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The UFC is expected to spend a ton of money on the upcoming UFC White House event.
On June 14th, the UFC will hold an event on the South Lawn of the White House.
The event will be extremely expensive, and the UFC expects to lose a ton of money running it.
“Losing money is never fun. I did that for quite a few years in the early days, but you have to jump on an opportunity like this, no matter what it costs you,” says White.
Mark Shapiro, the president and COO of TKO, told Wall Street analysts in February that the event will cost the company “upwards of $60 million,” and that it “could move north.” TKO expects to lose about $30 million on UFC Freedom 250, even after securing high-profile sponsorship deals from the likes of Ram Trucks, Crypto.com and Monster Energy.
Despite expecting big losses, TKO executive Mark Shapiro believes the expense will be worth it for the UFC.
“I want to be clear about something: We will not profit from the White House event independently. We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary,” Shapiro said. “This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media.”
“This is about sampling, new fans, casual viewers, a spectacle on a stage that will ultimately expand our audience, our viewership and our success on Paramount+,” he added. “We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall, and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe.”
Dana White explained why the White House event will be so costly.
“Well, we’re building the claw itself that was built in Belgium, shipped to Philly, built and tested, then put on trucks and shipped to DC, stored it in a warehouse until we started building it”
“Then you’ve got the cost of building an arena on the South Lawn of the White House. Then you talk about all the things we’re doing at the Ellipse. The Zac Brown Band is playing over there”
“We’re doing a concert, more television. I mean, just the bathroom setups on the South Lawn of the White House are going to be like the bathrooms at the Bellagio”
“So, as you look at all the different details that go into this, it’s not cheap”
Dana White breaks down the $60,000,000 cost of UFC at the White House
“Well, we're building the claw itself that was built in Belgium, shipped to Philly, built and tested, then put on trucks and shipped to DC, stored it in a warehouse until we started building it”
“Then you've… pic.twitter.com/Y30kTl2oDh
— dank (@cptdankkk) June 6, 2026