New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams

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New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#1 » by Susan » Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:37 pm

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2021/9/18/22680760/report-mma-promotion-feature-fighters-union-cba-team-georges-st-pierre-world-fight-league-wfl-news

According to sources, a number of influential industry individuals have come together to create a new MMA league that is structured more like the NBA/NHL/NFL rather than your typical MMA promotion. This new league would also include an athlete association that implements a CBA with 50/50 revenue share, guaranteed contracts, health insurance, career-ending insurance and a pension plan. The plan is to announce the venture in the coming days, I’m told. They are hoping to launch in 2023.

Helwani added some more details on his MMA Hour program this week:

The new league is structured as a nonprofit where independent franchise owners will roster a team of athletes signed from free agency or via the league entry draft. Each team will compete in home and away competitions in a traditional league format vying for a playoff spot. The owners and athletes are governed by the leagues bylaws and collective bargaining agreement which is enforced by the commissioner and board of governors.


Bellator and co have basically been structured as UFC lite, seeing a new org with a more traditional sports structure seems good for all involved. There's been so many rumbles of something like this happening but I'd trust a venture with GSP in it over a union push that relied on folks like Cowboy Cerrone jumping on board.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#2 » by Jasen777 » Sat Sep 18, 2021 3:51 pm

Apparently the WFL will feature four conferences: North America, South America, Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania. Each conference with have between eight and 24 teams. Each team will have a roster of 24 fighters, three per weight-class.


That's a lot of teams and fighters they're planning on.

Anyways, sounds interesting but they better have a billion or three in the bank if they want this to be anything.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#3 » by Susan » Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:27 pm

Jasen777 wrote:
Apparently the WFL will feature four conferences: North America, South America, Europe/Africa and Asia/Oceania. Each conference with have between eight and 24 teams. Each team will have a roster of 24 fighters, three per weight-class.


That's a lot of teams and fighters they're planning on.

Anyways, sounds interesting but they better have a billion or three in the bank if they want this to be anything.


Right now the UFC is built on manufacturing drama/title fights. It had a good run during the pandemic but man, there feels like there's nothing going on of note right now.

Look at what is happening in WWE/AEW right now, there's always space for challengers. The WWE/UFC model is highly exploitative and needs to be beat out.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#4 » by Jasen777 » Sat Sep 18, 2021 5:45 pm

Susan wrote:Look at what is happening in WWE/AEW right now, there's always space for challengers. The WWE/UFC model is highly exploitative and needs to be beat out.


AEW is a good example of my point, backed by a billionaire who doesn't care if they lose money for years.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#5 » by Headliner » Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:17 pm

I kinda thought about this before, but it was more like home gyms fielding teams, kinda like that TUF between American Top Team etc.

The idea is interesting, but injuries could decimate the concept quickly.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#6 » by Dupp » Tue Sep 21, 2021 9:20 pm

Gsp still has like 3 years on his contract. They never letting him out now. For a goat tier guy they sure have treated him like trash. Shame.


Everyone likes this idea but gonna be very hard to actually have success.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#7 » by Duke4life831 » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:01 pm

I hate to say it but this just isn't going to work. There just isn't that much money in the sport to be completely honest. 99.9% of fighters dont bring any money to the sport. Its also not a kind of sport where multiple superstars come around all the time to carry the sport.

The reason that the UFC has become successful is the name itself became a superstar. It has gotten to the point where people will sit down just because its a UFC event. That has also helped them manufacture fighters into become "stars" as well.

There have been a ton of other promotions that come out and one of the first things they advertise is how much better they're paying their fighters compared to the UFC. Those promotions tend to fold pretty damn quick, then a year or so latter you hear the horror stories of how bad the promotion was.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#8 » by Headliner » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:14 pm

What you’ll probably end up seeing is a ton of older fighters joining to get that pension and health care haha
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#9 » by cowboyronnie » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:29 pm

They tried the sport side of this model with the IFL in like 2006. It sucked and was weird.

The simple solution for equitable sharing of profits is for the UFC fighters to unionize. They could have 50/50 by the end of the year. Shut down fights between now and December. The UFC would capitulate in a minute, they have 100s of millions resting on hitting certain thresholds with ESPN and sponsors.

It's completely asinine that they don't do this. Every person on the roster, Conor included, would make more money.

But, fighter personalities and intelligence being what they are, that's obviously not going to happen. "What, you want your billionaire bosses to distribute their money to the people who work for them? Sounds like socialism... you're not a socialist are you, son?"

So, maybe, starting a roster from the ground up rather than trying to convert an already-created roster is the best idea. May as well try. It's more realistic than trying to turn the right-wingers of the UFC into unionizers.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#10 » by cowboyronnie » Tue Sep 21, 2021 11:31 pm

Hi love, bye love, I will miss my love.
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#11 » by Dupp » Wed Sep 22, 2021 2:32 am

What’s wrong with the ufc model but just adding pension + better revenue sharing. Why add all the other stuff?
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Re: New MMA League Forming - World Fight League -Fighters Union, CBA, GSP, Teams 

Post#12 » by Susan » Wed Oct 13, 2021 4:31 pm

Dupp wrote:What’s wrong with the ufc model but just adding pension + better revenue sharing. Why add all the other stuff?


UFC treats fighters as independent contractors and the revenue split is roughly 15% to the fighters, 85% to the UFC. Normal sports orgs are 40-50% players, 50-60% owners. Not sure about European league splits.


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