subway ride!
So if the bill passes, we will not really see an MMA event run by the UFC until 2011, which is fine because, trust me, many New Yorkers are planning ahead and already working on setting up smaller MMA shows, including Nick Sanzo who runs a successful grappling show in upstate New York. As soon as the bill passes I guarantee we will be getting at least two shows a month in this state and I will be a very happy Fight Nerd.
