The pandemic has forced nearly every business that relies upon having multiple people in a single location to rethink their models in a way that would allow them to continue operating with as little contact between people as possible. But what if your business is premised upon thousands of people gathering together in one location to watch an event, like sports leagues?
In an effort to try and continue on with their respective seasons, leagues have come up with some creative ideas, and none more creative, or at least unique, than the UFC. The mixed martial arts organization and its president, Dana White, announced plans for a private island that would house fighters and host fights, which sounds like the premise of several late-80’s and early-90’s movies that became cable stables; nevertheless, the plans progressed to the point that UFC filed to trademark the name “Fight Island”, which, again, is spiritually a Jean Claude van Damme film, and also a bit uninspired as names go.
Now, plenty of businesses have probably come upon the moment when they realized they missed a trick and stumbled upon the perfect name too late to go back and change it, but none of those businesses had a popular cable news show to point out that they missed a layup, to mix sports metaphors.
When the news of “Fight Island” broke, “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” made what is, in hindsight, the obvious suggestion: why didn’t White and the UFC call it UFSEA? It was a suggestion that was probably made in jest, but given Oliver’s penchant for getting a response from the subjects he probes, there shouldn’t have been too much surprise when UFC filed a trademark application for UFSEA.
Oliver also pointed out that, name aside, the idea of a private island for hosting fights might not actually be a very good idea, but it’s never been said that those who choose getting hit in the head as a vocation make the soundest decisions. As it stands, UFC is still calling it “Fight Island”, and the locale will finally earn its moniker when said fights commence on July 11th.
Still, it’s rare to see the perfect name tossed out and them picked up by the company in question (even if it’s still not using it.) Most businesses persist with their terrible names for a period to avoid the embarrassment of admitting to a mistake so quickly, although, depending on the health and testing results to come from “Fight Island”, the name might only be the second-biggest mistake.
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