Dana White has a historic UFC event planned for the South Lawn of the White House. However, his focus is already locked onto the next problem that could derail the show.
During a recent appearance on Boardroom, White opened up about the logistical nightmare of staging the event, calling it the most complicated production the UFC has ever attempted. Among the concerns keeping him up at night are weather, lighting, and one issue almost nobody expected: bugs.
“We’re about to do an event on the south lawn of the White House,” White said. “And 85,000 people will be at the Ellipse.”
White explained that demand for tickets has already increased, with more than 300,000 applications submitted. Of the 4,000 seats available directly on the South Lawn, 1,000 belong to President Donald Trump, while White and Ari Emanuel each control 200 tickets.
He added that most of the audience on the South Lawn will consist of military members representing every branch of service as part of America’s 250th anniversary celebration.
From a production standpoint, White said the event surpasses even UFC’s groundbreaking Sphere show in Las Vegas in terms of complexity.
“Before this, the Sphere in Las Vegas was the most complicated thing that we’ve pulled off,” White said. “This makes the Sphere look like, you know, and after the Sphere I was like, where do you go after the Sphere? And now we’re at the White House.”
Asked what could potentially ruin the event, White immediately pointed to weather as the biggest threat.
“The only thing that can really crush us is lightning,” he said. “If lightning happens that night, we’ll wait out the lightning until it goes away and we’ll do the show a little bit later or however that plays out.”
But weather was not the only thing on his mind. White then shifted to another issue that became obvious during a recent dinner at the White House.
“The other problem that I always think about, especially on the East Coast, bugs,” White said.
He recalled attending an event hosted by Trump in the Rose Garden and being surprised by the amount of insects flying around.
“President Trump just opened the Rose Garden two nights ago and he invited me to dinner there,” White said. “The amount of gnats that were flying around. I’m like, holy s**t. As soon as I got on the plane, I called my head of production and said, let me tell you about the gnat situation tonight.”
White explained that the UFC’s massive lighting setup, known internally as “the claw,” could make the problem even worse by attracting insects toward the cage during fights.
“When you’re an athlete, think about that lighting grid, the claw that we’re going to have, the amount of power in the lights,” White said. “Moths, gnats, and god knows what else.”
To illustrate how disruptive bugs can be in live sports, host Rich Kleiman referenced former Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain and the infamous 2007 playoff game where swarming gnats visibly affected his performance.
“You remember Joba Chamberlain?” Kleiman said. “Remember the Yankee game where the pitcher came in for like the save and the gnats were flying all over his face and his eyes and he threw the game. You got to see the footage of it.”
According to White, the UFC production team is already brainstorming ways to minimize the issue before the event.
“I was telling my head of production, I was like, maybe we put fans in that can, you know, because gnats have a hard time in the wind,” White said. “I don’t know, man. These are all the little details that we have to think about. That’s why I don’t like events outside. Ever.”
