By Kishor Napier-Raman and Stephen Brook
It was a tale of two sporting cities this week as the NSW and Victorian premiers vied for major event supremacy.
At the ungodly hour of 7.50am, media were invited to see Victorian premier Jacinta Allan go full bread and circuses at Melbourne Cricket Ground to announce, as she put it, “a major touchdown” that the MCG would host an NFL game next year. Costs were not disclosed.
Allan acknowledged event partners Visit Victoria chairman former Telstra boss Andy Penn and VV board member (and NFL nut) Eddie McGuire and, er, Rampage, the mascot of the Los Angeles Rams.
Melbourne responded to this news with typical Victorian parochialism, the first question being “what about the footy finals?”
While the NSW government might’ve fumbled negotiations with the NFL, on Wednesday, Premier Chris Minns sat down to record a 30-minute podcast with one of the world’s most powerful sporting administrators, Ultimate Fighting Championship boss Dana White, who is in Sydney for Sunday’s fight.
The Minns government’s $16 million deal to bring UFC to town was attacked by the Liberals, with Opposition Leader Mark Speakman calling the premier “tone deaf” for “hosting an event [which] women’s safety advocates have warned glorifies violence”.
Months later, UFC is the centre of the political universe thanks to White’s close friendship with US President Donald Trump. Mark Zuckerberg just added him to the board of Meta as part of his shameless attempt to curry favour with the new administration.
Trump didn’t come up during Minns and White’s interview with business dudebro-cum-podcast host Mark Bouris this week, with the lads devoting most of the discussion to their shared love of mixed martial arts.
“I’ve loved the UFC for years and years, and when we were in opposition, not in government, we were huge fans of it. For some reason the previous government didn’t try and grab UFC pitch it into Sydney,” Minns said. (I mean, can you imagine Gladys Berejiklian or Dom Perrottet leaping to their feet to celebrate a smackdown in the Octagon?)
“He’s been a champ for us,” White said of the premier.
And while Minns struggled to get a word in between Bouris and White, he did have a message for the snobs cranky at the government for supporting an event enjoyed by 20-something blokes from the suburbs.
“We spent a lot of money on opera and classical music and a ballet company, but the truth is, there’s millions of people in Sydney and New South Wales that aren’t particularly into that, but love MMA and love the UFC, and ultimately, we want to bring events that they can go to ... I’m very democratic about these things,” he said.
He reminded the haters that UFC had plenty of positive lessons for young men about “dropping their electronic devices, getting off the sofa [and] getting out of the house”.
We reckon he’d fare pretty well on the Joe Rogan Experience.
Big Mick energy
Mick Gatto is getting slightly political. Again.
The underworld figure/former boxer/professional mediator in the building industry is spruiking a policy of self-defence classes in high schools in Melbourne’s Werribee byelection, supporting the campaign of Aidan McLindon, mayor of Whittlesea in the outer north, former deputy of the anti-lockdown Freedom Party and former Queensland LNP state MP.
“They’re not going to force them to do but if they want to do it, I believe it’ll be fantastic for them. It helped me a lot. It changed me dramatically,” Gatto told CBD.
But to be clear, Gatto isn’t further entering the political arena, other than to support his good mate McLindon. But he had some choice words for today’s political class.
“Nah, leave me out of that, mate. I’m not interested in politics. They all bullshit, mate.
“They say something when none of them do it. Yes, that should get you charged with perjury.”
A novel political idea, but one we are here for.