Whatever your expectations for the UFC White House event next June, don’t bother saving your pennies to attend the show live: tickets will not be sold.
That’s per Mark Shapiro, President and COO of TKO Group, parent company of the UFC. Shapiro revealed the latest development in the controversial card, which will take place on the White House grounds, during the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York City on Tuesday.
In a clip of Shapiro’s comments at the event circulating on social media, the TKO Group exec states that “We’re discussing a spectacle. If we thought The Sphere [UFC 306] was a spectacle, this is a spectacle on steroids. We’re getting requests, I’m not even talking about people wanting to by tickets, because that won’t be available – there will be no ticket sales; that will hurt us financially. But what this will do for brand, reach, engagement, notoriety, press, earned media, advertiser interest, this is an absolute monster. We’re excited about it.”
After stating that Dana White and Hunter Campbell were “hard at work” building a “sensational fight card” for the event, Shapiro reiterated that tickets will not be open to the public.
“The only thing we do know at this point is that it is happening, and there won’t be ticket sales.”
Dana White, UFC President and CEO, had previously suggested that fewer than 5,000 tickets would be available for the show, which will involve setting up the octagon on the White House lawn, and repairing the sod afterwards. White had also floated the idea of not selling tickets to the event in the past, in part due to the logistics of security clearances at the nation’s capital.
“I don’t even know how many people can get in, not to mention the fact that the Secret Service isn’t going to let a lot of people come to this. Everybody’s going to have background checks,” White told podcaster Kyle Forgeard back in July.
Originally planned for July 4, the UFC White House card is now set to take place on June 14, 2026 on the South Lawn of the White House grounds.
