For all the grandeur of the Sphere, with its state-of-the-art, $2.3 billion dome and its 160,000-square-foot screen, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White’s plan to bring the first sporting event to the entertainment venue came together some seven miles away, on the dusty outskirts of Las Vegas—in a storage closet.
The 55-year-old White says he sets up specialized rooms for all his ventures so he can visualize the information. He wanted to rent an external space and build a replica of the Sphere he could walk through, but his team advised him that spare space inside UFC headquarters would be more budget conscious. Within a week, a closet was cleared out and filled with schematics, renderings and storyboards that would lay out the most extravagant event in UFC history.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2024/09/11/inside-dana-whites-20-million-plan-to-bring-ufc-306-to-the-sphere/
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The 55-year-old White says he sets up specialized rooms for all his ventures so he can visualize the information. He wanted to rent an external space and build a replica of the Sphere he could walk through, but his team advised him that spare space inside UFC headquarters would be more budget conscious. Within a week, a closet was cleared out and filled with schematics, renderings and storyboards that would lay out the most extravagant event in UFC history.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattcraig/2024/09/11/inside-dana-whites-20-million-plan-to-bring-ufc-306-to-the-sphere/
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
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SportsTranscript
00:00Today on Forbes, inside Dana White's $20 million plan to bring UFC 306 to the Sphere.
00:09For all the grandeur of the Sphere, with its state-of-the-art $2.3 billion dome and its
00:14160,000 square foot screen, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White's plan to bring
00:20the first sporting event to the entertainment venue came together some 7 miles away on the
00:26dusty outskirts of Las Vegas in a storage closet.
00:30The 55-year-old White says he sets up specialized rooms for all his ventures so he can visualize
00:36the information.
00:38He wanted to rent an external space and build a replica of the Sphere he could walk through,
00:42but his team advised him that spare space inside UFC headquarters would be more budget-conscious.
00:49Within a week, a closet was cleared out and filled with schematics, renderings, and storyboards
00:54that would lay out the most extravagant event in UFC history.
00:59White granted Forbes exclusive access to the closet and detailed his ambitious plan for
01:03UFC 306 happening tomorrow, Saturday, September 14th.
01:08He says, quote,
01:09�This is a completely different animal than anything we've ever done.
01:13I knew this wasn't going to be cheap, but I literally said I don't care what this costs.
01:18This is, on Mexican Independence Day, my love letter to the Mexican people.�
01:23Initially, no one at the company, including White, had any idea how expensive it would
01:28be to stage a promotion at the 18,600-seat venue.
01:32When the CFO at TKO Group Holdings, UFC's New York City-based parent company, asked
01:38what the budget might be for the event, UFC Executive Vice President and Chief Content
01:42Officer Craig Borsari estimated $8 million.
01:47Considering the most expensive UFC pay-per-view to date had cost a little over $2 million
01:52to produce, he says, quote,
01:54�I guessed high.
01:55I thought it would easily be covered.�
01:58In the end, it cost White and Borsari more than $20 million to realize their vision for
02:04UFC 306.
02:06Each UFC pay-per-view event is numbered, going back to UFC 1 in November 1993.
02:13Today's spectacle will include six short film segments before each fight, tracking
02:18Mexican history from the dawn of man through to hundreds of years in the future, each with
02:22its own animated graphics, practical effects, and elaborately costumed octagon girls.
02:29All told, it's the work of more than 300 creatives and another 150 on fight night, including
02:35multiple Emmy winners, Golden Globe winners, and Oscar nominees, all hoping to prove that
02:40live sports in the sphere is viable, and perhaps even spectacular, both for attendees
02:46and viewers around the globe.
02:48TKO's President and Chief Operating Officer, Mark Shapiro, says, quote,
02:53�Obviously, this whole plan was conceived with a path to profitability.
02:57But having said that, that's secondary when it comes to this one-and-done event.
03:02Sometimes you'll make an investment that financially doesn't pencil out, but long-term it ends
03:06up delivering all kinds of upside.
03:08And that's really the logic and rationale behind our strategy with the Sphere event.�
03:13For TKO, a company founded last September when Ari Emanuel's Endeavor merged UFC and
03:19WWE into one $20 billion publicly traded entity, the real money is made from media rights.
03:27Some two-thirds of TKO's $851 million in revenue last quarter came from the category, including
03:33UFC's current pact with ESPN, which expires at the end of 2025.
03:39Negotiations are expected to begin early next year.
03:42In other words, now is the perfect time for a noisy, attention-grabbing event.
03:48In a stock report dating from early August, Moffett-Nathanson projects UFC's next media
03:54rights deal could fetch roughly $450 million per year, up from $300 million on the current
04:01deal.
04:02The rights to pay-per-view events, which ESPN currently pays UFC an additional $260 million
04:08per year for, according to the report's estimates, could be worth another $450 million in the
04:14next cycle.
04:16If UFC 306 proves to be the so-called brand-builder that Shapiro believes it will be, then it
04:21could serve as a strong signal to media partners, sponsors, and other venues across the world.
04:28For full coverage, check out Matt Craig's piece on Forbes.com.
04:34This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.
04:36Thanks for tuning in.