Unfortunately, when the UFC says “jump” most of the US MMA/mainstream sports media says “how high”. Still, kinda surprised at the absolute dearth of US media coverage on the financial woes of Station Casinos. While their fortunes aren’t directly tied to those of Zuffa, LLC there’s a likely “collateral impact” on the UFC’s parent company from any significant financial implosion at Station Casinos. In any case, it wouldn’t be *good* for the UFC.

Everyone remembers Dana White’s blast at Affliction awhile back where he suggested they wouldn’t be around after early 2009. Tom Atencio recently blasted back that the UFC would likely get caught up in the financial mess at Stations Casino. No one in the US has reported this, but Japanese fightsport magazine Kamipro has. They also had a lengthy interview with Affliction’s Tom Atencio to further clarify the comments. Here are the translated highlights:

—Atencio says that the Station Casino company is having financial problems. Las Vegas has been hit hard by the current economic downturn, so they’re hardly alone. They may suffer more since they have a higher level of debt than a number of other gaming companies. Atencio suggests that Station Casinos will be in bankruptcy by February of 2009. Obviously much of this is a crackback to Dana White’s insults, but he cites a number of factors that have been reported in the financial press.

–Atencio cites Station Casinos’ debt load of $5.3 billion dollars. This number was reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal, in a story that also reported that equity owners of Station were going to provide a cash infusion to help reduce the debt load. This could refer to the Fertitta family or Colony Capital Management or both:

Station Casinos’ owners are contemplating putting more of their own money into the company to weather the current economic storm.

The owners could loan the company between $450 million and $500 million, as well as conduct a debt exchange, to reduce the locals gaming company’s debt load and related interest payments, a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission said.

Station Casinos had $5.4 billion in long-term debt for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, paying $281.9 million in interest payments during that nine-month period.

The filing did not specify which of the owners — the Fertitta family or Los Angeles-based real estate firm Colony Capital — is infusing the locals gaming company with cash, saying that “entities affiliated with existing equity owners … or institutions or persons who are investors” will provide the loan.

–Station Casinos also suffered a downgrade of their credit worthiness to “speculative”, and specific talk within the financial community suggested that bankruptcy was nearly inevitable (emphasis added). This was also validated by the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Moody’s Investors Service on Wednesday downgraded Station Casinos’ probability of default rating from Caa2, or in poor standing, to Ca, or extremely speculative, a day after the gaming company announced it was seeking a private debt exchange.

Station Casinos announced Tuesday it hopes to issue a pair of 10 percent secured term loans due in 2016, pushing the earliest maturity date back four years.

The casino company’s corporate family rating remained at Caa2.

CreditSights, an independent credit analysis firm, said Wednesday in a investor’s report the “proposed exchanges will not forestall a bankruptcy” without the company seeking credit amendments from its banks.

Station Casinos “has its back against the wall as the company is likely to breach its financial covenants by the end of the year,” CreditSights analyst Christopher Snow wrote.

Snow wrote that negotiations with the banks started last month after the company unsuccessfully tried “to exchange some of its subordinate debt for equity,” during the summer.

Again, Station Casinos and Zuffa, LLC aren’t joined at the hip financially. Every indication is that Zuffa is in decent financial shape and it costs a *lot* less to promote fights than it does to build, staff and run a chain of casinos. On the other hand, the notion that the potential for an adverse financial spillover to Zuffa from Station’s woes doesn’t exist is utter ignorance.

The bigger story here, however, is how the MMA media and mainstream sports media are basically lapdogs for the UFC. To suggest that Zuffa is too big to suffer any financial adversity in the current economic climate is the height of naivety. Actually, the MMA/sports media isn’t even suggesting that as they’re ignoring the issue entirely. The fact that the only place that dares suggest that Zuffa/UFC isn’t some invulnerable monolith is the Japanese media is absurd. If the media was so completely complicit in hawking the “party line” of any other business or industry there would be an outcry about “objectivity” and “journalistic standards”. Perhaps the fact that the mainstream media doesn’t know or doesn’t really care about the fight game gives them the cover to bury their heads in the sand.

The MMA specific media, however, doesn’t have that excuse. They’re quick to report when other promotions have financial setbacks, real or perceived. They almost sound gleeful, for that matter. Someone told me a funny yet poignant joke recently that illustrates the myopia of so much of the online MMA media. He said that a famous online MMA writer who shall remain nameless is so bought and paid for by the UFC that Affliction could hold a show where they bring Bruce Lee back from the dead and match him up against Fedor Emelianenko in a five round classic. They could bring Kurt Cobain back from the dead, and a reunited Nirvana could provide the musical backdrop. At intermission, Tom Atencio could announce that he’d discovered the cure for cancer in his spare time.

And the aforementioned nameless MMA writer would report: “Affliction show disappoints, future in doubt.”

All of us here at SAVSCI are fight fans first and foremost, and we wish the UFC nothing but success just as we wish any other promoter that puts on a good show and takes care of their fighters the same good fortune. It is shameful, however, that so many so called journalists are happy to repeat anything that flies out of Dana White’s mouth as the absolute gospel and won’t even report anything negative that others might deign to say about him, the UFC or Zuffa.

The UFC is a great organization with great fighters. They’re not, however, exempt from standards of journalistic objectivity and particularly by those of us who specialize in fight sport coverage. The fact that the entire sports and MMA media have ignored this story is an embarrassment to all of us who take our jobs as fight sport journalists seriously.

Its hard enough to run a fight promotion successfully as it is. “MMA journalists” who are thinly veiled propaganda organs for the UFC make it that much more difficult for the competition that is essential to growth and promotion of the sport.

Tom Atencio interview @ Kamipro.com (in Japanese)