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GAREB SHAMUS RESIGNS FROM IFL; MORE CHANGES
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
- by Damon Martin & Ken Pishna - MMAWeekly.com
The
International Fight League announced on Tuesday the resignation of
co-founder Gareb Shamus, who also served as chairman and chief
executive officer. His replacement will be Jay Larkin, who recently
joined the IFL as president and chief operating officer.
Shamus
started the IFL along with current commissioner Kurt Otto in 2005. His
resignation came suddenly after more than two years of service with the
organization.
Working as the head of Wizard World
Entertainment, Shamus helped build the IFL from the ground up and
although he has resigned his position, he will remain a consultant for
the organization.
His replacement, Larkin, worked with Showtime
for many years helping to develop live programming and worked
extensively to book and grow the company’s boxing coverage through the
years.
“Taking a sports and entertainment entity from an idea to
an established brand in 14 months is nothing short of amazing. Gareb
should be commended for his vision and leadership during that period,”
Larkin said in a statement.
Many major changes have shaken up
the IFL lately including the releases of prominent coaches such as
Frank Shamrock, Maurice Smith, and Don Frye; and now the resignation of
Shamus. But there are many more changes on the way according to
comments made by Larkin in Wednesday’s third quarter earnings
conference call.
“There are a number of things we need to do to
improve our cash flow and enhance the investment value in the IFL,”
said the new CEO. “We will be making changes to the league in
reorganizing our events to reduce costs, but also improve them as well.
“Rather
than a New York team versus a Houston team versus a Los Angeles team,
which was a fabrication, quite honestly … we’re going to go to the
reality of it. The reality is that all these fighters fight with
different disciplines. They all have different techniques and that’s
really where the true competition is going to come from is all these
different disciplines fighting each other.”
Larkin also alluded
to the possibility that their current situation regarding television is
not set in stone saying, “We’re in the process of fine-tuning our
television relationships and in a few days, hope to announce our
partner for our December event.”
Up until Wednesday, most
assumptions were that the Dec. 29 IFL World Grand Prix Finals would air
on MyNetwork TV, but Larkin’s comments definitely left that open to
question.
“We are not exclusive to the Fox consortium of MyNetwork and FSN. We are talking to several other carriers right now.”
A primary concern to him has been a common complaint among MMA fans; the fights are dated by the time they air on television.
“In
this Internet age results of fights are known immediately. There is no
compelling reason to watch a taped sports show,” said Larkin. “The only
way to offset that is to go live. Alternatively, when we can’t do live
TV, we will integrate our sponsors better into the shows. We hope to
create the opportunity for advertiser supported Internet webcasting.”
He also indicated that the presentation of the events is going to change.
“We
need to make significant cosmetic changes. You’ll see this starting in
December. The shows will be hotter, more theatrical, more entertaining,
but always maintaining the sports integrity. This is a sporting event
and will be treated as such.”
One thing he indicated that won’t
change, at least not in the same manner as the resignation of Shamus,
is the presence of Kurt Otto, the IFL’s commissioner.
“He is
certainly on board,” Larkin stated. “His role as the commissioner
remains the same, if not enhanced. I am going to find myself relying on
him more and more. I am certainly new to the MMA world and Kurt is an
expert when it comes to the competition and the matchmaking.”
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| POSTED BY: MMA_Fan on 12/28/2007 09:58:21 |
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I'm still not a big fan of the team concept in MMA.
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Die Hard MMA Fan!!
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| POSTED BY: mma411 on 01/05/2008 10:16:02 |
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I like the team concept, it just needs to be fine tuned. Hopefully they will do that. Heres my thoughts on what would make it better.
1. Go Live.
2. Concentrate on having every state get involved with a team before going everywhereelse on the globe. They need to establish in one country at a time. its like they are taking anyone from anywhere and jumping all over the place if one country is more intereseted than the other.
3. by doing number 2 they will appeal to the US Sports market who are use to the team concept when they can talk trash about the other guys team. Its all about the Rivalrys...and they have none.
well thats just a few ways I would change it. I have more but, who would listen?
Sometimes I feel like starting my own League just so I could show how its done, but I only make E-5 Salary in the military, and my wife gets that....but she lets me watch MMA! and for that I love her.
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