Lorenzo Fertitta's Dedication to MMA

Good points about the comittment to MMA, but as a semi-authority on the Nevada gaming industry I wouldn’t read too much in to it in terms of it being a demotion for Dana. Remember that Frank and Lorenzo were the largest shareholders of Stations Casinos and they’re in the process of taking the company private. That means they’ll essentially own the whole thing, plus won’t have to report to an external board or the SEC. This also means that I can virtually guarantee you that Lorenzo will still be cashing checks from the Stations Casinos corporate entity—after all, its his brother that’ll be signing them (actually, probably a proxy for his brother but that’s neither here nor there).

It wouldn’t surprise me if between whatever Zuffa is paying him and whatever he’ll still be collecting as a ‘consultant’ or whatever for Stations that he ends up making more that he did. Even if he doesn’t, that $2 billion net worth means that he could eat a cut in pay if he had to.

Here’s something else to consider—while Lorenzo may or may not be an expert on getting TV deals, etc, he is an expert on mergers and acquisitions which allowed the Stations casino group to grow faster in the LV locals market. They’d wait until some moron mismanaged his casino (eg: the Texas Casino, now Texas Station) and swoop in and buy it below market value. This could mean that it makes a purchase of smaller MMA groups a more likely scenario, or even that he’s been brought in to sell Zuffa to a bigger media group.

My take, however, is that the guy has built a business from a dump on west Sahara called the ‘Bingo Palace’ to dominating the lucrative locals market and wants to do something different. Not that running the UFC is not a challenge, but after dealing with the constant headaches of the casino industry it is more of a ‘labor of love’. Word has been even before the Fertittas purchased the UFC that Frank was the guy who had more of an intrinsic love for the gaming industry.

I’m also of the opinion that this allows Zuffa to delegate the duties of running a billion dollar company to two people now, each working from their strength. Lorenzo will likely handle more of the duties typical of a ‘legit’ corporate exec while Dana will handle more of the things like media relations, directly overseeing the fighters and how the events are run, etc.