TORONTO - The UFC continues to throw big numbers around when it comes to its April show in Toronto.

UFC 129, slated for April 30 at the Rogers Centre, has already produced record UFC attendance (55,000) and gate ($11 million) figures, as well as the mark for a single-day event gate for the domed stadium itself.

On Tuesday, UFC president Dana White came up with an even bigger number.

"We figured out -- and this is being very, very conservative -- it'll be a $40-million impact on the city of Toronto because the UFC is coming," he told a media conference call.

"Not to mention the fact that just the ticket tax alone will be $1.5 million."

Tom Wright, the UFC's director of Canadian operations, said the Ontario Athletic Commission will also benefit to the tune of five per cent of the gross ticket sales. That's $550,000, working on the gate figure of $11 million.

The UFC is planning a Fan Expo in conjunction with the Toronto show.

The numbers should make New York state think twice, White suggested. The Empire State remains the last major U.S. holdout in sanctioning the sport.

The UFC has already commissioned a study on the economic effects of staging shows in New York and Buffalo, citing the benefits to everything from part-time jobs to hotel occupancy.

White admitted to some trepidation in originally putting 42,000 tickets on sale in Toronto, despite the fact that Canada has always been a fertile market and UFC 124 in Montreal last December set the previous UFC attendance record of 23,000 plus.

His concerns were quickly erased.

The original block of 42,000 sold out in the first day of a pre-sale to members of the UFC Fight Club and the show sold out at 55,000 within minutes of going on sale to the general public.

"I'm absolutely blown away by the response," White said.

"I'm normally pretty cocky about this stuff. I believe in it, I believe not only in the brand but the sport and the fighters," he added. "But when you do your first arena, the question always is 'OK, we sold 23,000 tickets but how many people more than that were really looking for tickets?'

"Now I'm sitting here with 55,000 sold out and I'm still thinking the same thing. How many more could we have done in a bigger stadium? How many more people were really looking for tickets? It's crazy."

Toronto show 'a big milestone' for UFC

Cowboys Stadium in suburban Dallas, with a capacity of more than 80,000, is attractive. But White says he hears concerns about the availability of hotel rooms in the area.

"The thing about doing it in Toronto, Toronto's this huge hip city with tons of nice hotels, lots of things to do as far as nightlife goes -- shopping and clubs and restaurants, etc. This was the perfect place for us to kick it off and try a stadium."

White called the Toronto show "a big milestone for us" but was still cautious about future mega-shows. It takes the right show, city and venue to make a stadium event work, he said.

"I don't think we could do 55,000 seats all the time. But who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. I'm just being conservative."

White does envision more growth.

"We want to keep adding shows ... We're again taking it to the next level," he said. "Everything's growing and everything getting bigger, man. We're going to be putting on more fights in more places.

"There might be a day -- I can't believe I'm going to say this -- but there's going to be a day when we'll be putting on a show in Las Vegas and there'll be a fight happening in Australia at the same time. That's really where we're headed."

Wright said the next Vancouver show, expected for June, will be at the Rogers Arena but B.C. Place is a possibility down the road. He expects to confirm the date for the next B.C. show in the next three to four weeks.

The UFC does not yet have a geographical breakdown on ticket sales for the Toronto event. But Wright said historically the sales for Canadian events have been 75 per cent to Canadians.

NOTES: White said the first international version of "The Ultimate Fighter" will happen this year, probably in the Philippines ... The UFC is currently available in half a billion homes worldwide and working on TV deals to double that, according to White. "Should be done in the next couple of months," he said. ... White says the winner of the B.J. Penn-Jon Fitch main event at UFC 127 later this month will be the No. 1 contender in the welterweight division. ... Penn has held titles at both welterweight and lightweight but says he would rather fight at 170 pounds than cut weight to make 155.