TKO President Mark Shapiro speaks on possibility of hosting another UFC event at the White House & decline in WWE sponsorships
(Courtesy : UFC)
UFC Freedom 250 delivered a historic card from the White House.
On June 14, UFC took over the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., to deliver the historic Freedom 250 card. The card featured a total of seven fights, with two title bouts in the main and co-main events.
The event delivered a spectacle, with walkout music performed live by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band. The main event saw Justin Gaethje pull off a dominant and massive upset win over Ilia Topuria to capture the Undisputed Lightweight Title for the first time in his career.
Despite absorbing a $30 million financial loss on the event, the promotion gained valuable exposure by hosting a card at the White House, featuring President Donald Trump cageside and mainstream attention worldwide.
TKO President Mark Shapiro, in a recent conversation with CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, has now spoken about the possibility of the MMA leader hosting an event at the White House next year. TKO CEO Ari Emanuel was also part of the interview.
TKO is open to the idea of hosting another event at the White House
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Shapiro downplayed a $30 million financial loss, viewing it as a worthwhile one-time expense. The TKO President confirmed that if there’s a possibility, they will do another event at the White House in 2027.
He also highlighted the unprecedented mainstream media exposure the event got, noting that such kind of exposure is unprecedented for the UFC.
“It is one time,” Shapiro said about the financial loss.
“If we could do another fight at the White House next year, we would. This kind of exposure, we had news outlets covering it. Not just sports. We broke out into the mainstream. That kind of awareness for the UFC is truly unprecedented and something we’ll capitalize on in terms of business growth going forward.”
[H/T: Fightful]
Decline in WWE sponsorships
Addressing concerns regarding WWE sponsorship growth, during the conversation Shapiro explained that a heavy schedule of international events in the first half of the year limited global sales opportunities have resulting in smaller revenue increases of 2% in Q1 and 8% in Q2.
However, Shapiro stated that numerous recurring, multiyear global partnership deals are set to take effect in the second half, positioning WWE to finish the year with an annual partnership revenue increase exceeding 20%.
“We grew 90 plus percent because WWE was new to TKO and we took the playbook from UFC, we applied it to WWE and we took down the low-hanging fruit.
This year what you’ve seen is 2 and 8% respectively in the first two quarters because we have so many international events this first half of the year which don’t allow us to sell as much as many global partnerships as we otherwise would, but it’s backloaded.
The second half, a ton of global partnership deals take effect, many multi-year, all high margin, all recurring and we will finish over 20 percent year-over-year increase on WWE partnership revenue for the year. So it’s more to come.”
Is TKO planning to hold another UFC event at the White House?
Yes, TKO President Mark Shapiro confirmed that if there’s a possibility, they will do another event at the White House in 2027. He highlighted that despite the financial loss, the mainstream exposure was unprecedented.
What did Mark Shapiro say about the decline in WWE sponsorships?
Shapiro explained that a heavy schedule of international events in the first half of the year limited global sales opportunities have resulting in smaller revenue increases. However, he stated that numerous recurring, multiyear global partnership deals are set to take effect in the second half, positioning WWE to finish the year with an annual partnership revenue increase exceeding 20%.
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