Madison Square Garden will have to wait, at least for now.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not include mixed martial arts in the budget he presented to state legislators on Feb. 1. However, State Assemblyman Dean Murray, who spoke in favor of sanctioning the sport when the UFC held a press conference at the historic arena on Jan. 13, said its exclusion may not be as great an obstacle as it would seem.
“Would we have preferred it being in there? Sure. What happens is this is the initial salvo by the governor, putting out his expectations,” said Murray. “And we go back, we hold the budget hearings and that’s when we end up having revenue enhancers. That’s when it gets introduced and negotiated into what could be the final budget. I’m still thinking this might be worked into the final budget that we end up passing.”
According to Murray, the final budget is supposed to pass April 1. If that deadline is not met, it should be “within the next few months.”
Read Tristen Critchfield's full story at Sherdog
The Coalition to Legalize MMA in NY has had the pleasure of working with Assemblyman Murray on this issue. Take some time to listen to the audio of our round table meeting two weeks ago at which Assemblyman Murray participated.
http://nymmanow.blogspot.com/2011/02/grassroots-grow-around-old-weeds-on.html
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