The UFC hemorrhaged money with Donald Trump’s big White House birthday bash.
The promotion, led by his ally Dana White, lost a staggering $30 million in its bid to give the president what he wanted, as he turned 80 in June.
The Freedom 250 event saw 4,300 people descend on the White House’s South Lawn, with tens of thousands more on the nearby Ellipse, to watch Justin Gaethje defeat Ilia Topuria at the top of the bill.
TKO Group Holdings Inc. chief financial officer Andrew Schleimer told investors on Monday that, “Given the event’s profile, which as anticipated, resulted in an approximate $30m loss, our margins at UFC as well as on a consolidated basis were meaningfully impacted,” BBC reports.
TKO said it had been anticipating the loss, but had gained brand exposure and media deals, and still saw revenue growth in the second quarter.
Bloomberg reports that on a conference call, UFC said the expenditure would pay off in the long run, claiming the event itself had been a “roaring success.”
They said that the impact in terms of reach and new deals was key, with 25 new marketing partnerships and earned media—publicity through organic, unpaid means—worth $1 billion.
Paramount Skydance Corp, which Trump-loving Larry Ellison owns, said that the event had pulled in 34 million viewers.
According to the BBC, the initial outgoings of the event for TKO had been expected to be $60 million, but that number was brought back down by sponsorships.
UFC also strengthened its position last year, when it signed a deal with Paramount worth $7.7 billion to make it the new home of its coverage.
The UFC footed the bill, with the exception of federal agents detailed to work on the event.
The 250 event, so-called to mark the 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, sparked controversy and led to Democratic staff producing an interim report as part of a wider investigation, titled “From Vanity to Insanity: How the White House Cheated the American People Out of Their 250th Birthday,” the Guardian reports.
The Daily Beast has made efforts to contact the UFC for comment.
