Dana White has opened up about the upcoming Riyadh Season Noche UFC (as UFC 306 has been branded), revealing the price tag for the event, number of fights, and a surprising bit of news about seating… or lack thereof.
“We’re deep into it,” White said of planning the show at the MSG Sphere, speaking on The Pat McAfee Show recently.
Asked about the seating configuration at The Sphere, which is somewhat different from other venues, White explained that “you’re going to have the people that are in the seats, the people that are in the suites, and then the bottom level, that will watch the whole thing standing room only. And then there will be bleachers, and seats…”
Standing room only may be a novelty for a UFC event, but it’s not unheard of in sports. NHL hockey games and any number of other sports have occasionally sold standing room only tickets at traditional, seated venues. The concept is much more familiar, of course, to fans of live music.
The Sphere has a seating capacity of 18,500, which bumps up to 20,000 with standing room factored in, with some variance depending on stage configuration and other factors. Utilizing 160,000 square feet of LED display canvas at 16K, it offers a rather unique visual experience- and it’s not cheap to put on a show there.
“I’m already $17 million dollars into this thing, and we’re not anywhere near September yet,” revealed White, who believes this year’s Noche UFC will be the greatest live sporting event in the history of combat sports, if not sports period. “Nobody else is going to go in and spend- lets say U2 spends, I don’t know, I’m just throwing this out there, I don’t know what they spend, let’s say they spend $30 million dollars. That’s across 40 nights. I’m going in one night, one time, that’s it. Never again.”
White confirmed that, as is the norm for UFC events, there would be no musical performances. “Oh hell no. I don’t do that stuff.” He also revealed a rather surprising number of fights for the card: “We’re going to do ten.”
The event will feature the traditional main and co-main event, which may put to bed rumors of three or more title fights being stacked onto UFC 306/Riyadh Season Noche UFC. “There’ll be a main, a co-main, and obviously, this card will be very Mexican-heavy.”
The event is named in honor of and takes place on Mexican Independence Day, September 14.
