TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro warned investors during an earnings call on Wednesday that the company is expecting to potentially lose $30 million on UFC’s June event at the White House.
“I want to be clear about something: We will not profit from the White House event independently. We will not be making money on America’s 250th anniversary,” Shapiro said. “This is an investment for the long term. This is about earned media.”
“This is about sampling new fans, casual viewers, a spectacle on a stage that will ultimately expand our audience, our viewership and our success on Paramount+,” Shapiro continued. “We see this once-in-a-lifetime stage as a strategic investment to drive subscriber acquisition at Paramount+, massive audience sampling for the UFC overall and Super Bowl-like earned media across the globe.”
The event, which is currently scheduled to occur on June 14 in honor of America’s 250th anniversary this year, is set to be held on the White House’s South Lawn. During his earnings remarks, Shapiro noted that the “once-in-a-lifetime” event is estimated to cost “upwards of $60 million.” The TKO president also added that the event’s costs could increase.
“I think by the time we get done, all is said and done with the event, and with what we pay the fighters and the fan fest we’re gonna have, that could move north,” he warned. “It’s definitely not moving south.”
According to Shapiro, TKO is in discussions with other partners and brands that could help shoulder some of the event’s hefty price. However, the executive also noted that he believes said partnerships would likely only take care of about half of the costs. If its price does end up sitting at $60 million, that means TKO is expecting to lose $30 million on the event right now. If its price increases, so too could the company’s losses.
Despite that, Shapiro communicated confidence in the long-term value of the White House event. “We’ll be the first one and maybe the only one ever on the South Lawn of the White House,” he said. “I can’t tell you that we have any events coming up at the Kremlin, but we will definitely be looking for more one-time events.”
In August, UFC CEO Dana White spoke about the event, revealing that President Trump specifically requested that his daughter Ivanka be heavily involved in the planning of it. UFC, meanwhile, is currently in the first year of its seven-year, $7.7 billion deal with Paramount, which has made Paramount+ the exclusive U.S. streaming home for all UFC programming.
