UFC Parent Company Lost $30M on White House Freedom 250 Event, TKO Exec Says

The UFC Freedom 250 event may have drawn historic viewership ratings, but it wasn't a profit for UFC's parent company.

Andrew Schleimer, the chief financial officer of TKO Group, said Monday that the event resulted in a $30 million loss.

"Given the event's profile, which as anticipated, resulted in an approximate $30 million loss, our margins at UFC as well as on a consolidated basis were meaningfully impacted," Schleimer said, per BBC's Lorraine McKenna.

Schleimer said the event had significantly higher costs than a typical UFC event, which the company "partially offset with sold-out global partnerships inventory."

President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and a number of other notable names were in attendance at the event. Tickets were not sold to the public, though reports indicated that some guests were granted special access for $1.5 million.

While the event didn't turn a profit for TKO, it's still fair to say that it was a success for the UFC. The first-ever UFC event at the White House drew 17 million total viewers across the United States and Latin America, averaging 8.2 million viewers across the seven fights.

There was also plenty of entertainment value since all seven bouts ended with a KO or a TKO, a first in UFC history.

Freedom 250 streamed exclusively on Paramount+, with whom the UFC signed a seven-year deal last August that has an average annual value of $1.1 billion.