No MMA at Weber County fair this year
The Weber County Commission decided not to allow mixed martial arts to return to the Weber County Fair this summer, despite the sport's popular and moneymaking debut last year.
The Weber County Fair board decided last month to bring it back for another year, but the county commissioners overruled the board, saying the sport was too violent for a family-friendly county fair.
"We received quite a few complaints last year," commissioner Craig Dearden said. "Since it hit the paper, we've received numerous complaints again, and so we just decided we'd rethink it and decided not to renew the contract."
When MMA was announced last year, both residents and volunteers said they would not attend the fair. However, fair officials said attendance at the 2007 fair was up by 16 percent from 2006.
Fair officials estimated the fights attracted an extra 2,400 people who paid $10 to $50 for a ticket.
The board voted unanimously to bring the back the event, hoping to bring more cash to a fair that's been losing money.
However, Dearden said money's not the issue.
"It made a little tiny bit of money, but it basically broke even," Dearden said. "We think we can find an activity that night that will replace it and we'll be OK."
Craig Bielik, a member of the fair board, said MMA should have been allowed because it brought money to the fair. But, at the same time, he understands that public pressure can have more influence.
Bielik said he doesn't feel strongly either way.
"Cage fighting is the only thing I ever got calls at home about," Bielik said. "Nobody has to see it that doesn't want to."
Info from The Associated Press
The Weber County Fair board decided last month to bring it back for another year, but the county commissioners overruled the board, saying the sport was too violent for a family-friendly county fair.
"We received quite a few complaints last year," commissioner Craig Dearden said. "Since it hit the paper, we've received numerous complaints again, and so we just decided we'd rethink it and decided not to renew the contract."
When MMA was announced last year, both residents and volunteers said they would not attend the fair. However, fair officials said attendance at the 2007 fair was up by 16 percent from 2006.
Fair officials estimated the fights attracted an extra 2,400 people who paid $10 to $50 for a ticket.
The board voted unanimously to bring the back the event, hoping to bring more cash to a fair that's been losing money.
However, Dearden said money's not the issue.
"It made a little tiny bit of money, but it basically broke even," Dearden said. "We think we can find an activity that night that will replace it and we'll be OK."
Craig Bielik, a member of the fair board, said MMA should have been allowed because it brought money to the fair. But, at the same time, he understands that public pressure can have more influence.
Bielik said he doesn't feel strongly either way.
"Cage fighting is the only thing I ever got calls at home about," Bielik said. "Nobody has to see it that doesn't want to."
Info from The Associated Press
1:52 PM
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