As excited as we are to see the UFC take it’s show to the White House lawn, there was one question that had come to mind as Dana White discussed the exploding cost of the event: how much of this are taxpayers going to be paying for?
The UFC may not have pioneered the art of getting local governments to pay for events, but they sure have perfected it. These days, the promotion rarely rolls out the cage in any state or country that isn’t quietly or not-so-quietly paying a six to eight figure site fee to draw them there. So would TKO be looking to suck a massive site fee out of the U.S. government to throw UFC White House?
“No, we’re eating the whole thing,” White told Sports Business Journal. “So yeah, it’s going to be a historic one-of-one fight, and just like I talked about with the Sphere, we’re going to make the Sphere look like f–king ash tray money.”
UFC 306 at The Sphere was the most expensive event the UFC has ever held, costing over $20 million. That’s ten times the normal cost of production for the promotion. Some of that pricetag had to do with generating massive visuals for The Sphere’s screens, and some had to do with creating a new type of lighting rig that wouldn’t block out those screens.
In the case of UFC White House, Dana says they’re once again creating a unique lighting rig to maximize the wow factor of the location.
“Just the whole setup, the lighting grid,” he said when asked why it would be so expensive. “I don’t want a traditional lighting grid, I don’t want to see screens, I don’t want to see lights. The only thing I want to see is the White House in the backdrop and the Washington Monument on the other side.”
There’s also tons of other factors to consider, like having to spend nearly a million dollars to replace the lawn after they’re done. And according to White, all that is coming directly out of the UFC’s pockets, not the pockets of John Q. Taxpayer. Maybe that’s why they’re jamming so many damn ads into the events now.
