The UFC’s White House event next summer will not be accessible to fans, it appears, with TKO’s president and COO saying tickets “won’t be available”.
On 14 June, US president Donald Trump’s birthday, the UFC is set to stage a fight card at the White House, with details sporadically emerging over the last several months.
Advertisement
This week, Trump said he expected “eight or nine championship fights” at the event, and now Mark Shapiro – president and COO of the UFC’s ownership group, TKO – has addressed the card while speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference.
“What we’re trying to figure out right now is what we can and can’t do with that event, which is scheduled to take place on Flag Day,” said Shapiro. “Somebody’s birthday is that day as well. It’s going to be a spectacle. If we thought the Sphere [in Las Vegas] was a spectacle, this is a spectacle on steroids.
“We’re getting requests… I’m not even talking about people who want to buy tickets, because that won’t be available. There will be no ticket sales. It will hurt us financially, but what this will do for brand, reach, engagement, notoriety, press, earned media, advertiser interest… this is an absolute monster.
The UFC hosted a fight card at Las Vegas’s Sphere in 2024 (Getty Images)
“We’re excited about it. [UFC president] Dana White and [UFC CBO] Hunter Campbell are hard at work at putting together a sensational fight card.
Advertisement
“Don’t know yet what the president’s involvement will be, but judging from the draw day with the World Cup, clearly he’s willing to get involved with those sports that he loves and take place on US soil – not to mention the 250th birthday celebration of the United States.”
Shapiro was referencing Trump’s involvement at last week’s draw for the football World Cup, which will take place in the US, Canada and Mexico in summer 2026. At the draw, football governing body Fifa controversially awarded Trump a peace prize.
“It’s going to be gangbuster,” Shapiro continued, “and we’re just trying to understand structurally how we can do it and set it up, what we’ve got to build in and replace the soil and the sod, and what we can sell from an advertiser standpoint.
US president Donald Trump (left) was awarded a peace prize by Fifa last week (IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect)
“The only thing we do know at this point is: it is happening, and there won’t be ticket sales.”
Advertisement
Trump suggested this week that the fight card will take place on the North Lawn, although White previously suggested that it will play out on the South Lawn.
Trump also said: “I think the arena’s gonna be 5,000 or 6,000 seats […] and 100,000 people in the back, where they’re putting up eight or 10 very big screens.”
