UFC White House is going to be the biggest event in the history of the sport. However, this will come at a high cost to the organisers.
UFC has been proud of what they’re able to achieve in the combat sports. They are the ones setting the standards and pushing the boundaries. Their innovation has paid off throughout their history. They started building a new arena from the ground up, and now it has become a modern-day entertainment powerhouse.
The UFC started performing in front of a very small number of people, and now they will headline an event that will be broadcast to millions. So, they’ve come a long way. Despite all that, the UFC White House show would surely bring out some negatives.
According to some reports, the UFC will spend around $60 million on this White House event. In this event, they will incur losses of over $30 million for their ambitious event at White House.
TKO Group Holdings’ president and COO Mark Shapiro revealed this. “At the moment, the UFC event at the White House is slated to cost upwards of $60 million.”
“I think by the time all is said and done with the event, and what we pay the fighters and the fan fest that we’re going to have, that could move north. It’s definitely not moving south. It could move north. Bottom line, it’s still a moving target.”
“We are working to determine, on a parallel track, a package of inventory in and around the weekend of events we can monetize, primarily with corporate partners.”
“Players that will offset half of the spend. Even if that $60 [million] goes up or rides up on us, we believe we can offset half of the spend. Today, we see it as $60 [million], offsetting $30 [million]. Now, I would mention we have several current and prospective partners that are pursuing multi-year partnerships with TKO assets that likely will be inclusive of the White House event. We have a lot of current and prospective partners that would like to be involved and inquiring about inventory as part of their greater partnership deals they either already have or are negotiating with us for the future.”
Mark Shapiro is expecting to put on a great show of mixed martial arts. He is also excited about playing a part in America’s 250th birthday.
He thinks that the event is a high risk high reward vision that will be etched in the history books.
He added, “But 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. 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+.”
