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Crippling MMA in Hawaii?
By Zach Arnold | February 15, 2006
By Zach Arnold
The Honolulu Advertiser has an important update regarding Hawaii’s state legislature attempting to change the rules for promoting MMA on the island. The newspaper reports on a new bill that promoters and fighters say will devastate the local MMA scene:
HB3223, passed out of the state House Tourism and Culture Committee yesterday, calls for promoters to pay a license fee of 3 percent of the first $50,000 in ticket sales and an additional 5 percent of all sales over $50,000. Additionally, the measure asks for 5 percent of all television and Internet revenue and 5 percent of all pay-per-view and DVD sales.
Peter Boylan’s article is a critical read for anyone who cares about the MMA industry in Hawaii. Given how strong the MMA scene is in Hawaii (with Rumble on the Rock, ICON, K-1, etc.), this is a story that deserves your attention.
Topics: All Topics, K-1, MMA, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thanks, interesting read. Hawaii has been a hotbed of MMA for several years now. Everyone associated in the biz there had publicly welcomed in state regulation of the sport and were hoping that it would help the bookming MMA scene. We’ll have to wait and see what some promoters like BJ’s brother have to say about the new rules. Will we see more MMA and K-1 in Hawaii now…or less?
This seems like another attempt to pile on. I view this as bearing a strong similarity to the commissions that license pro wrestling. Often taxes are meant for assisting and subsidizing municipal projects such as schools and infrastructure. Where is said revenue going to? Why is Hawaii including language about merchandise sales? Does this also mean that Hawaii will get a percentage of vendors fees, concessions, web broadcasts , etc.? The comparison to MMA fighters to NFL players couldn’t be more flawed. Does this also mean that Hawaii has revenue sharing with the NFL over the pro bowl?
Seems like a discriminatory tax to me. Does Hawaii tax other sports held in the state such as professional football, golf, etc…? If not, then it would seem that would be mma’s defense. The problem is who will step up to pay lawyers to fight this? Ideally, all of the Hawaiian mma promotions would fear their survival and band together to hire lobbyists and lawyers to rebutt the legislatures shenanigans. Legislatures run in fear of the word discrimination, so I’d stick this one up their nose.
Fees aren’t new; the Nevada State Athletic commission charges fee and California will have to as well. The fees charges on tickets & ppvs are what funds the athletic commissions. However, the Hawiian case doesn’t seem to be following this example, they simply seem to be trying to create an economic hardship that would cause mma promoters to choose to not do business in the state.
My point exactly. Nevada and California have these set up for funding the AC’s. However, Hawaii asking for dvd shares seems to be really putting on the full court press.
A percentage of ticket sales as a license fee is acceptable, but a surcharge on PPV/Merchandise/DVD is just ludicrous. It has nothing to do with safety, the legislature just wants the money to spend on pork-barrel projects. Why did they choose MMA? Because it’s engrossed in Hawaii, and they’ll have difficulty fighting this attempt.