Building a televised sporting event accommodating more than 100,000 people without any existing arena infrastructure is a massive production. Doing so at the White House adds significant logistical complications.
Court documents submitted by the Trump administration on Wednesday show the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events scheduled this week and through the weekend will cost more than $60 million. That includes food, the brand’s signature “octagon” cage and as many as 494 port-a-potties trucked in for the crowd watching the event live on the South Lawn and via telecast at the Ellipse.
“This is a highly complex, multi-faceted Event that has been carefully planned by a multitude of public and private entities over a significant period,” White House management and administration director Joshua Fisher said in a sworn declaration, submitted as part of a lawsuit that seeks to delay the event until it goes through an environmental review and other permitting processes.
With days to go until fight night, which coincides with President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday, the expected crowd size has grown substantially. At a June 2025 appearance at the Iowa state fairgrounds, where Trump announced plans for the fight that he billed as a celebration commemorating the country’s 250th birthday, he predicted it would bring “20-25,000 people.” The new court documents show roughly 125,000 guests are expected, and that another 75,000 people requested tickets.
