The mixed martial arts business has never been accused of understatement, but staging a fight card on the front lawn of the White House — on Flag Day, no less — suggests that even by the standards of an industry built on spectacle, the bar for attention-getting has been raised considerably.
TKO Group Holdings, the parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship, will present "UFC Freedom 250" on June 14, an event designed to commemorate both the 250th anniversary of the United States and the birthday of President Trump, who pressed for the occasion. The company is frank about its motives: it wants younger viewers, and it is willing to lose money to find them.
Mark Shapiro, the president and chief operating officer of TKO, said the production would cost $60 million, a figure he allowed might rise. Even with sponsorship agreements from Ram Trucks, Crypto.com and Monster Energy, Mr. Shapiro estimated the company would absorb a loss of around $30 million.
(One Paramount Skydance executive suggested the target demographic skews toward fans of "South Park," which is either a marketing insight or a confession, depending on your view.)
The event arrives only months into Paramount's $7.7 billion, seven-year rights deal with UFC, a contract whose profitability remains, as they say, to be determined. Recent UFC broadcasts on CBS have drawn between 2.7 million and 2.8 million viewers; the debut event on Paramount+ in January reached nearly five million. TKO and Paramount are hoping the political backdrop will push viewership toward 10 million.
Whether that constitutes "earned media" or merely expensive media will not be clear for some time.
Original story published in MediaPost: "Big White House Mixed Martial Arts Event: What UFC Wants To Learn"