KSW sports director explains move of KSW 99 event from Ostrava to Gliwice

KSW sports director Wojslaw Rysiewski explained the reason for moving the KSW 99 event from Ostrava to Gliwice.

In recent days, news has been cooing that the KSW 99 event will not take place in Ostrava. The event has been moved to Poland. KSW 99 gala will take place on October 19 in a small hall in Gliwice.

Wojslaw Rysiewski, KSW federation sporting director, was a guest on the Octagon Live program, where he extensively explained why the decision was made to change the location of the gala. One of the main reasons was, of course, ticket sales for the event. It was not going as expected at the KSW federation office.

– We can’t quite say with any 100% accuracy what happened. Of course, the tickets didn’t sell as we wanted them to, and that’s the main reason. However, I have good reason to believe that it had to do with what the atmosphere was like in and around Ostrava. I can empathize with the situations of people who have somehow lost their possessions, or had their belongings affected, that an over-the-top sporting event is not a priority for them now.

Sports director on KSW 99 location change

Wojslaw Rysiewski thought back to last year’s gala in Třinec. This Czech city is located not far from Ostrava, where the KSW 99 gala was to take place. Then, with a similar sporting fight card, it managed to sell, as much as 90% of the tickets.

– We did a gala last year on a similar date in Třinec, which is probably 20 kilometers away from Ostrava, and the gala sold very well. It was practically 90 percent sold out. Fight card I think we had quite similar.

KSW’s sporting director confirmed that for the Ostrava event, for the first time in a long time, the federation invested in banners, posters and on-screen advertising. Even despite making additional transfer moves and hiring Czech influencer Hanka Gelnarova and local hero Jan Siroki, ticket sales have not taken off.

– In addition, after all, we hired for this gala both a Czech influencer and a strong local fighter in the person of Jan Siroki. We did what we haven’t done in a long time, we covered the whole of Ostrava with outdoor. There were posters, bus stops, and all possible promotional elements fired up, and nothing worked. Compared to the gala the year before, it was a bit inconceivable to us, and it seems that the only logical explanation is that this interest was not generated because of what happened there in mid-September.