A vote on the bill to legalize mixed martial arts is expected to come to the Assembly floor as early as Monday, according to Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara, D-Rotterdam.
New York is the only state left in the country that has not legalized MMA. Amateur fights are legal in the state, but they are not regulated.
In January, The Gazette reported the state Senate has passed a bill legalizing and regulating the sport for the past six years, and a similar bill in the Assembly was gathering support last year when the session ended before it could make it to the floor.
Critics of the bill say professional MMA fighting is dangerous as a full-contact combat sport where multiple fighting techniques are permitted, but supporters have said making it legal would allow the state to better regulate the sport, just as every other state in the country has.
Santabarbara, who has advocated for the bill for his past three years in office, said the bill has over 80 sponsors and he is confident it will have the votes to pass next week.
“For the first time, local athletes competing at the professional level [of MMA fighting] who are born and raised in New York will finally get to play the home game,” Santabarbara said Tuesday. “When athletes travel to other states like New Jersey or Massachusetts to compete professionally, you’re sending bus loads of their friends and families out of the state to support them, and they’re taking the dollars they’d spend at local hotels, restaurants and other small businesses from the state along with it.”
Santabarbara said if the bill passes, that trend will reverse, and the state will see a tremendous economic boost.
Upstate venues like the Times Union Center in Albany would be expected to attract at least three major events and small upstate venues could attract more than 60 events each year, leading to an estimated $33 million in statewide economic activity, according to Santabarbara.
In August, an amateur MMA event was held at the Schenectady Armory and nearly 1,000 people attended.
“That allowed us to see a glimpse of the success we’d have with a professional event,” Ray Legere, who co-owns the local armory with his cousin Jeff Legere, said Tuesday. “I’m excited, because this will be a huge economic boost for us, the city and the county.”
When the amateur MMA event was held last summer, Santabarbara said there was no vacancy at the nearby Hampton Inn, and restaurants in downtown Schenectady had lines of people out the door down the street.
“We saw a tremendous economic impact in the local economy in downtown Schenectady with the amateur event, so imagine what we can do statewide with professional MMA,” the assemblyman said.
Legere did a rough estimation of the economic boost a professional MMA event would have on the area.
“If just one professional MMA event were to be held in Schenectady, I can easily see the gross sales to be in excess of $150,000,” Legere said. “I already have hopes in anticipation of having an event here. I don’t think I can get the first one in New York state, but if this passes, I’d like to have the first one in the Capital Region.”
Santabarbara encouraged his fellow colleagues in the Assembly to get on board.
“This is your chance to support a bill that will provide a tremendous amount of economic benefit and allow our local athletes to play the home games,” Santabarbara said. “The economic dollars that come with it will benefit cities like Schenectady, the whole Capital Region and the entire state.
“We’re at the finish line, but I won’t stop working for this until we’ve crossed it.”
Reach Gazette reporter Kate Seckinger at 395-3113, [email protected] or @KateSeckinger on Twitter.
Categories: -News-, Business, Schenectady County
