UFC president Dana White stated the upcoming White Home occasion is the most costly and logistically advanced venture within the firm’s historical past, making the Sphere card “seem like a finger portray” compared.
In an interview with TNT Sports activities, White outlined the quite a few challenges dealing with the manufacturing staff in preparation for the occasion, which can be held on the South Garden on June 14, 2026. Safety protocols, terrain points, and customized manufacturing setups will push the associated fee far past the $20 million spent on UFC 306 on the Las Vegas Sphere.
The sphere was kid’s play: Dana White reveals White Home UFC’s Secret Service and terrain challenges
“The price of Sphere is like change within the ashtray in comparison with what this prices,” White stated. “And logically, when you do that, the sphere will seem like finger paint.”
There are instant structural points with the south garden. The bottom is considerably sloped, which limits each placement choices and viewers capability to roughly 4,500 contributors and manufacturing employees. The Secret Service’s changes add one other layer of complexity to an already troublesome job.
White emphasised that his imaginative and prescient for the published aesthetic is to get rid of commonplace UFC manufacturing components. The standard lighting tools and video screens utilized in all different venues all over the world can be eradicated.
“I do not wish to have a look at regular lighting tools, I do not wish to have a look at screens,” White defined. “All I wish to see is the White Home and the Washington Monument when the battle is reversed.”
This requirement required the UFC to design and construct a specialised setup from scratch. Craig Borsari, the corporate’s chief content material officer and head of manufacturing, developed detailed renderings that accounted for each tree on the South Garden. Planning consists of monitoring the solar’s place each half-hour throughout the occasion and acquiring climate forecasts a number of weeks prematurely.
The manufacturing design featured an enormous vaulted arch with a lighting system above the octagon, which White in comparison with the Arch in St. Louis. The construction will present the required lighting whereas sustaining an unobstructed digital camera view of the White Home for an estimated 5,000 on-site company.
UFC 306 on the Sphere price roughly $20 million to supply, about 10 occasions the $2 million finances for the standard pay-per-view occasion. UFC government Craig Borsari initially estimated Sphere would price $8 million, however the last price exceeded $20 million.
Past the occasion itself, the UFC plans to spend $700,000 to exchange the South Garden turf that was broken by the 15,000-pound Octagon and manufacturing tools. White acknowledged the general finances was “ugly” however declined to supply particulars of the overall price.
The White Home card will accommodate about 5,000 followers on the South Garden, however a further 85,000 are anticipated throughout the road on the Ellipse, the place the sport can be broadcast on giant screens. The athletes will stroll from the Oval Workplace to the Octagon, and the weigh-in is scheduled for the Lincoln Memorial.
President White declared that the White Home occasion “would be the finest I’ve ever been to, indubitably.” The cardboard was held on President Donald Trump’s eightieth birthday as a part of the 250th anniversary of American independence.
