The UFC, or the Ultimate Fighting Championship is an organization worth billions of dollars, according to the man who runs it, but it still cost Moncton $150,000 to bring a UFC event to the city.

Council voted in favour of the subsidy on Monday night, but some are fighting it, even though it will be only one of three UFC events in Canada this year. Toronto and Calgary are the others.

With the cameras, comes cash, and lots of it for the host city.

“We know that the UFC themselves have booked 1,000 hotel nights in our community, so basically they're bringing in 200 people for five nights on the average,” said Moncton councillor Greg Turner. “That's just UFC themselves, that's not the public that are coming, that's not the customers.”

To get them here city council approved giving a $150,000 dollar subsidy to the multi-billion dollar organization.

“This is a great centre, so why not show it off,” Julie Leblanc said of the new Avenir Centre. “Sometimes it may take spending a few dollars to make a few dollars.”

Of the $150,000, $100,000 is coming from the city. The other $50,000 is coming from a committee called Events Moncton.

SMG, the company that manages the Avenir Centre is also kicking in another $100,000.

“It's just the bid for you to get the event in your town,” said SMG general manager Nick Deluco. “It’s no different than the Scotty's, the Brier, or a Skate Canada event. Any of those events there's a bid fee to get it to your city.”

Coun. Paul Pellerin wonders why the city is on the hook for anything when it comes to the Avenir Centre.

“The official agreement with SMG, which we told the taxpayers, was there would be no involvement in any events from the City of Moncton,” Pellerin said.

That's part of the reason Pellerin voted against the payment -- one of two councillors to do so.

“Every taxpayers dollar has to be justified and I don't feel that the majority right now are saying that $150,000 going for this particular event is a good investment, considering we have other issues we need to address,” Pellerin said.

The councillors who approved of the payment say it's a reflection of how business is done. In this case, it landed the city an event they say was worth fighting for.

Deluco says there was competition from other cities for this U.F.C. card, and, had the city not offered this subsidy, the event and the $3 to $4 million dollars it's expected to inject into the economy would have gone elsewhere.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Jonathan MacInnis.