The UFC and Manly are in talks to transform Brookvale into state-of-the-art facility

The UFC and the Manly Sea Eagles will meet to talk about transforming the depilated 4 Pines Park into a state of the art, multipurpose stadium with a roof that will be used as a home base for both entities.

The UFC and Manly will meet next month to kickstart talks in the hopes of revamping Brookvale Oval into becoming a state of the art enclosed facility.

The UFC want to follow the blueprint they have used in a host of countries including US, Mexico and China where they have set up a training base for their fighters.

The plan at Brookvale would be to transform the depilated 4 Pines Park into a state of the art, multipurpose stadium with a roof.

The 25000-30000 capacity would host UFC events, training camps as well as NRL, rugby and soccer matches.

The UFC’s Vice President, Australia & New Zealand Peter Kloczko confirmed a formal meeting with Sea Eagles would take places having already has talks with Scott Penn and chief executive Tony Mestrov.

The proposal could see local heroes like Alex Volkanovski use Brookvale as a training ground. Picture: Steve Marcus/Getty Images

“We are building a solid partnership with the NRL in terms of all the things we did in Vegas,” Kloczko said.

“This could be one of them. The UFC has a mandate at the moment to look at opportunities for establishing and developing UFC performance institutes around the world.

“Currently there are three – one in Vegas, one in China and one in Mexico City.

“The one in China we actually have a partnership with the Chinese Olympic Committee, so athletes of all disciplines of their Olympic program go through the UFC performance institute and use it as a high performance centre.

“I think it is important for us to develop as a business here and we have a local physical presence and that could be having a UFC performance institute here in Australia.

“We are looking at those different options to see how we can play a role. The chat with Tony and Scott was basically around that – not only for a UFC performance institute but how can we collaborate on hosting bigger and better UFC events in Sydney as part of that.”

4 pines Park would be transformed under the proposal.

The UFC are on the lookout to establish a training base in Australia like they have done in just two other countries outside of the US. The Mexico City base was only opened last month which allows UFC fighters to train out of there. It also features a full-time academy that will start with 20 athletes and grow to 25 athletes in year three.

Their Shanghai base was opened in 2019.

“With a stadium and a roof, we can bring blockbuster fights to Sydney,” Kloczko said.

“It gives us greater possibilities and options. We have a great relationship with the NSW government in terms of bringing UFC events to Sydney.

“A stadium with a roof gives us more certainty and ability to bring bigger fights. I will be meeting the guys over at Manly in a couple of weeks time.

“We will put our head together and see what can be done. Obviously something like this takes a lot of investment and a lot of collaboration. We will see what we can dig up.”

The recent NRL trip to Vegas included time at the UFC facility. Picture: NRL Photos

The Sea Eagles are fed up waiting for state and government funding to give their home base a much needed facelift.

The UFC is just one option they are exploring. Manly and the UFC further entrenched their relationship after the Sea Eagles’ visit to Las Vegas to kickstart the NRL season. The Sea Eagles trained out of the UFC’s facilities.

Mestrov was keen to see where the meeting could take both parties.

“We are exploring opportunities with the UFC,” Mestrov said. “They are a worldwide company that are interested in discussing an opportunity with us and who wouldn’t want to have a discussion with the UFC?

“We’re going to explore the opportunity which includes the UFC being stationed here at 4 Pines Park.”

Originally published as The UFC and Manly are in talks to transform Brookvale into state-of-the-art facility