UFC Vice President Of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner has been talking about the promotion’s expansion of their UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas this week.
Dana White had revealed last year that they were planning to renovate and expand the facility, and with work currently ongoing on that he recently gave an update to reveal how much it’s going to cost.
“I think you can see a lot of things at the Apex after the expansion,” White said at the UFC 311 post-fight press conference. “The Apex is gonna be bad— when it’s done. It’s like a $26 to $30 million expansion. So, it’s going to be very nice.”
Now Ratner has given some more details about how the current 500-seater arena will be expanded in the coming months.
“It’s going to be enlarged,” Ratner told MMAJunkie Radio. “It still won’t hold a lot of people. They’ll have more food there. It’ll probably be seating about 1,000 is what I’ve heard. They’ll make some better parking in the back. Visually, it’s going to be pretty much the same. It’s like a big TV studio.
“What’s amazing is that other sports like using it. The NFL, for the Super Bowl, had offices there the whole time. It’s really a broadcast center. It’s still going to be more for the Contender (Series) types and the Apex shows and I just don’t think it’ll be a lot different than it is now, but bigger.”
Despite the building work, the Apex arena is still currently being used for upcoming events headlined by the likes of Jared Cannonier vs. Gregory Rodrigues, Brandon Royval vs. Manel Kape and Marvin Vettori vs. Roman Dolidze in February and March, with and another show planned for April too.