Is the UFC getting itself into another Sphere-sized headache with their big White House card expected to go down in June 2026?
Noche UFC 2 aka UFC 306 aka the UFC Sphere card is the highest grossing UFC event
of all time, but it’s also the most expensive card the promotion ever held. Reports have the event, held at the state-of-the-art Sphere in Las Vegas, at over $20 million dollars. That’s in comparison to the typical $2 million that most numbered UFC events cost to produce.
And while UFC CEO Dana White may not be ready to share the names of fighters he hopes will fight on the White House card, he is knee deep in logistics for the event which is set to go down on the South Lawn with a simulcast playing on screens to tens of thousands in President’s Park.
“You know what I’m battling right now is the budget for the White House card,” White told Jim Rome. “The budget is ugly. So we’re dealing with the budget right now.”
White has shared mock-ups for how the event will look and it’s definitely going to take a lot more muscle than rolling out of bed and showing up at the UFC Apex. White estimates that the company will have to pay somewhere in the realm of $700,000 just to replace the lawn once the event is over. Who knows how much the massive dome-like lighting rig will cost, but it’s undoubtedly several million dollars if not an eight figure sum.
And while the UFC Sphere made its money back with over 16,000 fans paying $22 million at the gate, White has said the White House event will have less than 5000 seats, many of those going to foreign dignitaries and other ultra VIPs. Normally the UFC would have no problem charging $5000+ per ticket to make their money back, but that might be outside their control.
As usual, White was coy regarding who would fight on the card even as those close to Donald Trump are making massive promises on what to expect.
“I won’t even start talking about guys fighting until February,” White reiterated. “I mean, we’re still — I’m in the War Room right now, the board is still packed with tons of great fights that have to play out until we have to start talking about the White House card.”
It’s the eternal struggle for today’s UFC. They certainly have the roster and the profit margins to stack the White House card with several legendary fighters like Jon Jones and Conor McGregor. But their TKO overlords made it clear in a recent earnings call that value extraction is the name of the game, and that translates to making as much as possible with the least amount of expenditures as possible.
No wonder White is sweating the budget even as his company is set to hold what will undoubtedly become the new biggest event in the history of the UFC.
