COVID-19 and Sports: UFC Spends $17 Million On 26,300 COVID-19 Tests To Make Sure MMA Fight Shows Go On This Year
By Cassandra Cousineau for LVSportsBiz.com
Saturday was the pay-per-view finale for Las Vegas-based UFC and typically the year’s last major fight card offers title fights in front of more than 17,000 MMA fans at T-Mobile Arena, where UFC is an official tenant.
But this year is the year of the COVID-19 pandemic and nothing is normal. So, Saturday’s UFC event was an orderly one staged at MMA promotion’s Apex facility, only a short walk from UFC’s snazzy headquarters off the 215 in the southwest valley.
In this year of the novel coronavirus, UFC was a leader in forging ahead and staging sports events. But it took literally thousands of COVID-19 tests of fighters, trainers, media, UFC staff and anyone else who wanted to walk through the doors of the Apex or any location where a UFC fight show was staged this year.
UFC President Dana White said UFC conducted about 26,300 COVID-19 tests to date with a positivity rate of 0.8% to stay in business. In comparison, the NBA returned an 8.8 percent positivity rate in its November restart at the ESPN Disney bubble in Central Florida.
“We’ve spent $17 million on COVID testing this year,” White recently told Canada’s TSN. “And think about this, 1,470 UFC athletes, cornermen and staff were transported. 1,700 commercial flights, 34 charter flights. Everybody keeps talking about how difficult it is for some of these other sports because of the teams. We had 164 athletes from 40 different countries that competed this year.”
In May, LVSportsBiz.com reported White said UFC was losing $100 million in gate money because of zero fan attendance during the pandemic.
“A big problem for all sports is the gate. We’re going to lose over $100 million this year,” White said. “It would be much easier for me to sit back and say, ‘Let’s wait this thing out.’ Waiting this thing out is a good option for a lot of people.”
In 2019, UFC held 42 events in 39 different cities across 15 countries and five continents. According to MMA Junkie, At those events, UFC drew a reported announced total attendance of 548,023 for a live gate total of $61,050,133.74. That number doesn’t include 11 events for which the live gate was not announced.
Back at the Apex Saturday, Charles Oliveira jumped on Tony Ferguson and proceeded to dominate the fan favorite and former interim title holder until the very end of the five-round co-main event . The 31-year-old Brazillian entered UFC 256 in Las Vegas without his longtime head coach Diego Lima who tested positive for COVID-19 days before flying from Sao Paulo to Abu Dhabi. The stop is the last leg before being allowed to continue on to the U.S.
For the most part, the notion of a bubble has worked even though dozens of fighters have tested positive for the virus, resulting in a long list of adjusted, rescheduled and cancelled matchups. Saturday’s UFC 256 card alone lost 11 scheduled matchups due to positive tests since it was originally announced.
“This stuff is definitely spreading,” White said in a post-fight press conference.
When we were first going through this stuff, I didn’t know anybody that had it, and then, you know, one employee came up with it and got through it quick. But personally, somebody that I was friends with hadn’t had it yet, and now everyone’s got it, you know what I mean? eople show up with it, or I think what happened this time, somebody had had contact with somebody else and was training their fighter and then gave it to them,” White said. “I don’t know exactly what the deal was, but – yeah, I don’t know. — UFC boss Dana White
