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The UFC will be holding a historic event at the White House in Washington DC on Sunday, June 14.
Not much is known about the event at this time, but UFC CEO Dana White says the amount of money being spent on the event makes the UFC Sphere card costs seem like “chump change.”
"There's a laundry list of challenges," White told TNT Fight Sports (transcript via Farah Hannoun of MMA Junkie). "First of all, the South Lawn slopes like this (down). Let's start there. There's only a certain amount of people you can get in. Secret Service, I've been to the White House a million times, and I get a lot of leeway at the White House. Everybody knows I'm not there to hurt anybody.
"So, when we bring in 4,500 people that night, plus all the production staff and everybody that has to be a part of the event, this is going to be – there's two things. What the Sphere cost is like chump change that you throw on your ashtray compared to what this is going to cost, No. 1. No. 2, logistically pulling this off is insane."
There have been plenty of rumored fights and fighters for the card, but nothing has been made official at this time.
Fans tuning into the event will also see some production changes when the Octagon action takes place at the White House.
"Our normal lighting rig, anywhere we go in the world, the normal lighting rig, I want nothing to do with that," White said. "I don't want to see it. We have screens; I don't want to see screens. The only thing I want to see is the White House. And then when the fight goes the other way, the Washington Monument. That’s it. Those are the only two things I want to see. I don't want to see a screen, a lighting grid, any of that stuff. So we had to build a special (rig), which is still being built.
“Craig Borsari, my head of production, he has these renderings – this is how detailed we are on this stuff. He has a rendering of the actual trees that are on the South Lawn. Everything is is laid out. We’ll know where the sun is. When the video plays, it’ll show us where the sun is every thirty minutes. The list goes on and on. The team that we have, leading up to the White House, we’ll know the weather weeks in advance. ... It makes the Sphere look like finger painting."
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