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PRIDE FC Worldwide Holdings LLC statement to Japanese media
By Zach Arnold | October 9, 2007
Zuffa LLC legal advisor Jamie Pollack addressed the Japanese media on Tuesday night (Wednesday afternoon Japanese time) regarding the closure of the PRIDE office in Tokyo and the firing of 20 employees. It was a standard UFC press release with Pollack being quoted in certain parts and a standard PR narrative the rest of the way.
The statement claimed that the reason PRIDE was shut down was due to a ‘lack of cooperation’ with former directors and staff members of DSE. Furthermore, the press release stated that the company wanted to address some ‘false reports’ in the media about why the situation with PRIDE collapsed.
Pollack claimed that Zuffa had to make a decision about the office lease and that the decision to shut down was not done without consideration. Citing a lack of cooperation with former directors of Dream Stage Entertainment, Pollack said that holding a PRIDE show in Japan became impossible. He further stated that the employees that were fired were given financial compensation.
The statement went on to say that PRIDE contents would be continued to be marketed through DVD and online media sales. The focus is to bring talent from Japan and other countries to UFC to continue making UFC a global brand in MMA. Pollack claimed that UFC respects the PRIDE brand name and PRIDE fans.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I wonder.. if UFC held a show in Japan with Gomi, Yoshida, Wanderlei and CroCop… would the Japanese fans care?
Wait wait.
The reason they shut down PRIDE was that DSE didn’t cooperate?
What?
so the trigger for the shut down decision was the renewal of the office lease?
the previous DSE directors are Sakakibara (who was fired as part of the takeover) and Sato. both are fronts for the real owner of DSE, ishizaka, who is a known yakuza according to Shukan Gendai
What a shame…
It really is over now then, I guess we all know it was but now we KNOW.
Honestly believe the UFC would have tried to sort PRIDE out but in the end I think it became easier just to ship everyone over to the states and practice business the way you have always done and know, rather than in a foriegn land.
When the lease came up, they made an analysis of the price of signing a new lease and the likelihood that these guys on the ground would ever organize a Pride show.
They decided that that wasn’t going to happen, so why renew the lease? If you have no office, then why have employees?
It all makes perfect sense to me. You have to have specific sorts of reasons to be able to fire people in Japan (as you do in most of the civilized world, except the US, with “At Will” employment), and this is just a convoluted exercise in getting to a rationale that allowed them to fire these people.