Even without a live audience, the show must still go on

IN a normal year, One Championship stages dozens of live mixed martial events, with the Singapore-based sports media giant bringing its talented athletes - many of them world champions in their respective weight classes - to compete in cities all around the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic put paid to all those plans, of course. As the virus swept through the world from February, One Championship's last scheduled show that month - on Feb 28 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium - was held behind closed doors.

Little did anyone expect that it would be more than seven months later until the Asian martial arts organisation could organise another show in its home city.

It pulled off some events in Bangkok in July and August, but the fighters involved were all Thailand-based due to border closures and Covid-19 restrictions.

On Oct 9, there was cause for some celebration as One Championship successfully staged its first international show at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Kallang - the first major sports event in the Lion City since the end of March.

Expectedly, there were no fans in attendance at the event titled "Reign of Dynasties", with no more than 50 people present at any one time inside the 12,000-seat venue. Only athletes, officials and essential crew were allowed on site.

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Still, the success of that show is a small but significant step towards resuming live sports events here. The Singapore Premier League restarts this weekend, and One Championship is set to hold another live show at the Indoor Stadium on Oct 30.

With business slowly getting back to some form of normalcy, One Championship chairman and CEO Chatri Sityodtong spoke to the media in a global conference call recently. This is an edited excerpt of the interview.

What do you think One Championship's return means for Singapore?

We were down from March to May, and came back for our first live event in June in China, and then we had shows in Thailand after that. With Singapore being our first big international event again, it's super exciting.

Covid-19 has changed the sports industry in many ways. The first one is that content has always been king, but now producing content available for digital is paramount.

It has always been part of our strategy. But if you think about a large digital presence and a large social media presence, having a big content factory that's able to have a tremendous output of number of videos or content stacks is very important.

Covid-19 has been a blessing in disguise. It forced many companies around the world to rethink their priorities and simplify their business models, and I believe the strongest companies will thrive in this environment.

Our Singapore event took place in an empty stadium, which is a very different dynamic. But I think, to the audience at home, it's just as exciting and that's the most important thing to us.

Of course, we would love to have a full stadium but in this environment, I foresee empty stadiums probably for the next 12 months around the world, at least.

Talk about the health protocols in place for the Singapore shows.

There are pre-flight tests, tests when the athletes and crew arrive, and more tests throughout the week. We created a bubble with the hotel and transportation from the airport.

We have security on every floor of the hotel, so that protocols are maintained and athletes remain in their rooms at all times. After the event, we do more testing before they are sent home.

How many events will One Championship hold for the rest of this year?

Everything is in the works, including the 2021 calendar which we are working on right now. I'm sorry to sound so coy, but we have multiple things that are at play - multiple countries, multiple governments.

The reality is every country in Asia right now is going through its own cycle. Some have had a significant drop in Covid-19 cases, some have seen a spike, borders remain mostly closed across the entire continent. Countries are not allowing tourism and international travel to happen.

These are tricky times, but I'm grateful for the support the Singapore government has given to One Championship, not only as a partner but really extending itself to helping us.

In many ways, we are the international pilot test. If we are successful, then we will have the blueprint for other music and entertainment events to restart, in terms of bringing international events back to Singapore.

We will have another live event on Oct 30 (also in Singapore at the Indoor Stadium, and behind closed doors), and we will begin production of (reality TV show) The Apprentice on Oct 26 (in Singapore).

Before the pandemic, there were plans to have a first live event in the United States. Is that plan still on the table?

If it weren't for the pandemic, we would have already had our first event in the US by now and it's unfortunate, so we have to regroup.

The US is going through its own strange times with Covid-19, and also the whole political situation. We will take our time. I don't want to commit to a date of when we will go to the US, but it's definitely still part of our plans. For now, I don't have enough visibility to say when.